Lenten Campaign 2025
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In many Eastern Catholic Churches (as well as Eastern Orthodox), Holy Week (Great Week) is a time to venerate the icon of Christ the Bridegroom.
This is because of "Bridegroom Matins," a service held on the first few days of Holy Week.
It recalls the following words of Jesus.
Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. (Matthew 9:15)
Holy Week is the time of the year when we recall how the bridegroom is taken away from us. It also calls to mind the other time Jesus talked about "the bridegroom."
At midnight, there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!' (Matthew 25:6)
(In 2025, Eastern Christians are celebrating Holy Week on the same dates as Western Christians, as the calendars coincide this year.)
Christ the Bridegroom icon
What's interesting is that the Christ the Bridegroom icon features Jesus after he was scourged. It references the time when Pontius Pilate reveals Jesus to the people and says, "Behold, the man!" (John 19:5).
Surprising imagery
It's not what you would expect from an icon that talks about a "bridegroom." Naturally you would think Jesus might be wearing something that reflects an earthly wedding.
Or you might think that Jesus the Bridegroom would be a depiction of our Savior in glory, with resplendent robes.
Yet, the icon is full of marriage imagery, though it also reminds us that the Wedding Feast of the Lamb only comes to us through the cross.
For example, the crown of thorns Jesus is wearing is a nuptial image, as Eastern Christians have a tradition of wearing a crown during the wedding ceremony.
Christopher Mayeaux at Missio Alliance frames this icon this way, "He wears the wedding garments of humility, suffering, and love. He wears them as the Divine Lover who has been spurned by the one he came to woo. Here He stands – beaten, bruised, and rejected yet full of love."
Jesus suffering is an image of him as the Bridegroom, the Divine Lover who loves us so much that he wants to die for us and suffer many cruel torments.
In a mystical way, the cross is the "marriage bed," the place of intimate union between Christ and the Church, from which is born innumerable children.
One of the prayers in the Bridegroom Matins reminds us of our own need to approach Jesus with a pure heart:
I see Thy Bridal Chamber adorned, O my Savior, but have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me!
The Christ the Bridegroom icon is a beautiful one, that speaks to the depths of Christ's love for each one of us.
