The Bridegroom icon, from what I've read, plays a large part in the Byzantine Rite Holy Week. Personally, I've never been so drawn to a religious image as this one. I find myself coming back to it again and again.
Last month, I found a wood-mounted print of it in a gift shop. I almost literally leaped for joy. The gift shop owner was so taken by my enthusiasm for it, she gave it to me for $20, since that's the only cash I had, and the sticker said it cost a little more.
I don't know what sorts of relationships other people have with sacred images. When I look at Our Lady of Guadalupe, I feel hope. When I look at St. Joseph, I have an enlivened sense of duty and purity.
With Christ the Bridegroom, I feel primarily love. But I also go to this icon whenever I don't know what I'm supposed to do, and as soon as I gaze at it, I know exactly what I have to do, and I feel peace about it. It embodies manhood at its fulfillment and perfection. It embodies sacrificial love. It embodies total cooperation with the will of God.
