The answer
It is true that the Church has been called the bride of Christ, as John the Baptist put it, but all human souls have also been called the 'brides' of the Lord.
From this whole number of brides the greatest bride was made, and in the same situation and in the same sense, the Church has been called the 'Virgin'. For example, see what St Paul says: " For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. " (2 Cor. 11:2). Here the Church is the Virgin, the bride of Christ, and at the same time the Bible
speaks of every living soul as a maiden in love, saying: " Therefore the virgins love you" (Song 1:3)
Thus the fact that the Church is the bride of Christ does not preclude each living soul from being a Virgin bride to Christ, according to the Bible.
It was Christ Himself who gave us this teaching, when He said that the kingdom of heaven was like the five wise virgins who went out ready and prepared to meet the bridegroom, and so were able to enter into the wedding feast with him.
Those wise virgins are a symbol for each bride of Christ.
The Bible does not say that only one chaste virgin was betrothed to Christ, who waited for Him and entered into the wedding feast to delight herself in Him as her husband, but it uses the plural 'virgins' to stand for all human souls individually.
What is said of the Church here can apply to every person.
Every girl who dedicates herself to the Lord can call herself a bride of Christ.
The same goes for every soul that loves Him, whether male or female, they are also Christ's brides, and will wait to enter with Him into the heavenly wedding feast. We cannot strike out any soul from loving the Lord, and say that there can only be one bride for Him which is the Church.
The Song of Songs gives us the best and clearest illustration of this truth.
We cannot prevent anyone from meditating on the words of this Song, nor say to them that it only symbolises the Church and not individuals.
In actual fact, the Song of Songs contains expressions which could not possibly be applied to the Church, but when used to refer to human beings, and when seen in the context of personal relationships, become entirely appropriate, such as the words of the bride: "I slept but my heart is awake... my beloved had turned away and was gone... . I sought him, but I could not find him . " (Song 5:2,6) It would be difficult to describe the Church as sleeping or refusing to open itself to the Lord, and the Lord turning His back on her and leaving her, and then her searching for Him and not finding Him, her calling for Him and His not answering. These words are really only appropriate in the context of personal human relationships, and in particular, for people who are in a lowered or weak spiritual state.
The word 'bride' is familiar to us from the Song of Songs.
" How fair is your love, My sister, my spouse!.. Your lips, O my spouse, Drip as the honeycomb;... A garden enclosed Is my sister, my spouse, A spring shut up, A fountain sealed." (Song 4:10-12)
We observe how in these verses the word 'bride' is used without any difference and to convey the same meaning.
The words of this Song could possibly refer in some places to the Church, but in most cases it simply refers to the love between human beings.
It is difficult for us to determine the exact meaning or context of these words of the Bible.
It isn't easy for us just to draw a narrow circle around them and say: " this particular passage only has one meaning," when if we were to meditate upon it, we might find in it endless possibilities.
As an example of this there are the seven letters to the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, which are sometimes taken to be letters to specific churches during the lifetime of St John, and at other times are regarded as letters to any church at any time, which might be passing through a similar experience, and yet they can also be taken more personally, as letters addressed to all individual believers.
The word of God is limitless, and David was right when he said: " I have seen the consummation of all perfection, But Your commandment is exceedingly broad." (Ps. 119:96)
If the word 'bride' can be applied to any human being then why shouldn't it be even more appropriate to the Virgin?
Is there anything wrong with that, which should make a person get zealously worked up to attack it? That writer you mention, wastes his time writing about it, and other people's time in having to refute it! And he also raises doubts in some people's
minds, when there are subjects from the Bible that are far more essential, which need to be dealt with, either rejected or defended, and especially when the whole Bible is accused of being false or of distorting things!
Is this really so much of a problem that we need to ask wether these words refer to a human being or to the Church? Is not the human being in a sense, a Church also.
Doesn't the Bible say: " Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.. " (1 Cor. 3:16-17)
So a human being can be a small church, and from the totality of these small churches the universal Church is made up. It is the bride of Christ, and all these brides together form the largest bride of all which is the Church, the body of Christ.
It is perfectly all right for us to address each and every pure soul, and not only the Virgin Mary, with the words, 'You have found favour, O bride'.
And what about St Mary highly favoured one!
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Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda III of Blessed Memory