Column: Christ Comes to Redeem His Bride

Eleven days before Christmas, the Church celebrates the feast of St. John of the Cross, the sixteenth-century Carmelite and spiritual writer. Among his many great writings is a series of poems known as the Romances. In his seventh Romance, St. John of the Cross poetically describes the Incarnation of Jesus and the reason He came to earth, presenting this in the form of a dialogue between the Son and the Father. It speaks of Christ going to redeem His bride, the Church, for the glory and pleasure of His Father.

Since it is on this wonderous feast of Christmas that we celebrate Christ coming to us as Emmanuel, it seems fitting to leave the description of one of the Church’s greatest mysteries to one of her greatest mystics:

Now that the time had come when it would be good to ransom the bride serving under the hard yoke of that law which Moses had given her,
the Father, with tender love, spoke in this way:
“Now you see, Son, that your bride was made in your image,
and so far as she is like you she will suit you well;
yet she is different, in her flesh, which your simple being does not have. In perfect love this law holds:
that the lover become like the one he loves;
for the greater their likeness the greater their delight.
Surely your bride’s delight would greatly increase
 were she to see you like her, in her own flesh.”
“My will is yours,” the Son replied,
“and my glory is that your will be mine.
This is fitting, Father, what you, the Most High, say;
for in this way your goodness will be more evident,
your great power will be seen and your justice and wisdom.
I will go and tell the world,
spreading the word of your beauty and sweetness
and of your sovereignty.
I will go seek my bride and take upon myself
her weariness and labors in which she suffers so;
and that she may have life,
I will die for her,
and lifting her out of that deep,
I will restore her to you.”