They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man’s, may he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted?

But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the Lord. (Jeremiah 3:1)

The doors open. “The Hymn of Joy” begins to play. All who are attending rise from their seats… angels, archangels, martyrs, confessors, heavenly friends of the Bridegroom… and enters the harlot; late.

As for her nativity, on the day she was born her navel cord was not cut, nor was she washed in water to cleanse her; she was not rubbed with salt nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied her, to do any of these things for her, to have compassion on her; but she was thrown out into the open field, when she herself was loathed on the day she was born. (Ezekiel 16:4–5)

Beside her is an empty space where her father would be to walk her down, but he isn’t there. Neither is her mother. They had forsaken her. She was an abomination to the family name.
Between her and the Bridegroom is an aisle leading up a hill. She sees drops of blood that lead up to Him. Looking up through the blur of the veil covering her face, she beholds His figure. She reaches Him, His arms stretched wide, but still, she cannot make out His Face.
It’s time for the vows. He begins:

I wash you in water; yes, I thoroughly wash off your blood, and I anoint you with oil. I clothe you with fine linen and cover you with silk. I adorn you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck… Your fame goes out among the nations because of your beauty, for it is perfect through My splendor which I bestow on you. (Ezekiel 16)

I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy; (Hosea 2:19)

She takes a deep breath, unable to meet His vows with anything even close to the extreme, intimate, and perfect Love He displayed. It’s her turn to make her vows.

I trust in my own beauty, play the harlot because of my fame, and pour out my harlotry on everyone passing by who will have it. I take some of my garments and adorn multicolored high places for myself, and play the harlot on them. I have also taken my beautiful jewelry from Your gold and Your silver, which You give me, and make for myself male images and play the harlot with them… and so it is… (Ezekiel 16)

“Do You, O Bridegroom, take this harlot, to be Your wife?”
“I do.”
She’s shocked. He knows of her unfaithfulness, and yet He says yes?
“And do You, O harlot, take this Bridegroom, to be your husband?”
How can she refuse this offer? What man, in any universe, knowing the pain she would inflict upon him with her harlotry, would love her unconditionally as this perfect Man has vowed? What man would vow to heal her and clean her filth after her return from her other lovers? She knows there exists no other Love in the world as Him.

When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Do not hide Your face from me… When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me. (Psalms 27)

“I do.”
Not only does she long to see His face, but He longs to see hers.

“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.” (Song of Songs 2:14)

Suddenly the veil is torn.

“Yes, the veil is torn, for things of heaven are being revealed, rocks split, and dead men have an earlier awakening.” -Gregory the theologian.

Looking straight ahead, she sees her Bridegroom’s feet. They’re nailed to the wood of the cross. As she raises her eyes upwards, she beholds the face of the One whom her soul longs for. Tired, and hung low.
What she entered into as her wedding feast, she realized, is Her Bridegroom’s crucifixion. For they are one and the same.
The wedding feast is the crucifixion. The hill which she climbed as her aisle, Golgotha. And the blood drops on the way, her Beloved’s love letters to her. This Union was only made possible in a ceremony of this sort. Not in a palace adorned with flowers, but outside the city on a bloody hill. Not to a man dressed in his finest suit, but to One stripped naked and hung on wood.

“He bows his head, as if to kiss you. His heart is made bare open, as it were, in love to you… He was once fixed to the cross in every part of his body for you, so he may now be fixed in every part of your soul.”— St. Augustine of Hippo

“Indeed we do come to You, for You are the Lord our God… Truly, in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. (Jeremiah 3:23)