In the New Testament and writings of the Church Fathers, the Church is described as both the Bride and the Body of Christ.
To anyone who is interested, in Eastern Orthodox Christian theology, we ascribe to the belief espoused by St. Paul that in the holy sacrament of marriage, the man and women become one flesh and there is a mystical change in reality between two persons. Mysteriously, beyond time and our perceptions of reality, the man and the wife now become united naturally in flesh, one body of two persons. A metaphysical and cosmic communion of being and that in such love, life is created. Marriage is a joyful and blessed mystery and reveals much about the nature of divine love.
So blessed is holy matrimony that it was the scene of Christ's first public miracle after assembling His Chosen Twelve. In it, He turned the water to wine, and revealed to all of creation the blessedness of this festive union and holy sacrament of communion and love.
And what does God reveal? That when such a blessed union of love is made and shared, it often creates a trinitarian reality, - the creation of life!, - the bringing forth by creative love the generation of a new life. Beyond the obvious manisfestation of children between a man and a women, other mysteries are revealed about the nature of God as described as Love. Our new life in Christ also involves our communion and sharing of love between two persons, namely ourself and Christ. By this, we shed the old man and put on the new and become reborn. Life itself springs from loving communion, and our generation and our regeneration is trinitarian in image and trinitarian in nature, for by this image we naturally acquire a godlike attribute such as creating life.
Similarly, it carries soteriological significance in how Christ saves us, and why the Church is the Bride of Christ and at the same time the Body of Christ in the world. They are indeed the same thing before His presence, for according to Christian theology, the man and the women assume one flesh. How? We don't know. This is what was told by Christ and through the teachings of His Apostles. So as this was the defended orthodox belief from the beginning, then that is what has been defended by countless souls since the beginning, and accepted as the universal and historic belief. And this faith reveals that our very salvation is tied to Christ's
economia as Risen Savior, and that we find salvation by having real union with Him, fully and in completeness, specifically as He mentioned, in spirit and truth. For in spirit and truth our entire being is transformed and transfigured, in the fullness of our being: our body, soul, and spirit. We must 'put on Christ' as described by St. Paul and thus gain the Spirit, for by doing that, we gain Christ Himself, and He fills our deficiencies and heals our passions and bring us to righteousness with our Father in Heaven. For it is by His Glorious Resurrection, we who are dying in our sins gain resurrection, for He has made it possible by overcoming sin and forever destroying the power of death. That is why all men kneel before Christ and why in Christ alone do we find salvation.
And these are a few reasons why the Church is called the
Bride of Christ and the
Body of Christ according to St. Paul and the earliest Christian writers. In a nutshell, by our mystical union with Him, we enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Ive rambled enough and its time to get to bed. Forgive me and pray for me and pray for the future of this nation!
