Awaiting the Bridegroom

God breaks into this world as the Divine Bridegroom, seeking His Bride, the Church.  We are called to be watchful, ready, vigilant as He calls us home to eternal life with Him.  Our lives, surrendered in love to Him, become as crushed olives, fuel for our lamps that are kept burning brightly until the moment of His return.

In Baptism God dwells in our souls and we are "divinized," as the Fathers of the Church teach us.  We become children of God, destined for eternal life with Christ in heaven.  When we follow the path of the Beatitudes, allowing Christ to live in us, heaven already begins to flow into this world we live in.  Our life of discipleship anticipates our heavenly life with Christ.

We are totally and completely dependent on God, and He provides for us abundantly in Christ!  We are called to express that same sentiment above all by loving God with all of our heart, mind and soul, and by loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.  The Blessed Virgin Mary offers an amazing witness on how to do that, and she herself intercedes for us so that we may live out the greatest of all God's commandments: Love.  

God became man to restore and renew the image of God in us, "like restoring a faded portrait" (St. Athanasius).  We are called to cooperate with Him in that awesome work of restoration. 

God invites us to the wedding banquet of His Son as He unites us with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist.  We are called to accept the invitation, wear the wedding garment, and live a Eucharistic life as we bear fruit in love with Him.

God invites us to cooperate with Him in His vineyard, bearing fruit in this life that will last for all eternity.  He is writing, even now, that final verse of the Song of the Vineyard.  We cooperate with Him in that song as we unite ourselves to Him.

God invites us to surrender everything and work in His vineyard, the abundant life that expresses all that He has in store for us.  We lose nothing when we open ourselves fully to God.  Even for those who are reluctant, God's mercy prevails and allows us to accept His full invitation to the Kingdom.

The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard reveals who God is and who we are as sons and daughters of God.  God comes to this world so that He can scour the earth and search for workers in His vineyard, the Kingdom.  We are the ones who receive the "usual daily wage," which is nothing less than eternal life with God.  God desires a friendship and relationship of love with each one of us, starting in this life and culminating in eternal life with Him.

Jesus shed His blood on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, and He expects that we will pass on that forgiveness in our own lives.  Our hearts can be transformed by God's mercy when we remember all that we have been forgiven and forget the faults and offenses of our neighhbor.  

The Council of Trent describes how we were created in "harmony," and how that melodious reality permeated our relationships with each other and with God.  When that song is interrupted by sin, God becomes man to redeem us by His grace.  The angels sing when Christ is born in Bethlehem!  God calls the Church on earth to continue the song of reconciliation and salvation.