"Here I am, waiting like a lover"

[agapewolf]

I think the marriage metaphor too rich and traditional to be abandoned, especially considering how it illustrates the profound dignity and importance of the married state. Still, I’m more able to see where this song could cause some problems, in the wrong setting. Yikes.

not only too rich and traditional, but integral to our understanding of God’s love, and how it was in the beginning, and our purpose in life. JPII said that the marriage matephor is the best one there is.

 

[roselily]

I love : LOVE

 

[Sarabande]

I think I see the source of this hoo-haw. Let’s please remember that the lover metaphor is used to refer to Christ and the Church or God and Israel, or God and Jerusalem, not between Christ and individual Christians. The wedding metaphor is a communal metaphor. An no, kids should not be taught to use the word “lover” to refer to those who love each other but aren’t married. I have not said that the words “lover” and “beloved” should be used interhcangeably! “Lover” is properly a term used to refer to the relationship proper only between spouses. Therefore, outside of marriage, it refers to relationships that are by their nature illicit. (Your dad is NOT your lover! Your boyfriend should NOT be your lover. Your finance should not be your lover. Your husband and your husband alone is to be your lover, just as the Church should have no lovers but God Himself!)

I would be hard-put to think of an instance in which the Scriptural metaphor did not refer to the relationship between God and His People. I don’t think there is one. The problem with that song, then, seems not to be confined to confusion over whether “I” refers to God or not. There seems to be confusion as to whether “you” is meant to refer to the individual or the Church!

I guess I didn’t get this because it is used as a song during Holy Communion at our parish, and I don’t see that as a “me and the Lord” moment. I see that as a “we and the Lord moment”. To me, it is a moment when our identity as the Body of Christ is reinforced and fed. We are made one by Holy Communion. Mass is the wedding feast of the Lamb, and we are His Bride. Not I am His Bride. We are His Bride.

Am I alone in hearing the song that way?

It’s like the priesthood. Priests uniquely share in the way Jesus is Bridegroom of His Church. That doesn’t make them husbands to every individual Christian!

Instead, priests share the singular and unique Priesthood of Christ, who alone is Bridegroom of the Church. They are devoted to Her and give themselves over to presenting Her to the Lord “without stain or wrinkle or anything of the sort”. Likewise, when a religious sister is a bride of Christ, it is in a similar sense. It is put that way as a metaphor, not implying a literal one-to-one marriage between the professed religious and Christ.

Hi Easterjoy! You make perfect sense with this. And this brings it back to my original objection to the song. If the text did use “God” or “Lord” or “Jesus”, it would understandable as a religious piece and the word “lover” could be construed correctly. The fact that it doesn’t contain it anywhere in the song, is what can make it ambiguous and misleading as a secular piece. Again, nice song, but not for mass in my opinion because of the ambiguity.