Concerning the Bride, let us see what He says; that you, when you know the Bridegroom and the Bride, may not without reason come to the marriage. For every celebration is a celebration of marriage: the Church's nuptials are being celebrated. The King's Son is about to marry a wife, that King's Son is Himself a King; and the guests frequenting the marriage are themselves the Bride. Its not as in an ordinary marriage where some are guests, and another is she that is being married; in the Church they that come as guests, if they come to good purpose, become the Bride. For all the Church is Christ's Bride.(Augustine on I John, Hom. 2, 2; PL 35, 1990)

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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