Winter 1998

The Nuptial Mystery at the Heart of the Church

Angelo Scola

"'[M]ystery' does not designate the Unknown, but rather the One who communicates himself in a real way, remaining veiled in order to involve human freedom in a dynamic of fruitful love."

I. Nuptiality and the "Debate Concerning the Humanum"

 

"The only analogy nature seems to offer to the intimacy with the divine truth is the union of the sexes, though the analogy holds only if we omit the time interval between the union of the two persons in one flesh and its result in the birth of a child."1 The attempt to grasp this assertion by Balthasar—which at first seems paradoxical—gives us a way into our theme, namely, the nuptial mystery at the heart of the Church.

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1. H.U. von Balthasar, Prayer (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1961), 64.