Jesus the Bridegroom is Mary’d to His Church

Jesus tells us in the Bible that He is the Bridegroom and the Bride is His Church. This Church is the Catholic Church, the Universal Church, the Apostolic Church, the Holy Church. In spite of the sins of its adherents, this Church is still around and is still holy, only because Jesus is its foundation and its strength. If that were not so, the Catholic Church would have vanished from the earth many years ago. 

Matthew 9:15:  “And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

Psalm 45

I would like to address in this article another take on the bride of Christ, and Psalm 45 is our starting point:

My heart overflows with a goodly theme;  I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. 2 You are the fairest of the sons of men; grace is poured upon your lips;   therefore God has blessed you for ever. 3 Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, in your glory and majesty! 4 In your majesty ride forth victoriously   for the cause of truth and to defend the right;   let your right hand teach you dread deeds 5 Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies;   the peoples fall under you. 6 Your divine throne endures for ever and ever.   Your royal scepter is a scepter of equity; 7 you love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you   with the oil of gladness above your fellows; 8 your robes are all fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia. From ivory palaces stringed instruments make you glad; 9 daughters of kings are among your ladies of honor;   at your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir. 10 Hear, O daughter, consider, and incline your ear;   forget your people and your father’s house; 11 and the king will desire your beauty. Since he is your lord, bow to him; 12 the people of Tyre will sue your favor with gifts,   the richest of the people 13 with all kinds of wealth. The princess is decked in her chamber with gold-woven robes;14   in many-colored robes she is led to the king, with her virgin companions, her escort, in her train. 15 With joy and gladness they are led along as they enter the palace of the king. 16 Instead of your fathers shall be your sons;   you will make them princes in all the earth. 17 I will cause your name to be celebrated in all generations;   therefore the peoples will praise you for ever and ever.

The above psalm clearly references Jesus in the first half, while the second half talks about His Queen. In the Bible, the Jewish Kings had their mother as their Queen. Because they had so many wives, choosing just one would have been impossible. The first Queen Mother mentioned in the Bible is Queen Bathsheba, the mother of King Solomon and the wife of King David.  In 1 Kings 2:19, King Solomon requests that a throne be brought out to her so as to sit on his right hand, a symbol of power. He also bowed down to her. She intercedes to the King on behalf of Adonijah. This holy intercession on behalf of her subjects is the role of the Queen Mother. The Blessed Virgin Mary, centuries later, also interceded to the King, Jesus, on behalf of the bride and groom at the wedding feast at Cana, because they had run out of wine. And even though it was not His hour, he still performed a miracle at her intercession. This example should be a lesson to us all: to ask for her to intercede for us always.

A key to understanding Psalm 45 and its Marian inferences is the term “all generations,” a phrase repeated by Mary in her Magnificat in Luke 1:48. This verse also mentions virgins, of which she is one, and that the peoples will praise her for ever and ever, which is also mentioned in her Magnificat. In Luke 1:42, Elizabeth says that she is the most blessed among all women.

St. John and Jesus the Bridegroom

St. John tells us that Jesus is the bridegroom: 

John 3:29: He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full.

The “friend of the bridegroom” is an allusion to St. John the Baptist, who was foretold as the announcer of the Messiah in Isaiah 40:3. The bride is the Church.

Covenental Relationship with Mary

To the regular Catholic, Jesus “marrying” His own mother may seem strange, something forbidden here on earth. But in Heaven, everything is different. In Catholic theology, Mary is the bride of the Holy Spirit, the daughter of God the Father, and the mother of Jesus, a unique relationship to the Holy Trinity if there ever was one. We know for sure that the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost are all one God, not three. So in the heavenly realm, where there is no sex (procreation) by the way, having a covenant relationship over and above the one here on earth is perfectly okay. And besides, we are all one with Christ in heaven, per St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 6:17: But he who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 

Becoming one spirit with the Lord (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in heaven is in store for all grace-filled Catholics, and Mary, in Psalm 45, seems to be the first one with this privilege.

Marian Consecration

Psalm 45 also talks about the sons of Mary and how she will make them princes over all of the earth. This promotion is done for us once we truly accept Mary as our spiritual mother and ask for her intercession daily. She will see to it that her sons are fed well (a love of the Eucharist), cleaned up immaculately (a love for confession), and well educated (a love of scripture). This conversion has certainly been the case for me, as I used to be a Sunday Catholic only before consecrating myself to her and Jesus through the St. Louis de Montfort 33 day Consecration. This is a way of uniting us to Jesus through Mary, the exact same way that He came to us, through her.

Mary, Our Spiritual Mother

In John 19:27, Jesus gives His mother to His beloved disciple.  The name “John” isn’t mentioned but rather the disciple whom Jesus loved. We are all beloved disciples of Jesus, and He loves each and every one of us. So the verse applies to us all, not just to John. Mary is our Mother, and the Church is our Mother as well. The Church nourishes and sustains us with God’s grace, as a mother sustains us with her love, her mother’s milk, and her constant presence. In the Eucharist, we receive the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ at each and every Mass. Jesus got his body and blood from His mother Mary, so when we receive the body and blood of Christ, we are also receiving her body and blood as well. Revelation 12:17 says that we are her children if we obey the commandments and bear testimony that Jesus is the Christ.

Our Two Spiritual Mothers

By embracing both the Church and Mary as our Mother, we are truly embracing Jesus, who created both of them as a means to come into the world and to sustain the world after His ascension. To forego either one is to forego the means Jesus uses to save us. Mother Church provides us with supernatural grace through the sacraments, and Mother Mary watches over us to ensure that we stay on the straight and narrow path to her Son.  My experience has been that Marian priests – those who preach the Rosary and Marian Consecration – are the best priests, and those who do not seem somewhat lacking. To adopt Mary as our Mother is to say that we are true brothers and sisters of Jesus, who was obedient to her for 30 years and then started out on His mission to save us. The first words of salvation in the New Testament were spoken to her by Gabriel, who said, “Hail, Full of Grace,” which actually means “Praise you who have been filled with grace.” The reason why we say these words over and over again during the Rosary is because they are from one of the most important parts of the Bible, where the Old Testament (before Christ) becomes the New Testament (Christ and following). And for sure, we know the devil hates to hear Gabriel’s words repeated over and over again.

Pope Francis even declared a new Feast Day on the Monday following Pentecost Sunday, “Mary the Mother of the Church.” So if you look on the Church as our Mother, then Mary would be our Grandmother! Just as Mary received the Holy Spirit at the Incarnation, the Church received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Both Mary and the Church are very holy and pure. Mary is present at every Mass, spiritually, and she guides us all to lose our vices and to gain her virtues. The devil hates Mary, because he thinks he’s the opposite of God – which is one of his lies. He is the opposite of a poor little woman from Nazareth. This woman, Mary, has infinitely more power than he does. She is filled with God’s grace and humility, and he only has his pride.

From what I can tell, the Catholic Churches who preach Jesus through Mary are the best Catholic Churches and are usually full. And that is the best kind of Catholic Church, those who are “Mary’d” to the Bridegroom!