Would I be wrong in saying Jesus meant to say he was just going to the Father to be ready for this wife the Church represented by the apostles?
You would be right to assert that but there is even more.
In an ancient Jewish Marriage ceremony there are two stages, kiddushin and nisuin.
- Kiddushin (betrothal)
- Nisuin
The first is kiddushin (or betrothal).
At the point the husband and wife are REALLY husband and wife.
Then the ceremony is in a sense suspended and the husband goes off to “prepare a place” for his bride. A new home.
But at this point (kiddushin) they are REALLY husband and wife.
For example: When St. Joseph was “betrothed” to the Blessed Virgin Mary, this means they had undergone kiddushin already.
The angel Gabriel came to a married woman. The Blessed Virgin Mary was already “betrothed” to Joseph when Gabriel the Archangel appeared to Mother Mary in Luke 1.
This means Joseph and Mary were REALLY and actually married.
That’s why the angel told St. Joseph to take “Mary, your wife” into his home.
After kiddushin, the husband goes and prepares a place for his bride. (Then he comes back later to get his bride).
This may take a short while. It may take up to a year or more in a Hebrew wedding.
The point is, the time frame is not fixed.
St. Joseph went off to prepare a home for his bride, the Blessed Mary Ever Virgin.
Likewise, Jesus who was already described as the “Bridegroom” by St. John the Baptist (early in John’s Gospel) goes off to prepare a place for His bride, the Church, Heaven.
Later in a Jewish marital context, the husband comes back to get the bride. This also has a ceremony.
This is called
nisuin. This is done under a special Bridal Canopy called the
chuppah (“hoo-pah”).
The world will see Jesus come on the clouds of Heaven. We will see the fulfillment of the chuppah over the Church at the end of time.
The Blessed Mother had the chuppah too didn’t She? She was “overshadowed” by the Holy Spirit.
Back to the
ancient Jewish marital liturgy (Jewish people do this differently today).
After the husband goes to prepare a place for his bride, then the husband comes back (nisuin) and takes the bride into his home.
So in a sense, when we die, (assuming we “remain” in “the Vine” or assuming we remain in Jesus) we too are brought to our new Heavenly home.
JOHN 14:1-4 1 “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 **And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. **4 And you know the way where I am going.”
And in another sense at the end of time, the Church is brought into Heaven in the fullest sense (when we get our glorified bodies).
This will be a nisuin of sorts for us too.
Incidentally. This is WHY when the angel came to Mary and tells Mary she will conceive and bear a Son and name Him Jesus, it shows (implicitly) that Mary and Joseph had intended to remain virginal in that marriage (and they DID remain virginal in that marriage).
Because you have the archangel Gabriel, appearing to a MARRIED woman telling her all that he told Mary in Luke 1:26 (and following) . . . . And HOW does the Blessed Virgin Mary respond when She is told that She will conceive and bear a Son?
She says: “HOW can this come about?”
If you tell someone who is married that they will have a baby, they do NOT ask, “HOW can this come about” do they? They might ask, “WHEN” etc. But they don’t ask “HOW”.
They would never ask such a question unless . . . unless they intended to REMAIN virginal.
So the Blessed Virgin Mary is a “type” or a microcosm or a “typus” of the Church (see CCC 967).
And the Church is the spotless virginal bride of Christ.
EPHESIANS 5:25-29, 32 25 Husbands, love your wives, as
Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27** that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.** 28 Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, . . . . 32
This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church;
2nd CORINTHIANS 11:2 2 I feel a divine jealousy for you, for
I betrothed you to Christ to
present you as a pure bride to her one husband.
There is much more too.
And all of this marital imagery culminates with . . . . you guessed it . . . . "
The Wedding Supper of the Lamb” in the book of Revelation which takes place in Heaven where we have communion with God in a way unimaginable now.
