The Bridegroom Comes - Fr. Gregory - April 28, 2024

In today’s sermon, Fr. Gregory details the events of the first three days of Holy Week, from Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem to the Last Supper. In the span of these three days, Jesus preaches several parables which compose the five “apocalyptic chapters.” We read these chapters during the next three days of Holy Week, and in the evenings we have the services of the Bridegroom Matins. Fr. Gregory expounds on the image of the bridegroom, pointing out that it is one of the most prevalent images of the Lord throughout both the Old and New Testament. But who is the bride? The church is the bride, the renewed Israel, who Christ comes to claim. On the cross, where Jesus consummates the marriage to his bride this Friday, he quotes Psalm 20, saying, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” Fr. Gregory points out that the word for “abandon” here is used just one other time in the entirety of the Scriptures, in Genesis 2:24 which says, “Therefore a man leaves [abandons] his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.” The Son is the bridegroom who had to leave his Father to become one with the sinful bride, the bride who rejects him, spits on him, beats him, and crucifies him. Despite all this, the loving bridegroom weds the bride's humanity with his divinity. Fr. Gregory concludes by emphasizing the opportunity we have during Holy Week to challenge ourselves and prioritize our schedules, being the faithful bride who eagerly waits for the groom to come in the middle of the night.