I was honored to sit down with Dr. Christopher West and talk about the Liturgy and the Eucharist through the lens of St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. We began our conversation with St. Paul’s discourse on marriage and the mystery of Christ the Bridegroom’s marriage to His Bride, the Church, in Ephesians 5.
“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. Ephesians 5:31-32
It is vital for us to understand God’s design for marital love if we are going to understand our relationship with Christ as the Bridegroom and the gift He offers us in the Eucharist. St. John Paul II said:
The Eucharist is the sacrament of the Bridegroom and the Bride. The Eucharist makes present and realizes anew in a sacramental manner the redemptive act of Christ who 'creates' the Church, His Body.
I pray that listening to this conversation, a mini class in Theology of the Body, will bless you with a greater longing for Eucharistic communion with Christ, a deeper love of Mary, Mother and Bride, and a greater love of the liturgy.
As Christopher said, “The marriage of man and woman and the marriage of Christ and the church, those two marriages are married in Ephesians 5. Marital love and the Eucharist, you can't understand one without the other. You can't understand the liturgy without understanding marital love, and you can't understand marital love without understanding the liturgy.”
You can learn more about the Theology of the Body at the TOB Institute.
And learn more about Christ the Bridegroom here.
