What lies in the Bible may surprise some.
The Bible is not only about Jesus and His life, His teachings, and about Him. Although centered around these things, the Bible is also about His Apostles, His saints, and His Church.
What unites these, His Apostles, saints, and Church?
It is Christ who unites but it is by a divine sort of marriage He is united to them.
A divine implication of marriage is one of man and woman ( a divine meeting or union of the relationship of humanity which has the power as the Creator, to create Human Life).
This "divine implication of marriage" is why marriage is a sacramental (a symbol), and a Catholic marriage a sacramental marriage, not a regular marriage, but one with divine implications, thus unbreakable.
But this form of marriage is not solely within the human male-female relationship. Marriage also has an illustruous theological value beyond the sacrament of marriage.
It is the greatest illustration of the Christian life.
We are offered an invitation to the wedding banquet, which is HEAVEN!
Heaven is a marriage between the divine and its church, a unison of man and God, of the visible and the invisible. In fact, it is better said that it is an unveiling. An unveiling of the invisible to what was once the only physically visible revealing all and thus no longer invisible ( as that of a spouse should be on the wedding night).
Heaven is a celebratory banquet of a marriage between the divine and humanity. It is showcased or relived in the Catholic Mass. Jesus revealed Himself as bread of life. "I am the Bread of Life" says Jesus, so at communion we are offered a communion with the divine in a spectacular way which will also be the reality of the union in Heaven.
Communion is a manifestation of the Heavenly banquet which we celebrate and give thanks. It is a meeting, or marriage, of Heaven and Earth. God comes down from Heaven and meets us in the Eucharist which gives life ( John 6:51 ) as a husband and wife unite and also create life.
This reality of the Eucharist gives us the reason why little girls dress for their first communion as if they are to be given away as brides. They wear veils and white dresses because they are invited to partake in the Great banquet. Babies are also in their baptismal gowns as this marital relationship with God is also in reference to the relationship God has with all His church.
The Church is the Body of Christ, therefore when one is welcomed into the Church, one is to meet God there, and this unison also incorporates a relationship to the invitation to the Heavenly banquet. When one is baptized, one is not only given the invitation but are responding to it by sacramentally uniting one's life with Christ, uniting with the body of Christ (which is also His Church) ( Colossians 1 :18 , Galatians 3: 27 ).
The invitation to the banquet is actually realized in every sacrament, especially Holy Orders. In Holy Orders, the priest is celibate and not married as to express their desire to be married to God as Jesus is united with the Father. So as a husband and wife offer and reveal themselves to each other, the priest wants to live their vocation in unison with Jesus, who was celibate, and live out a special communion with the Father as Jesus who was High priest ( Hebrews 4: 14).
2 Corinthians 2 :10 illustrates to us both the role of St. Paul, who was ordained through Holy Orders to be in persona Christi, and another sacramental role in the unison of man and the Divine found in Reconciliation. In the sacrament of Confession, we are reconciled to our baptismal state where we are united to the Body of Christ, the Church, and the divine through the priest's service of Christ's Church as St. Paul in persona Christi, The laguage "In persona Christi" is expressed in 2nd Corinthians in the original Latin Vulgate, illustrating the profound historical relevance of such a biblical and priestly idea:
II Corinthios 2:10Biblia Sacra Vulgata (VULGATE)
10 cui autem aliquid donatis et ego nam et ego quod donavi si quid donavi propter vos in persona Christi
Confirmation ( Hebrews 6 : 2 ) and the Anointing of the Sick are also sacraments in which we reaffirm our baptismal relationship with the divine through the rejection of evil and the desire to be in our baptismal unison with Christ and His Body, the Church ( James 5 : 14 ).
So what is the message of the Bible? Use this link to discover these biblical realities presented, that we are all invited to the Holy Wedding Banquet in Heaven, that the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, are all centered and focused upon becoming "holy," that is to say, complete in God, through a marital relationship with Him as members of the Church through the Body of Christ which is His Church by the ministry of those who act for us as the deliverers of the Bread of Life in persona Christi in completing the mission of the Christian which is to accept the wedding invitation and to be united with God in the infinite Father, the incarnate Son, and in the fullness with the Holy Spirit.
