THE FIRST SERVICE OF THE BRIDEGROOM AT THE PATRIARCHATE
On the evening of Palm Sunday, April 15th/28th 2024, the contrite First Service of the Bridegroom took place in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, presided over by His Beatitude our Father and Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos. The service was attended by the Consul General of Greece in Jerusalem Mr Dimitrios Angelosopoulos, monks, nuns and devout pilgrims, tho whom His Beatitude delivered the following Sermon:
“I see Thy bridal chamber adorned, O my Saviour, and I have no wedding garment that I may enter there. Make the robe of my soul the shine, O Giver of light and save me”.
Beloved Brethren in Christ,
Reverend Christians and pilgrims,
Today, the grace of the Holy Spirit brought us all to this place of the passion of the Cross, but also of the three-day burial of our Saviour Christ, who accepted the Cross, temptations and plagues, being judged by Pilate.
“Behold the Bridegroom comes in the middle of the night; and blessed is the servant whom he shall find watching, but unworthy is he whom He shall find in slothfulness. Beware then, O my soul, and be not overcome by sleep, lest thou be given over to death and shut out from the Kingdom. But return to soberness and cry aloud: Holy, holy, holy art Thou, O God: through the Theotokos have mercy upon us” the hymnographer of the Church advices.
Christ, my beloved, is the Coming Bridegroom in the middle of the night, and His disciples, that is, those who believe and follow Him, are the sons of the bridegroom, that is, those invited to the weddings. “The sons of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them,” says the Lord (Matthew 9:15).
Christ, as the New Adam on the Cross, redeems the new Eve by His precious blood, but also by the water that flowed from His embroidered side (John 19:34). The blood and water symbolize the mysteries of the Church but also the love of the Bridegroom for His bride. “Husbands love their wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her”, (Eph. 5:25), Saint Paul preaches.
We, being members of the Church, which is the Body of Christ, are also members of the Body of Christ. In other words, the relationship between God and man in the person of Christ is a marriage relationship and union. The foundation and unifying force of marriage is love in Christ.
In this marriage of the Bridegroom Christ and the Bride, the Church, we are invited to participate as well. In order to participate, however, we must not only accept the invitation, which many refuse, but also bring the appropriate clothing.
In the well-known parable of the royal weddings of the Gospel of Matthew, we hear the King say to the uninvited “man not dressed in a wedding garment” (Matthew 22:11): “Sir, how did you come in here, not having a wedding garment”? (Matthew 22:12). This is why the hymn of the Church exclaims in a pleading manner: “I see Thy bridal chamber adorned, O my Saviour, and I have no wedding garment that I may enter there. Make the robe of my soul the shine, O Giver of light and save me”.
This invitation will resound as long as the Church of Christ exists in the world. However, because the ceremony or rather the hour and time of the solemn ceremony of marriages is not fixed, it is necessary for each of us to be quick, so that when the Bridegroom comes we are ready, like the wise virgins who rose and decorated their lamp.
Here is a time of preparation, the Holy and Great Week of Lent, which calls us and prepares us for the festival of festivals, the Glorious Resurrection of Christ. Amen. Happy and blessed Easter”.
From Secretariat-General