time was come, and took pity on the sufferings of His beloved, He
sent His only Son to earth, in a rich abode and a glorious
temple--that is to say, in the body of the Virgin Mary. There he
married His bride, our nature, and united it to His Person, by means
of the pure blood of the noble Virgin. The priest who joined the
Bride and Bridegroom was the Holy Spirit; the angel Gabriel
announced the marriage, and the blessed Virgin gave her consent. So
Christ, our faithful Bridegroom, united our nature to His, and
visited us in a strange land, and taught us the manners of heaven
and perfect fidelity. And He laboured and fought like a champion
against our enemy, and He broke the prison and gained the victory,
and His death slew our death, and His blood delivered us, and He set
us free in baptism under the life-giving waters, and enriched us by
His sacraments and gifts, that we might go forth, as He said,
adorned with all virtues, and might meet Him in the abode of His
glory, to enjoy Him throughout all eternity.

Now the Master of truth, Christ, saith: "See, the Bridegroom
cometh, go forth to meet Him." In these words Jesus, our Lover,
teaches us four things. In the first word He gives a command, for He
says, "See." Those who remain blind, and those who resist this
command are condemned without exception. In the next word He shows
us what we shall see--that is to say, the coming of the Bridegroom,
when He says, "The Bridegroom cometh." In the third place, He
teaches us and commands us what we ought to do, when He says, "Go
forth." In the fourth place, when He says, "to meet Him," He shows
us the reward of all our works and of all our life, for that must be
a loving "going forth," by which we meet our Bridegroom.

We shall explain and analyse these words in three ways, first,