Friend of the Bridegroom

A dear friend asked me to be his Best Man at his wedding. So this past weekend, I flew out to California, and assisted him in whatever way I could on one of the most meaningful and marvellous days of his life. What a joy for me to behold. After the photos, I ran ahead of the new couple into the wedding reception hall and yelled at the top of my lungs, "I am the Friend of the Bridegroom! The Bridegroom is coming! Make straight the path for the Bridegroom and his Bride!"

I first met him in college some sixteen years ago. He didn't like me very much at the time. I thought (and still think) he's one of the most talented and capable men I've ever met. His life was far from Jesus, far from joyous, and far from fulfilled. Three years or so ago, the Lord left the proverbial 99 to rescue him and he came to me and chose me to help him. So I've had the humbling blessing of witnessing his road to redemption. He was surprised when I told him goodbye the night before his wedding. I knew that my role in his life was finished, at least on the level it had been. (I told him if he called a lot, I'd tell him to hang up and roll over and talk to his wife.)

I feel I understand John the Baptist's talk about how once the Bridegroom comes, the Bridegroom must increase and the Friend of the Bridegroom must decrease. The Lord has entered into his life in a special way through matrimony. Furthermore, he is joined to his bride's life as Christ is to the Church. All childish things are put away - and my friend is a man anew.

I am a blessed man to have experienced John the Baptist on the tiny level that I did.

Apostle Composition

Recently, I had the opportunity to photograph someone I thought looked like John the Apostle. (The gentleman was very gracious and seemed pleasantly surprised when he saw I had given him longer hair!)

The idea is to use the many digital photographs of this man in creating storyboards for a film about the book of Revelation. I have him in many different poses and am having fun brainstorming certain scenes. I could get lost in working on this stuff - it so much fun for me. I hope to post more soon. Thanks for the feedback.

A Woman's Intercession

Where would I be without the intercession of the women in my life? The thought knocks the arrogance right out of me. I remember hearing how Saint Augustine, author of Confessions, lived wrongfully in his youth. For years (maybe decades), his mother used to weep for him daily and pray fervently for him. When at last he had a change of heart and lifestyle, he attributed the opening of his eyes to his mother tears.

There must be many mothers who weep over the decisions their children make. I find myself quiet at this moment -- for my own mother and the other women in my life: my sister, my wife, my grandmothers, aunts, and even friends.

The New Testament has at least two interceding mother stories. In both stories, Jesus seemingly refuses the request until he is pressed. One intercession happens as Mary asks her son Jesus for help at a wedding in John 2 (see blog below). Another mother, a non-Jew, intercedes on behalf of her sick daughter, and even accepts arguably some of the harshest words from Jesus, "it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs," by saying, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

How many times would I have fallen were it not for the diligence of the women in my life, arguing with, as it were, even the Lord himself for my sake? How inspiring, and reassuring. Thank God for these women's intercessions.

An Incomplete Miracle?

Six (~25-gallon) stone jars of water? Coming from Saint John, that's especially troubling. The apostle was all about sevens as the number of completion -- six is the number of incompletion, imperfection, the Beast's first, middle and last name etc. It should have been seven jars (or even eight, the number of renewal) but six? Jesus' first miracle -- the turning of water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana -- is recorded in Saint John's gospel. I had always been bothered by one detail in an otherwise perfectly beautiful story. What happened to the seventh and eighth jars? Was Jesus trying to show us earthly marriage is doomed to be incomplete? Was it because Jesus hadn't started his ministry? Saint John recorded numbers carefully (seven miracles in the gospel, Revelation's seven seals, seven vials, seven woes, etc.) so I didn't think the answer is as simple as, "that's just the number of jars they had." Then a wonderful answer came to me.

The logo to the right is for a convent of an order of nuns who take a vow of service (among other vows). The logo depicts the miracle at the Cana wedding as Mary asks Jesus to help and instructs the servants to "do whatever he tells you." Jesus tells them to fill the six large jars with water which they do. Then Jesus tells them to draw some out and to take it to the head steward and the steward is surprised at the quality. This logo shows a nun of the order as a servant who is either filling up the large stone jars or who is drawing some out to give to the weddig party (and I love the ambiguity).

Count the jars in the picture. Indeed where is the seventh jar? It is in the hands of the servant heeding the advice "do whatever he tells you" and laboring to complete the task (in this case, carrying 150 gallons of water). And when I look closely, the eighth jar is there too. It is the jar in the hand of the servant who, once the miracle is performed, labors to carry the marvelous result of God's love back to the people. We are the seventh jar - the completion. We are the eighth jar - the renewal. Jesus is allowing us to be an integral part of both the completion and the renewal.

The first miracle at the first sacrament -- the spotless sacrament. Water (rots with age) was changed to wine (becomes tastier and more valuable with time). Worldly marriages are at their zeniths at the beginning but when Jesus is invited into my wedding and marriage, just when it looks like the celebration will die down, out comes the best wine. And I'll keep saying, "you saved the best until now." (John ch.2:1-22)

First One

Congratulations! You've found my very first blog! Weehoo! I feel so hip!

+J