Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:01 One of the greatest blessings of the traditional liturgy is the fact that the ceremonies use have been handed down to us from the apostles and the saints. And these ceremonies which come down to us from the saints are so many full of the council of Trent actually commands that every priest who has the care of souls to frequently explain some of the mysteries and the Holy sacrifice. In fact, one of the most spiritually fruitful things that any one of us can do is to meditate upon the traditional liturgy. So today on the feast of the Holy family, we'll take a few minutes to meditate on the meaning of several aspects of the traditional wedding ceremony in the wedding mass, or to see what those ceremonies can teach us about holiness in our families. So that's what we're going to do today. Now we're only going to skim the surface here, but you all need to meditate on this.
Speaker 0 00:50 When you're in a state of grace, you have gifts from the Holy ghost, including wisdom. Concent are standing, and you can use those gifts to penetrate deeper into what we're going to talk about today. It's one of the things that we want to do when we pray. It's calling the Holy ghost to guide us her and give us the light we need and we can penetrate deeper into the mysteries of our salvation. Anyway, let's start today by considering why the couple of exchanges Valez right up here that are the sanctuary and then right after they're married, the newlyweds come up here into the sanctuary to hear mass. What does this mean? What is the church teaching us here? For the sake of times I said, well, only consider a few aspects, but in order to appreciate the answer, let's back up a little bit and review the relationship between the garden of Eden, the temple, and in Jerusalem and our Catholic liturgy.
Speaker 0 01:42 Now remember that everything in our Holy religion is related in some way to the garden of Eden and the car to Eaton, which was the very threshold of heaven. That's the perfect model of the conditions in which man can safely encounter God. For example, we see that holiness is determined by the degree to which something has been set aside for and dedicated to God. The Sabbath is more Holy. Even the other days a week it's been set aside for God. The sanctuary and the garden is a whole year outside. And of course there's no comparison between Adam's holiness before the original sin. And afterwards we see a basic pattern. When we look at the garden, Adam has given the command to garden, keep the first sanctuary earth, the garden of Eden. He disobeyed and all his descendants were driven out. The entrance to Eden was closed, it was covered, it was veiled and God placed the cherubim and a flaming sword turning every way to keep anyone from entering the garden and approaching the tree of life.
Speaker 0 02:43 So the basic principle that we see here is a closer than a man approaches to ineffable Holy presence of the almighty God, the close reproaches. The more is it got accountability increases and the greater the punishment become for any infractions. We see a basic temptation in the garden. That idea of self determination. I'll do what I want. The lie of the serpent was it man could be as a God deciding for himself what was good and evil, but in spite of the devil's lives, man remains a creature and therefore he is bound to obey the law of his creator. In other words, he's bound to do what God wants and man can only have a true and fruitful relationship with God by carefully keeping his divine law. Now let's hold those thoughts and take a quick glimpse of the temple we've already seen before that the most sacred area in a tabernacle coach was the tent before it became permanent Jerusalem and there's no secretary and the temple in Jerusalem is called the Holy of Holies.
Speaker 0 03:48 Inside the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the covenant, and I remember the arc of the covenant was this golden box which contained the content 10 commandments, those stone tablets that were with the 10 commands written on them by God and given down to Moses. It also contained a jar of Nana that bread from heaven that fell down and fed Fitbit Israelites. It had a golden lid with two cherubim on the top of it, and over this saw the glory cloud of the Lord would appear. That's the old Testament equivalent of the real presence. We've seen that the Holy of Holies was covered with this massive veil and embroidered on the veil were images of chair of him. Why? Because among other things, the Holy of Holies is a symbolic or Nevine. Why is that? Because that's where the glory cloud of the Lord presence of God would dwell.
Speaker 0 04:39 But since the fall man was no longer able to dwell in the presence of the Lord, which is why the Holy of Holies, this liturgical garden Eden was veiled, it was veiled, it was closed, and a chair of him on the veil symbolically guard the entrance, that Holy of Holies chest like a chair. When the guard the entrance to the garden of Eden reminding everyone, even the priest, there's no longer any access to this intimate presence of God except for the high priest. On one day here, there was no longer any access at all to the arc of the covenant to the inside, to the man, the bread from heaven. These things have been failed to men. Now remember too, as we've seen, according to the rabbis, the job of the old Testament priests representing the people of Israel was to reform rights that symbolize the service of their nation as a whole.
Speaker 0 05:29 Right in front of the Holy of Holies, right at the very threshold of the place where God is present a course. All of this prefigured, the Catholic liturgy just as a sanctuary of Eden or the tabernacle was once the very threshold of heaven or man came into communion with God. So now in altar is the very threshold of heaven where the priest performs rights on behalf of the church as a whole and even brings God down into communion with man. And now a priest can go behind the veil into the Holy of Holies, not just once a year, but every day he can kill us the fruit of the tree of life. He can open the Ark, the civil Arrium, and because he can do that, we can receive that heavenly bread every day. Only now that heavenly bread is not a shadow, it's God himself.
Speaker 0 06:24 Moses came down from the Holy mountain with the word of God carved into stone tablets and the priest comes down from the Holy mountain to alter with the word of God made flesh. Here's the basic idea of the liturgy. We've seen this before. Everyone should burn as soon as mind. God designed the structure of reality in such a way that the liturgy, repairs and restores creation. That's what we're doing here. God has designed to structure reality in such way that the liturgy, repairs and restores creation. It reestablishes the limits and restores the damages caused by sin, the graces that were lost by Adam, the terrible offenses that have been offered up to God. The liturgy makes a man to God for all this. The liturgy reorders this fallen world by means of the liturgy. Order pushes out disorder. Grace drives away sin. The spiritually sick and weakened are strengthened and fit.
Speaker 0 07:31 The spiritually dead are resurrected and given the gift of spiritual life, what goes on in the divine liturgy determines what goes on in the world. Okay? That's reality. That's the way it is, and as we've seen before, if there's deliberate liturgical abuse by the priests liturgically, they're acting out the original sin right in God's face. So when there's deliberate liturgical abuse, get the kind of world that we live in it what goes on in the liturgy determines what goes on in the world. Okay? That's the review. Let's keep those thoughts in the back of our minds and returned to the current topic. All right. We've already asked the question. Let's remind ourselves, why is it during wedding and the nuptial mass, the couple first exchange vows, but an edge of sanctuary and then media after that they move up and hear mass and the sanctuary.
Speaker 0 08:28 What's up with that? Why do we have lady up here that aren't altar boys? What's up with that? What are they doing in the sanctuary? Just before the couple exchanges files. The father brings his daughter forward right here at the very threshold right at the edge of the sanctuary, the sanctuary of course as the liturgical guard and a vet, so the father has just formally presented his daughter as a chase version before God. Then right there at the edge of the sanctuary, the bridegroom and the bride exchange files as soon as they do that, as long as they're in a state of grace, a flood of sanctifying grace of supernatural life pours from Christ our Lord. Through the grown into the soul of the bride and a flood of sanctifying grace pours from Christ our Lord through the bride into the soul of the groom.
Speaker 0 09:22 It's a re creation. The couple have suddenly entered a whole year state, much holier than they were. Only moments before when they both came up in a state of grace before God. They're now joined together until death in a state of Holy matrimony and then they come forward in the sanctuary. What do we see? We are seeing a new Adam and a new Eve here in the new guard recreated, placed in a state of holiness with their souls brimming over with that supernatural life that was lost by Adam and Eve, filled with that supernatural life that was snuffed out in the garden by the original sin, this newlywed couple. This new Adam and Eve have just received the same incredible best thing that God gave to a first parents in the garden to be fruitful and multiply in the first place. And most importantly, of course, to be spiritually fruitful, but in the second place to use the absolutely incredible creative power.
Speaker 0 10:28 And if God wills it to cooperate him and use that power and bring you the next generation of life of bringing new immortal beans in to existence. So at the very beginning of their life of Holy matrimony, they're placed here in the liturgical regard of bead. And they have this incredible privilege of being almost at the foot of the altar when the heavily flood Gates fly open and during a mass that's being offered specifically for their behalf. They're almost at the headwaters of the rivers of grace that poured on off that altar and into their souls and out through the world. And then after the Holy sacrifice, they come forth from the sanctuary. They come out away from the altar, and from then on, their mission is to bring holiness into that domestic sanctuary, the domestic church, the little garden of Eden that should be their home to bring holiness out from the altar and out into the world.
Speaker 0 11:24 Their mission is to establish a little out post of supernatural life and this darkened fallen world to bring order into their little corner of the disordered world and then come back at least weekly here, right to the edge of the garden to receive the bread of life so that they can stay spiritually saw, strong and safe in their journey to heaven. Now, before we close today, let's consider two other points quickly. First we've been pondering the fact that liturgically speaking, a wedding is a recreation. We've seen the grooms, a new Adam, and the bride is new Eve. Here's the new garden placed in the state of holiness. Their souls brimming over with sanctifying grace and blessed with the same blessing given to our first parents, but we know all of us know the harmonious relationship between man and woman was terribly wounded by the original sin.
Speaker 0 12:17 And since our Lord comes to make all things new and the literature is a recreation, how is this terrible order addressed three ways. The correct relationship between man and wife is made clear by liturgical ceremony. Another Epistolic tradition visibly represents it, and if that weren't enough, the epistle for the nuptial mass explicitly spells it out. We'll consider the apostolic tradition at a later date. Today, we'll only look at the liturgical ceremony. In the beginning before original sin, there was a perfectly harmonious relationship between the head man, Adam and the heart, his woman Eve. But that harmony has been so disrupted by original actual sin and the current relationships between husband wise, we can see sins ranging from male tyranny to this perversity of a matriarchal female, female domination of her husband. So before we considered liturgical ceremony, let's take a moment to take a look at the model family, the family which God holds up for every one of us as a family to model ourselves after.
Speaker 0 13:24 That's the Holy family. Now we all know that in the Holy family, st Joseph was the head of her lady. It was the heart. That's not a news flash. This is the true and proper relationship between every husband and every wife with no exceptions. St Joseph is the perfect model of a husband who lovingly cares for, provides for and leads his family. And the blessed Virgin Mary is a perfect model of submission. She doesn't obey st Joseph because he has a stronger will because he has a more dominant personality. Our lady has a far, far stronger will and a far more dominant personality in terms of the strength of her personality and st Joseph. So why does she buy a Saint Joseph? Because he's her husband and his God given role as her husband is to lead the family and her God given role as wife is to fall and support her husband and be a helpmate to him.
Speaker 0 14:18 This is not some kind of weird idea. If we're going to waltz, I point out to people, it takes two people to waltz the man leads and the woman falls. It would be pretty stupid for the guy to be out there by himself or the woman that's not a waltz and he can't both lead. That's how it sets up. It does not mean that one person is less dignified in the wallets. It means you can't waltz without a leader and you can't watch without a follower. That's how it is. It certainly, we're not denigrating women. When we look at our lady, how is this expressed liturgically in the wedding? It's obvious the bride is given away. She is led down the aisle by her father on her father's arm. Why? Because she's been under his care and then in front of God, he literally gives her hand right there to the new man that will take care of her.
Speaker 0 15:06 Her father literally hands her over to her groom and at the end of the service, what happens? Her husband leads or down the aisle and out of the church into the world. Think of what this means. She's visibly acknowledging and adding that thing. Her husband's headship right here in front of God. Not only God but men. All the men in the pews right here from God and man, the sacraments are no time for play acting. If she doesn't intend to fulfill her duty to honor and obey her husband and Christ, then she shouldn't have come up the aisle. And if he doesn't intend to fulfill his duty to love and care for his wife as Christ, as a church, then he shouldn't have taken her hand. Our sick, perverted society may not hold her to obedience to her husband or hold him to love and care for his wife, but the Lord certainly will.
Speaker 0 16:03 There's no question the Lord will, does it matter who has this triangle Willem personnel any more than it mattered in the Holy family? One partner in each couple has a stronger will or more dominant personality. God knows it. He made you that way. That's how it is. One partner is going to have a naturally strong-willed, dominant personality, but if you're married or married, it doesn't matter which one has the stronger will. It doesn't matter which one has the stronger personality in all things approved by Christ. The man's in charge, the man's in charge, and he's bound to love and care for his wife and family, so the obedience stops rebellion, which is part of the fruit of original sin and the love stops tiering. OB-GYNs goes against rebellion. Love goes against tyranny. He's the head. She's the heart. That's how it is. That's God. Oh God made it.
Speaker 0 16:55 He knows it. He made it that way. That's reality. Period. Close a book. Last point. Consider the fact that during the exchange of vows and the nuptial mass, the couple or here, but they're not facing each other right from the beginning. What are they doing right from the game they're faced with and they're both facing the cross. It's worth meditating, really worth meditating on the reality that the marriage and their very first act of married life take place in the shadow of the cross. It's a stark reminder in this fallen world, there's no escaping the cross. The price of recreation, the price of order replacing disorder, the price of resurrection, resurrection is spiritually dead and bring them back to life. The price of marital happiness, the price of their eternal happiness is present and overshadowing their marriage from the very beginning. They've come together at the foot of the cross and then nailing before it they have to spend their lives facing it together.
Speaker 0 18:11 Now, we've only scratched the surface here. Okay? There are literally levels of meetings we haven't touched upon that are implicit or almost explicit in everything we've said. Meditate on this. There's all kinds of conclusions that are obvious from things we've already said in a really enriched understanding of Holy matrimony. We'll close with a quote from the Hungarian Bishop written some 70 years ago. Bishop toff quote, it is a great joy. If a wife can say to her husband, I can thank you that I have such a strong support in life, that I have such good children. It is a great choice. If a husband can say to his wife, I can thank you that I have such an understanding of life companion and such a peaceful home, but the greatest joy of all will be if someday they can say to each other, I can thank you that I have attained. He turned a life close quote, the greatest joy of all will be. If someday they can say to each other, I can thank you that I have attained eternal life.
Speaker 1 19:19 Amen.
