The Bridegroom Comes

Here is a Christmas homily for you:

My heart overflows with noble words.
To the king I must speak the song I have made…

You are the fairest of the children of men…
Gird your sword upon your thigh…
Ride on in triumph for the cause of truth
and goodness and right…
A scepter of justice is the scepter of your kingdom.
Your love is for justice; your hatred for evil.

God has anointed you with the oil of gladness…
Your robes are fragrant with aloes and myrrh.
From the ivory palace you are greeted with music.
On your right stands the queen in gold.

Anyone recognize this hymn to Christ? Where are the real Scripture scholars? It is the 45th Psalm.

We priests read the Psalms every day. We use a special prayerbook. It is one of our duties to pray the Psalms everyday.

In our prayerbook, after each of the Psalms, there is a prayer to help us understand the meaning of the Psalm.

In the prayer after Psalm 45, we pray: “When you took on flesh, Lord Jesus, you made a marriage of mankind with God.”

A marriage of mankind with God.

The prophet Isaiah referred to this marvelous marriage. The prophet declares to us: “As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride, so shall your God rejoice in you” (Isaiah 62:5).

Tuesday Evening Quarterback

I have been on a nice, long hot-air balloon ride. Just got back, and I found my computer under a basket in the attic…

I.
Let’s go back to the beginning of September:

The first part of the Redskins’ season was supposed to be easy.

After a near-certain loss to the Giants in the season-opener, it was supposed to be five gimmees before the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday, October 26.

Now the waning days of October are upon us. A whole lot of people are crooning the Redskins Blues.

But let us call to mind these words of our Lord:

Weep not for me but for your children. If this is what they do when the wood is green, what will they do when the wood is dry? (Luke 23:28,31)

Green wood (Weeks 2-6): Rams, Lions, Bucs, Panthers, and Chiefs
Dry wood (Wks 7-16): Eagles, Broncos, Cowboys, Saints, Giants, etc.

3-13 is a rosy scenario for this Redskins season. Pardon me while I get back in the balloon…

II.
The Lord Jesus helped us out by explaining life in His perspicacious parables.

For example: The one about how we are like servants awaiting our master’s return. Here is how it begins:

Gird your loins, and light your lamps, and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. (Luke 12:35-36)

The Lord is urging us to be ready for the Final Reckoning, of course. But there is more.

I had always thought that the master could have been gone for any reason. Gone for a wedding, or gone fishing, or gone to find better football players on another continent, or gone on a weather-balloon ride–whatever. The point is that he is gone, and he could return anytime.

But of course it matters where he is. There are no throw-away lines in the parables of Christ.

The Master has gone to a wedding.

He took our human nature up to heaven. The angels rejoice. God has betrothed the human race to Himself. The Bridegroom stretched out His arms on the cross and won His Bride, and now the heavens are drunk with sober joy. They are dancing and singing the canticle which is too sublime for sound.

When He returns, He will be coming from the heavenly wedding banquet. He will bring the dew of angelic festivity with Him when He comes. He will be wearing the smile of the happy, chaste groom.

III.
A-Rod is OUT OF HIS MIND!!! (Click hot-link, and scroll down to 2009 post-season batting stats.)

Words of St. John the Baptist

The mission of St. John the Baptist is to call us to repent of our sins so that we will be ready to welcome Christ.

This is what St. John said, as recorded in the New Testament:

Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. (Matthew 3:2-3)

Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit, and do not presume to tell yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ because, I tell you, God can raise children for Abraham from these stones. Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees, so that any tree which fails to produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 3:8-10/Luke 3:7-9)

To King Herod: It is against the law for you to have your brother’s wife. (Matthew 14:4, Luke 6:18)