A Sacred Wedding of Jewish and Christian Tradition

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Mass-Blog-for-the-27th-Sunday-of-Ordinary-Time-2024.mp3)

Catholics have much in common with our Jewish brothers and sisters when it comes to what we hold sacred. Unity with God is paramount, and marriage in both traditions symbolizes that.

In the Jewish marriage tradition, the man and woman crush a glass under foot. This brokenness recalls God’s giving the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. Although the people broke these laws, and out of frustration Moses broke the tablets detailing them, their relationship with God somehow remained intact. Just so, the relationship between husband and wife is designed to stay intact despite human brokenness.  

In Catholic tradition, both in marriage and in the sacrifice of the Mass, we broken people become one in Christ as we partake of his body and blood. Rather than breaking the sacramental vessel containing Christ’s blood once it’s emptied, we prepare it for continual sharing of that life force. Cleansing it is a sanctification process, just as a man and woman’s life together is a continuous sanctification process—through sickness and health, brokenness and holiness.

Holiness is another way to say wholeness. We all come together in wholeness with God’s presence among us. Becoming one is the theme of this Sunday’s readings—starting with the union of Adam and Eve. While sharing bone and flesh with each other, they separated themselves from God’s Holy Spirit by trying to supplant it with their own. Rather than preserving unity with their Creator, they broke from it.

Nevertheless, their continued union with each other, until parted by death, would presage humanity’s constant attempts at reunion with immortality personified. As Adam says in this Sunday’s first reading,

“This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh;”

 … and the two of them become one flesh, the passage concludes (Gn 2:18-24).

We have a God who loves us so much that he gave Himself back to us in human form, tasting the death we chose for ourselves through Adam and Eve. THEN, as Paul tells the Hebrews in Sunday’s second reading, Christ redeemed our mortal brokenness by reuniting us with God our Father. Like a chalice designed to contain and share Christ’s life blood, we are consecrated to share God’s essence with each other continually as husbands and wives, brothers and sisters—thus reminding humanity:

He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin. Therefore, he is not ashamed to call [us] “brothers.” (Heb 2:9-11)

Finally, in Sunday’s gospel reading, Jesus our brother reminds us of the tradition we share with our Jewish brothers and sisters in holding the divine marriage bond sacred. When the Pharisees ask Jesus “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”  he answers:

“From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. … Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” (Mk 10:2-16 or 10:2-12)

We may be as broken as a Jewish wedding glass, but as with that vessel, we are also consecrated to maintain unity with God despite our brokenness. In the same vein, we’ve been consecrated as a Catholic wine chalice, to share God’s life blood with each other. At every Mass, that chalice is emptied, and afterwards sanctified again through washing in preparation for the next opportunity to share God’s unifying essence through Christ’s body and blood.

Such is life. It may break us, but God’s love gathers us scattered pieces together—again and again—so we may continue being of service,,,

Through God’s wholeness.

With God’s holiness.

In God’s unity.

–Tom Andel