Welcome ladies, to this year’s edition of the Beloved Dinner. On behalf of the Knights of Columbus, we are so glad to have you here tonight to be able to present this to you, our service in the order of creation—at least in a minor way. Let me explain what I mean by that. I first want to clarify the Biblical view on holiness. There are two stories that display the Israelite view of holy items: the story of Uzzah, who died after touching the ark of the Covenant, and Zechariah, who entered the Holy of Holies. For context, Zechariah would have been wearing bells and had a rope tied to his leg, so that if he died, the other priests could hear the bells drop and pull him out. This caution arose because there were a few instances, notably Uzzah’s, of people dying in the presence of the Almighty. These two intimate liturgical vessels—the ark of the covenant and the Holy of Holies—were feared by the Israelites, because of what happened if you interacted with them unworthily. You would die. This is because these were essentially Old Testament sacraments, little universes, models of the original paradise, the Garden of Eden, from which man was banned. Now, hear this context of religious caution in a third case related to these two: the woman who bleeds. Contrary to our culture’s understanding, the Biblical context reveals that this isn’t about woman’s unworthiness or inferiority, but that the connection here is blood in worship. “The life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life” (Lev 17:11), says Leviticus chapter 17. Time and time again, we see that the Bible views the shedding of blood as a sacred thing, proper to liturgical activity. The Canaanites believed that people were made from the blood of the gods following a primordial war against chaos. For the Israelites, the life of man was in the blood, which is that life which God “breathed into his nostrils” (Gen 2:7), and to shed blood was to have that life depart from you. Not of course to say that a paper cut automatically meant death, but that the ancients recognized that major blood loss meant death, which brings us back to the woman who bleeds—regularly—and yet does not die. “Who is this”, they would have asked themselves, “who can bleed and not die? She must be so close to the gods, from whose blood we are made and from whose life we live.” And so the Canaanites cautioned themselves against the danger of women. The Israelites cautioned themselves against mixing these women and worship, because if you put women and worship in the same room, that was too much holiness and you would die. God revealed more to Israel, showing them the origin of woman’s holiness.
Remember how the Canaanites thought that creation was chaos, the opposite of order? Genesis tells us otherwise. There are two creation stories in Genesis: one is the creation of the whole cosmos, while the other is a personal story of the creation of man and woman. In both, there is an ascending pattern, with creation culminating in God making the highest, and the holiest creature. In the first account, the story culminates in the creation of humans, while in the second, the story culminates in the creation of woman. There, we see the awkward excitement of Adam, which men continue to inherit. And I don’t know about the other men here, but I’ve frozen before a beautiful girl before, just kind of stumbled over my own tongue. But I want you to listen to Adam’s words as to Romeo’s line from ‘Romeo and Juliet’, “O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright” (R&J Act 1. Sc 5). Adam’s reaction was one of awe, of someone who hardly knew what to say because he was so blown away by this beautiful woman, the most amazing creature he ever set eyes upon. “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:23). Here is the covenant helpmate suited for worship alongside man. Here is the first bride.
But from that peak, the story falls. Literally two verses later, we see man fail the call to “leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife” (Gen 2:24). Now the serpent, the Nahash, literally in Hebrew this ‘monstrous sea beast,’ approaches the wife of the man and seduces her, all under the watch of the present man—the first failure of a husband to protect his bride from the snares of the devil, the first failure of a husband to defend her during spiritual combat. This failure becomes a motif that we see in Salvation History time and time again. It is the failure of Noah, who abandoning his senses left his Nakedness to be seen by Ham the usurper. It is the failure of Abraham, who three times failed his bride, sleeping with another woman and twice leaving his wife to other men. It is the failure of David, who rejected his first wife, leaving her desolate and barren while elaborately planning his adultery with Bathsheba. In each of these cases, there are historical consequences as the children of these families turn to internal warfare: Cain against Abel, Canaan against the Semites, Ishmael against Isaac and Israel, and ultimately the rupture of David’s kingdom. What God has revealed is that the first sin of history is the failure of a man to protect his bride, which leads to the breakdown of the family and the desolation of whole societies. Women, you who are daughters of God, heirs to the covenant, you are called to be brides of a husband who will not fail you.
That husband, of course, is Christ our lord. He is the bridegroom, the model of husband, the one who perfectly loves His bride, the New Jerusalem, and who gave up His life for her, shedding His blood on the altar of His heart, and in doing so, reveals what love a daughter of God deserves. The love that you are owed is not conditional or circumstantial, but always and eternal. You, as the image of God, are not defined by how smart you are, by how well you take care of yourself, by how fit you are, or by your ability to do all the things (even for the church). These are terribly important, to be sure, but God did not call you to be perfect … now. He calls you to perfection in himself over the course of time. He created you in space and time, and this life is the path that He built for you to lead you to perfection and to Heaven.
In this life, God is calling you to holiness—every one of you. He calls every man to holiness also, but for you, this call is the vocation of bride. Mark this, every one of you is called to be a bride, to be subject to your head, Christ the Bridegroom Messiah. You are not merely called to affirm some abstract concept of the God-man, but to love the man Jesus with a love that is truly exciting, yet deep and mature, first now and then for all eternity. For some of you, this union will look like religious life where you will live in anticipation of the eternal spiritual union with God that is Heaven. Likely, however, most of you are called to marriage. In baptism, you participate in the covenant that God has cut with His bride, the Church, and in marriage, you get to live that covenant out in a Sacramental manner, revealing the covenant love of God through your bodies, thereby becoming new microcosms of the new paradise. The vocation of marriage is defined by purification, and the calling of a husband is to purify his bride “as Christ loved the Church, that he might sanctify her” (Eph 5:25-26). Ladies, if you are called to marriage, find a man who will support you in your vocation of holiness, who will sanctify you, and settle for nothing less. Find a man who will shamar you, specifically in your spiritual battles. Set the bar high, because you are beloved, and we ought to show that to you every day. Christ is at work through me when I can give L—— a meal during a busy week, or join her during a homework night in the St. Al’s basement. There is grace that comes to both of us, both man and woman, when we serve you in these little ways, when we men can be a stable presence in your lives, or, when necessary, a little bit of goofiness. You are so very loved by the Father, pray that He may show that to you. “I believe I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps 27:13). This here is the land of the living. God wills for His blessings to come upon you during this life. He desires for you to be beautiful, to be smart, to be healthy, to do the good things, to live a life with the love of your life, but He first wants you to be satisfied with Himself, the bridegroom, and then, you will be ready for all the blessings that He wishes to rain down upon you.
And His words to you:
“Dear one, I want you to have this most wonderful love, I want you to see in the flesh a picture of your relationship with Me. And to enjoy materially and concretely the everlasting union of beauty, perfection and love that I offer you with Myself. Know that I love you utterly. I AM God. Believe it and be satisfied.”[1]