Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Among the people of Jesus’ day who puzzled over him and at times questioned his motives, were the disciples of John the Baptist. John’s disciples followed his ascetic lifestyle, which included fasting and other strict disciplines. Jesus answers their query by offering the image of a wedding feast. Today let us consider the hallmarks of a vibrant relationship with Jesus our Bridegroom. Our psalm gives us some clues to that life of love and devotion, as well.
We too, hear Jesus ask John’s disciples, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” In describing himself as a bridegroom, Jesus applies an Old Testament image for God in his relationship to Israel (see Isaiah 62:4-5). Notice in that text that the divine Bridegroom delights in his bride and rejoices over her. She is no longer forsaken, she is secure in the loving embrace of her spouse whose love is so intense and eternal that he even gives her a new name, “My Delight is in Her.” Let us pause and quiet our bodies, hearts, and minds, and listen for the Lord’s voice calling us “My Delight,” and hearing the song of his rejoicing over us. Let’s allow ourselves time to experience God’s spousal love, perhaps in a way we never have before.
Jesus also tells us, “No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth . . . People do not put new wine into old wineskins . . . Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” He’s speaking of his Kingdom and the new Covenant of Love which he ushers in. As his Bride, the Body of Christ, you and I are called to be builders of the Kingdom, examples of this “new wine” poured out extravagantly as at a lavish wedding feast. Indeed, as Eucharistic people, strengthened and renewed by Christ’s Body and Blood, our lives bear witness to the love of our Bridegroom and the new Covenant in which we are sealed.
We might ask ourselves, what does it look like, practically, to live as the Bride of Christ? Certainly, and most fundamentally, we are to love our Bridegroom as he loves us – unconditionally, extravagantly, sacrificially, mercifully, and most obviously in the ways we love him in our neighbor. Our psalm offers some other examples of this lifestyle of love. The response sings out, “The Lord speaks of peace to his people.” As we hear God’s peace spoken over us, we are to echo this refrain as peacemakers in our world (Matt. 5:9). What might that look like today?
The psalm continues, “Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven.” Notice the beautiful personification here: kindness and truth coming face to face, justice and peace so intimately known to one another that they kiss; truth springing from the earth as a lush plant; justice peering down from the heavenly realm where it resides with God. We might pause for a moment and consider these personified images. What would it mean for me and my life as a disciple if kindness and truth meet up in me? Are both justice and peace intimately connected within me? Am I a person who seeks to form my conscience in God’s justice and peace, and if so, how is the kiss of justice and shalom manifested within me and toward my neighbor? Do I seek to know God’s Truth and to apply it to my life?
“Justice shall walk before him, and salvation, along the way of his steps.” Our psalm depicts justice and salvation accompanying the Lord on his journey. As you and I consider our earthly pilgrimage, can we say that justice walks before us and salvation along the paths we walk? If we’re holding Jesus’ hand as we go, then yes, if we’re following hard after his footsteps, then yes! Today, if we find ourselves treading a different road, let us repent and turn back. Arm in arm with our Bridegroom, let us glorify him by our lives – lives that seek justice, peace, truth, and kindness; lives that passionately return his extravagant and relentless spousal love, a love that reaches to our neighbor and leads others into the warm embrace of the Sacraments. This Bridegroom is no mere lover – he IS kindness and truth, justice and peace. We fight jealously for him as we fight for these virtues in our lives and in the world. We demonstrate our committed love for him as we walk along the way of his steps. Let us renew our love for him today as we offer a generous “yes” to him and his ways.
In the Body and Blood of Christ,
Elizabeth Wells