The Church is the bride of Christ
From a catechetical instruction by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop (c. 315-386)
The Church is the bride of Christ
The Catholic Church is the distinctive name of this holy Church which is the mother of us all. She is the bride of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God (for Scripture says: Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her). She is the type and she bears the image of the Jerusalem above that is free and is the mother of us all, that Jerusalem which once was barren but now has many children.
The first assembly, that is, the assembly of Israel, was rejected, and now in the second, that is, in the Catholic Church, God has appointed first, apostles, second, prophets, third, teachers then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators and speakers in various kinds of tongues, as Paul says; and together with these is found every sort of virtue – wisdom and understanding, self-control and justice, mercy and kindness, and invincible patience in persecution. With the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left, in glory and dishonor, this Church in earlier days, when persecution and afflictions abounded, crowned her holy martyrs with the varied and many-flowered wreaths of endurance. But now when God has favored us with times of peace, she receives her due honor from kings and men of high station, and from every condition and race of mankind. And while the rulers of the different nations have limits to their sovereignty, the holy Catholic Church alone has a power without boundaries throughout the entire world. For, as Scripture says: God has made peace her border.
Instructed in this holy Catholic Church and bearing ourselves honorably, we shall gain the kingdom of heaven and inherit eternal life. For the sake of enjoying this at the Lord’s hands, we endure all things. The goal set before us is no trifling one; we are striving for eternal life. In the Creed, therefore, after professing our faith, “in the resurrection of the body,” that is, of the dead, which I have already discussed, we are taught to believe “in life everlasting,” and for this as Christians we are struggling.
Now real and true life is none other than the Father, who is the fountain of life and who pours forth his heavenly gifts on all creatures through the Son in the Holy Spirit, and the good things of eternal life are faithfully promised to us men also, because of his love for us.
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Cyril (c. 315-386) was born in Jerusalem around 315 probably of Christian parents. He was raised and educated in Jerusalem and was ordained a priest by St. Maximus. He taught catechumens for several years and about 349 became bishop of Jerusalem. The early Church experienced troubled times in the years between the Council of Nicea (325) and the Council of Constantinople (381), a period torn with factionalism and the heresy of Arianism. In 378, the Council of Antioch sent St. Gregory of Nyssa to Palestine to investigate charges against Cyril over terms used in the Nicene Creed.
Gregory reported that the faith of the Church in Jerusalem and Cyril himself was orthodox. Cyril and Gregory attended the General Council of Constantinople in 381, and Cyril completely accepted the amended Nicene Creed. Cyril was a scriptural scholar, a successful preacher, and his “Catecheses” delivered during Lent in 347 gives a clear picture of the instruction given those preparing for baptism and of the Palestinian liturgy of the fourth century. “Since Christ Himself has said, “This is My Body” who shall dare to doubt that It is His Body?” Cyril died in 386 and was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1882 by Pope Leo XIII.