Wedding of Cana & Marriage

Fr of Bride introduction

Dowry…

the Bride’s family.  Why? An inheritance.

God did not leave us a book, but a Church.

Your builder will marry you

Love builds up (2nd reading)

Your sons will marry you.

He wed that Church on the cross

(Bridal washings and such).

The washing of the Hebrews at Sinai, The blood and the covenant, but the washing of feet first.

The stone jugs were used in ceremonial washings…for weddings?!

Comparing the wedding and baptism, where the groom washes the bride. (Eph 5:25-27 )

Ephesians 5:25–27 NABRE

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

Christ comes down at baptism, we are baptized into Him.  But he does it through the priest, its not me baptizing so much as it is Christ. Thus, baptism is like the washing before the wedding.

Aquinas says that all the sacraments are ordered towards the Eucharist.  Baptism makes it possible to receive the Lord.  Sin prohibits me.  Confession makes me able to receive the Eucharist again.  The priesthood makes it possible to affect the Eucharist.  Marriage is ordered towards unity and procreation.  The Eucharist is the fulfillment of this on this earth, and procreation brings more children towards the Eucharist through baptism.

And so, what does Christ do at the Last Supper? He washes his disciples’s (The Church) feet so that they may enjoy the wedding banquet. The one who constructs the New Israel, the Church, is wedding His Church, that will be consummated on the Cross!

This is what Christ was thinking about at Cana

Christ provides tens of thousands of dollars of wine…

The Maitre’d goes to the bridegroom.

Mary says, “They’ve run out of wine” (Isaiah 24:7, 9, 11

Isaiah 24:11 (NABRE)

In the streets they cry out for lack of wine; all joy has grown dim, cheer is exiled from the land.

Woman - what to me to you?

Isaiah 25:7 Prophecy.

Isaiah 25:7 (NABRE)

On this mountain he will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, The web that is woven over all nations.

He is still the bridegroom, we must look for him, like in Song of Songs,

But we’ve found Him, but then He goes away, until we find Him again.  Mary Finds Him, but He Ascends so that He can send us the Spirit, so that we can be formed to be with Him forever in Heaven…no divorce in God.

We are at the wedding feast and not yet, “My hour has not yet come - “

They are out of wine, but she was speaking of wedding wine, He was already thinking of the Last Supper.

There I will provide wine for all nations

Fulfilling the lack of wine in Isaiah.

John 2:6–12 (NCBC NT): In Amos 9:11, 13; Joel 3:18; Isaiah 25:6, the advent of the messianic age is signified by an abundance of rich and sweet wine

When we are at Mass we taste this wine, the new Covenant.

The Maitre’d calls the servants, not slaves, but deacons. So the deacons bring the wine.  So the deacons are ordinary ministers of the Eucharist!.

And for this reason because Christ is the bride groom and we are the bride, sin is a kin to spiritual adultery. So in the Old Testament God compares Israel with his bride, but after doing so he always says how the bride has prostituted herself out to the other nations, this is because of sin. And this is why Jesus is so against sin, because we are his body when we sin we commit spiritual adultery against him. Ezekiel 16:8, 15-22

Ezekiel 16:8 NABRE

I passed by you again and saw that you were now old enough for love. So I spread the corner of my cloak over you to cover your nakedness; I swore an oath to you and entered into covenant with you—oracle of the Lord God—and you became mine.

Ezekiel 16:15–22 NABRE

But you trusted in your own beauty and used your renown to serve as a prostitute. You poured out your prostitution on every passerby—let it be his. You took some of your garments and made for yourself gaudy high places, where you served as a prostitute. It has never happened before, nor will it happen again! You took the splendid gold and silver ornaments that I had given you and made for yourself male images and served as a prostitute with them. You took your embroidered garments to cover them; my oil and my incense you set before them; the food I had given you, the fine flour, the oil, and the honey with which I fed you, you set before them as a pleasant odor, says the Lord God. The sons and daughters you bore for me you took and offered as sacrifices for them to devour! Was it not enough that you had become a prostitute? You slaughtered and immolated my children to them, making them pass through fire. In all your abominations and prostitutions you did not remember the days of your youth when you were stark naked, struggling in your blood.