Bride of Christ?

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Denae

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To all the ladies who are discerning a religious vocation (like me) I have a question.

I had someone ask me once what it meant to be a bride of Christ. I couldn’t come up with a short answer, and kinda confused em. lol, but seriously, how to you explain it to someone who has no idea?
 
Are you a consecrated virgin?

Just wondering.

Anyway, the Bride of Christ is the Church.
 
its not only the Church

to be a Bride of Christ… its a religious sister or nun that devotes her entire life to God and His will, through prayer, penance and Sacrifice. …

Instead of Marrying a man, she marries Christ, hence, a Bride of Christ
 
I guess I’ve always wondered if anyone else has a problem with this imagery for this reason:

People have used the term “Bride of Christ” to refer to a consecrated, vowed woman religious, a sister or nun, as though she were “married” to Christ.

The male counterpart to a sister or nun is a brother, friar, or monk. He is a consecrated, vowed man religous. (Don’t confuse this with priesthood - they are two separate callings.)

So why not use the term “Bridegroom of Christ” for men religous? After all they are bound, “married” to Christ in the same way that women religious are.

What, what?? A “Bridegroom of Christ”? That can’t happen! That would, be, like, a homosexual marriage or something. Jesus was male, and Jesus was called the Christ. So therefore Christ must be male and can only be a bridegroom. Anathema!

Okay, then, maybe these consecrated male religious are only spiritual spouses of Christ, and since Christ has to be the bridegroom, then a male religous is really also a spiritual bride of Christ.

What, what? A male being called to be a “spiritual bride”? Good heavens, no! Spiritual Bridehood is really just a precursor to Spiritual Motherhood. And men, well sorry, but they’re just not ontologically ordered to be a spiritual mother. You can never turn a daddy into a mommy, right?

This posting drips with sarcasm to make the point that there are serious problems with calling women religious Brides of Christ. To make the title work, one must either deny the masculinity of men religious, and/or take a long hard look at the arguments against admitting homosexual couples to marriage or women to holy orders.
 
No… Men are married to the Church. the Church is female. Christ was “married” to the church… the priests (and brothers, monks, friars, etc.) in descendent of Him also marry the Church.

Women are consecrated or Married to Christ… Christ is male.
 
ChemicalBean, Gerard Manley Hopkins has a sermon where he refers to Christ as “the Bridegroom of men’s souls.” (Men obviously being humankind, not the male sex.) Christ tells all those parables about the Bridegroom who shows up suddenly. In relation to God everyone is receptive… it does sound kinda awkward but that’s where you have to remember MASCULINE is not MALE, God is not male nor female but He is masculine in relation to us.
 
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