Like and Not Like a Wedding

It is like; it is not like. This might seem nothing more than pleasingly absurd verbal gymnastics, but in fact it is an excellent way of understanding consecrated religious—and, in particular, of understanding why we use terms like “bride of Christ” and “spiritual mother” to describe women who, in the everyday meaning of such terms, are clearly neither. Ever since those conversations at my profession party, the apparent paradox of religious profession being like and not like a wedding—and, by extension, religious consecration itself being like and not like marriage—has helped me and my married friends talk more constructively about our respective states of life, edging closer to comparison, withdrawing from it, and finding increasing clarity in the to-and-fro.