Monday, September 18 : Saint Jacob of Sarug

According to his mysterious design the Father prepared a Bride for his only Son and made her known under prophetic images (…) In his book, Moses wrote that: “a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and the two of them become one body” (Gen 2:24). The prophet Moses spoke about the man and woman in this way to foreshadow Christ and his Church. With the prophet’s piercing eye he beheld Christ becoming one with the Church thanks to the mystery of the water: he envisioned Christ drawing the Church to himself from the virginal womb and the Church drawing Christ to herself in the waters of baptism. Thus were the Bridegroom and Bride wholly united in a mystical way. That is why Moses, with veiled face (Ex 34:33), beheld Christ and the Church; one he called “man” and the other “woman” so as to avoid revealing the reality to the Hebrew people in all its clarity (…). For a time the veil would conceal this mystery; none would know the meaning of this great image and would be ignorant of what it represented. But when their espousals had been celebrated, Paul came. He saw the veil laid across their splendor and raised it to reveal Christ and his Bride to the world. He showed how they were indeed what Moses had described in his prophetic vision. Rejoicing with holy joy, the apostle declared: “This is a great mystery” (Eph 5:32). He made known what this veiled image that the prophet referred to as man and woman really meant: “I know,” he said, “that it is Christ and his Church, who are no longer two but one body” (cf. Eph 5:31).

Roman Extraordinary (Tridentine) Daily Readings – rosary,team