9781644135945

The Christmas Cycle
one understanding and one soul, loving and possessing one another completely. Sweet is the
name father, and sweet is the name mother and the name friend, but sweetest of all is the name
husband and wife. Husband and wife have everything in common and nothing of their own.
They have one inheritance, one house, one table, one bridal chamber, one heart, and one will.
The Apostle desires to lead us into such a holy union with Christ. “I am jealous of you with the
jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ” (2 Cor 11:2). The Lord desires to take our soul unto Himself as the clean and
unspotted bride. He desires to be the bridegroom of our soul.
“All I have is thine” (Lk 15:31). The union of Christ with our soul produces three characteristics,
the first of which consists of the sublime gift of sanctifying grace, supernatural virtue,
and the gifts of the Holy Ghost. We receive the plenitude of supernatural life when our soul
is in union with Christ. “All the glory of the king’s daughter is within golden borders, clothed
round about with varieties” (Ps 44:14–15).
The second characteristic of this union is that the soul possesses all the good things that
Christ possesses. “All I have is thine,” the divine bridegroom says to the soul. He gives it His
merits, His prayers, His heart, His humanity. He gives it His divinity, His mother, His inheritance
in heaven, so completely does He love the soul.
The third characteristic is that the soul shares with Christ His royal dignity, His power, and
His majesty. The bride, the individual soul, shall also be queen and share in the sovereign power
of the bridegroom, elevated above all that is earthly. It shall lose its fear of men and of the world.
It will be freed from lust, from the pride of life, and shall overcome all human suffering and all
sinful attachments. It will escape Satan and hell.
Our soul must be consumed by a burning desire to be joined to the heavenly bridegroom,
who has done so much for us. He desires to belong entirely to us, to fill us with His grace. How
fortunate we are because we have been entrusted to Him who has loved us with an eternal love
and has undergone death and has poured forth His blood to purify us! “Hearken, O daughter,
and see and incline thy ear; and forget thy people and thy father’s house. And the king shall
greatly desire thy beauty” (Ps 44:11 f.). “All I have is thine.”
“Shout with joy to God, all the earth; sing ye a psalm to His name. Come and hear, and I will tell
you what great things the Lord hath done for my soul” (Offertory). Betrothal to Christ! Could the
Lord have done greater things for His Church, or for us, than to raise us to this union? How heartily
we should thank Him for uniting Himself with humanity in a nuptial union when He became
man! What can we offer in return for His desire to die for us, to unite us with Himself? What
return can we make for the regeneration of baptism and for the more intimate union accomplished
through our religious profession? He comes to us daily in the Mass and in Holy Communion to
unite Himself more closely with us. He wishes to share with us His possessions, His power, and
His majesty. “Forget thy people and thy father’s house.” Give all in order to possess Him alone.
“In all things you are made rich in Him” (1 Cor 1:5). We are indeed made rich by this
nuptial union with Christ. Why are we yet so depressed, so weak, so perplexed and despondent?
Why do we cling to the earth, to our petty sufferings? Why do we struggle so in our own
small miseries? Is it not because we do not consider our riches in Christ and our union with
Him? Epiphany must make us conscious of this inheritance. The Lord must appear anew as the
bridegroom of the Church and of our soul.
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