Give me a Drink! The Third Sunday of Lent

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You know we are “picking up steam” in the season of Lent when the Lectionary starts turning to the long readings from the Gospel of John (John 4, 9, 11).  The Church turns to these texts from John at this point in the liturgical calendar, because John is, in so many ways, a mystagogical document, a gospel intended to takes us deeper into the mysteries, that is, the sacraments.

If one is not initiated into the sacraments, John remains—in many respects—a closed book.  I can attest to this from personal experience.  Although I have always loved my name-sake Gospel more than any other part of Scripture, I virtually never preached from it in while I was a Protestant pastor.  I was enthralled with the words and fascinated with the realities behind them, but wasn’t sure what the application was for texts like John 4 or John 6.  The problem lay in the fact that, as a Christian outside the visible Church, I was only partially initiated into the sacraments.  Not having experienced the sacraments, I could not recognize when Jesus was speaking of them.

Fasting on Fridays and the Passion of Jesus the Bridegroom

Have you ever wondered? Why do Catholics fast on Good Friday? Moreover, why is it traditional to fast on the Fridays of Lent?

There are, of course, various historical and liturgical reasons for the custom of fasting. But there's also a biblical foundation for fasting on Fridays that's directly tied to the topic of my new book, Jesus the Bridegroom: the Greatest Love Story Ever Told. The connection really hit me when I went to Mass last Friday with my wife and children. 

Jesus the Bridegroom and the First Friday in Lent

Sitting there on the front pew (because that's the best seat if you have young children!), we were, like many other young families at the beginning of Lent, somewhat tired and distracted at the end of a long week. I for one was starting to get anxious about the flurry of speaking engagements and interviews that were coming up to promote the book, and also thinking hard about how to help people see why the topic was not just fascinating but spiritually relevant to their lives. And then, much to my surprise, when it came time to stand for the Friday Gospel, I heard these words:

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?" Jesus answered 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." (Matthew 9:14-15)

As I heard these words,  a big smile spread across my face. Any worries I may have had about the importance of the topic of the new book melted away.  My twelve-year old daughter reached over and tugged my arm, smiling and pointing up to the Gospel! (She knew my book was on Jesus the Bridegroom.) At that moment, I realized for the first time: Every year, on the very first Friday of Lent, the Church proclaims Jesus' riddle about the Bridegroom and the Wedding  Guests. Why?

For one thing, it's because this is one of Jesus' first allusions to his coming passion and death. You can see this by realizing that Jesus' mysterious response is really a parable, in which he makes three key comparisons.

Jesus' Riddle about the Sons of the Bridechamber

First, Jesus implicitly identifies himself as "the bridegroom" in order to suggest that the present, while he and his disciples are together, are like an ancient Jewish wedding feast: it's a time for celebration, not for fasting.

Second, he compares his disciples to the wedding guests--or, more literally, the "sons of the bridechamber" (Greek huioi tou nymphonos). These were basically the ancient Jewish equivalent of 'groomsmen', who--in ancient as well as modern times!--weren't exactly known for fasting. Indeed, in rabbinic tradition, both the bridegroom and the sons of the bridechamber were not obligated to perform ordinary religious duties during the seven-day Jewish wedding, including fasting.

Third and finally--and most importantly for us--Jesus is also implicitly identifying the day of his passion and death as his wedding day. He does this by speaking about the coming time "when the bridegroom is taken away from them" and how they will fast on that day (cf. Mark 2:20). 

The Jewish Bridechamber and Jesus' 'Wedding Day'

On one level this is a reference to the ancient Jewish night of consummation, when the bridegroom would leave his family and friends and enter into the "bridechamber" (Hebrew huppah) in order to be united to his bride, not to come out again until morning (see Psalm 19:4-5; Tobit 6:15-17). On a deeper level, the day that Jesus the Bridegroom is "taken away" is of course the day of his passion an death. As New Testament scholar Craig Keener puts it: "Jesus is the groom of God's people in the coming messianic banquet... The 'taking' of the bridegroom, of course, is a veiled reference to the impending crucifixion.' (Keener, Matthew, p. 300). In other words, Jesus' 'wedding day' is the day of his death. (And this isn't just a pretty metaphor. As I show in the chapter on the Crucifixion in the book, there are several striking parallels between Jesus' crucifixion and an ancient Jewish wedding day.)

Remembering the Day our Bridegroom was "Taken Away"

What does any of this have to do with fasting on Fridays in Lent, and on Good Friday above all? From a biblical perspective: the reason we fast  is because Friday is the day our Bridegroom was 'taken away' from us, and we don't ever want to forget it. In fulfillment of Jesus' words--"then they will fast"--we deny ourselves and remember the passion of the Bridegroom God of Israel, who loved us so much that he not only became man, but mounted the wood of the cross in order to save humanity from sin and be united to us in love. In the words of Pope Benedict XVI:

"In [Jesus] in an unexpected way, God and man become one, become a 'marriage', though this marriage--as Jesus subsequently points out--passes through the Cross, through the 'taking away' of the bridegroom. (Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, 1, p. 252)

From this perspective, our Friday fasting and penances should not just be acts of self-denial, but sacrifices given out of love, just as the Bridegroom Messiah sacrificed himself out of love for us. We fast in memory of the one who 'loved us and gave himself for us' (cf. Galatians 2:20).

The Divine Love Story

Although many a man throughout history has compared his wedding day to his funeral; Jesus of Nazareth is the only man who ever compared his funeral to his wedding day. That is because he was no ordinary man; he was the Bridegroom God of Israel come in the flesh in to save his Bride. And his life and death on the Cross were nothing less than the center of the divine love story that is the real meaning of human history. Why else does the Bible begin with the wedding of Adam and Eve (Genesis 2-3) and end with the Wedding of Christ in the Church in the Book of Revelation (Rev 19-22)?!

 On every Friday during Lent--especially Good Friday--may his disciples remember his words about the passion--"they will fast on that day." In this way, we will truly prepare ourselves for the great Feast of Easter, when we will celebrate the Resurrection of the Bridegroom who gives himself to his Bride in every Eucharist as a foretaste of heaven--of the eternal "Wedding Supper of the Lamb" (Revelation 19:7).

Have a blessed Lent! 

Jesus the Bridegroom: The Greatest Love Story Ever Told--Now Available!

Hey everybody, my new book, Jesus the Bridegroom: the Greatest Love Story Ever Told (Image Books) now available for pre-order! (It'll be in stores next week.) So if you liked Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist--or if you're like me and still trying to figure out what to read for Lent--then this book is for you.

In this one, we go back to the Old Testament and ancient Jewish tradition to try and unlock the mystery of Jesus' identity and his passion--not just as Teacher, or Prophet, or Messiah, but as the Bridegroom of Jewish expectation. I'm really thrilled that this is finally coming out; it covers some of my favorite passages in the Bible--the Wedding at Cana, the Woman at the Well, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, the book of Revelation, Paul's controversial "Wives Be Submissive" teaching in Ephesians 5, and even that mysterious Song of Songs! The heart of the book is the chapter on the Passion of Christ. Hope you enjoy.

Here’s the table of contents, a brief description from the publisher, and a couple of kind words from friends.

INTRODUCTION

1. The Divine Love Story
The Wedding at Mount Sinai
Sin as Spiritual Adultery
The New Covenant and the Forgiven Bride
The Song of Songs

2. Jesus the Bridegroom

The Riddle of John the Baptist
The Wedding at Cana
The Last Supper

3. The Woman at the Well

The Samaritan Woman
The Gift of the Living Water
The Piercing of Jesus’ Side

4. The Crucifixion

Jesus’ Wedding Day
What Was the Crucifixion Like?
The Passion of the Messiah

5. The End of Time

The Bridegroom Comes Back
The Wedding Supper of the Lamb
No Marriage in the Resurrection?

6. The Bridal Mysteries
Baptism
The Eucharist
Marriage
Virginity

7. Beside the Well with Jesus

In Jesus the Bridegroom, Brant Pitre once again taps into the wells of Jewish Scripture and tradition, and unlocks the secrets of what is arguably the most well-known symbol of the Christian faith: the cross of Christ. In this thrilling exploration, Pitre shows how the suffering and death of Jesus was far more than an ancient Roman execution. Instead, the Passion of Christ was the fulfillment of ancient Jewish prophecies of a wedding, when the God of the universe would unite himself to humankind in an everlasting nuptial covenant.

To be sure, most Christians are familiar with the apostle Paul's teaching that Christ is the "Bridegroom" and the Church is the "Bride." But what does this really mean? And what would ever possess Paul to compare the death of Christ to the love of a husband for his wife? If you would have been at the Crucifixion, with Jesus hanging there dying, is that how you would have described it? How could a first-century Jew like Paul, who knew how brutal Roman crucifixions were, have ever compared the execution of Jesus to a wedding? And what does Paul mean when he refers to it as the “great mystery” (mysterion mega) (Ephesians 5:32)?

As Pitre shows, the key to unlocking this mystery can be found by going back to Jewish Scripture and tradition and seeing the entire history of salvation, from Genesis to Revelation, from Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary, as a divine love story between Creator and creature, between God and Israel, between Christ and his bride—a story that comes to its climax on the wood of a Roman cross.

In the pages of Jesus the Bridegroom, dozens of familiar passages in the Bible—the Exodus, the Song of Songs, the Wedding at Cana, the Woman at the Well, the Last Supper, the Crucifixion, and even the Second Coming at the End of Time—are suddenly transformed before our eyes. Indeed, when seen in the light of Jewish Scripture and tradition, the life of Christ is nothing less than the greatest love story ever told.

"This book will change you. It is an invitation to the Messiah's wedding feast--and a foretaste of heaven. It will change the way you experience the sacraments, personal prayer, Scripture study, and marriage. Most of all, it will deepen your love for Christ." -Scott Hahn, author of The Lamb's Supper and Signs of Life.

“With his customary combination of deep erudition and clarity of expression, Brant Pitre sheds light on a central theme of the New Testament: Jesus as the incarnation of the God who wants to marry his people. In the course of elaborating this motif, Pitre offers wonderfully fresh readings of the Wedding Feast of Cana, the Woman at the Well, the Last Supper, and the Crucifixion. His interpretation of the Passion as the consummation of the spousal relationship between Jesus and his people is simply stunning. This is a book that will appeal to both the scholar and the ordinary believer, indeed to anyone interested in understanding Jesus Christ more profoundly.” -Father Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire and author of Catholicism

Overcoming Temptation: 1st Sunday of Lent

The Readings for this Sunday are exceptionally rich, so we will have to limit ourselves to following just a few themes

1. The First Reading is the account of the Fall, in which Eve, followed by Adam, gives in to temptation by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Reading 1 Gn 2:7-9; 3:1-7

Happy Ash Wednesday!

 

Happy Lent, everyone!  Let's indulge in a little commentary on the Readings for Ash Wednesday: