"Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven..."
+ The Lord's Prayer
I think in our fallen state there is a divide between intent and action, that things separate and create dischord and distress. This is a diabolical work that afflicts our fallen state and what Fr Stephen Freeman defines as the "two storey universe."
In contrast and in total rejection of this diabolical tendency, the Church witnesses and shows the world something else. What she, the Body of Christ has affirmed, what she professes is...union*, the union and restoration of humanity and all of creation into its proper place.
[* unity in its proper state, not fallen or idolatrous unity but rather unity from above which "is a unity neither extracted from the world nor reduced to its level." ie. refer to Schmemann's The Eucharist, 147]
St Ignatius, one of the early Church Fathers says...
"I pray for a union both of the flesh and spirit of Jesus Christ, the constant source of our life, and of faith and love, to which nothing is to be preferred, but especially of Jesus and the Father."
+ St Ignatius of Antioch
St Maximos echoes this by saying...
"...the holy Church of God is an image of God because it realizes the same union of the faithful with God. As different as they are by language, places, and customs, they are made one by it through faith. God realizes this union among the natures of things without confusing them but in lessening and bringing together their distinction, as was shown, in a relationship and union with himself as cause, principle, and end."
+ St Maximos the Confessor, Chapter 1, The Church's Mystagogy, in "Maximos the Confessor Selected Writings" (New York: Paulist Press, 1985) 188.
"there is but one world and it is not divided by its parts."
Chapter 2, The Church's Mystagogy, 189.
"God’s holy church in itself is a symbol of the sensible world as such, since it possesses the divine sanctuary as heaven and the beauty of the nave as earth. Likewise the world is a church since it possesses heaven corresponding to a sanctuary, and for a nave it has the adornment of the earth."
Chapter 3, The Church's Mystagogy, 189.
and Fr Alexander Schmemann mentions...
God has saved the world. He saved it in that he again revealed its goal', the kingdom of God; its life', to be the path to this kingdom; its meaning', to be in communion with God, and in him with all creation. And therefore, in contrast to the pagan “sanctification,” which consists in the sacralization of separate parts and objects of the world, the Christian sanctification consists in the restoration to everything in the world of its symbolic nature, its “sacramentality,” in referring everything to the ultimate aim of being. All our worship services therefore are an ascent to the altar and a return back to “this world” for witness to “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Co 2:9).
+ Fr Alexander Schmemann, The Eucharist, 61.
What all three have mentioned about holiness and the world is affirmed and expressed in the rites of the Church. For example in the Orthodox Matrimonial Liturgy in the Coptic Rite there is a crowning with prayers that speak specifically about this unity.
O lord, Who art Holy, Who crownest Thy saints with unfading crowns, Who united in one the heavenly and the earthly, bless now, O our Master, these crowns, which we have prepared to set upon Thy servants. Let them be unto them crowns of glory and honour;
The particular mention of Christ's salvific act of uniting and restoring heaven with earth is quite interesting as the themes resonate with Eucharist and with the union of God and man that Eucharist affirms. We hear this same theme resonated in the feast of Pentecost:
He made the two into one, that is, heaven and the earth. He ascended into the heavens and sent to us the Paraclete , Spirit of truth , [the Comforter]. Amen. Alleluia."
+ Orthodox Hymn Asomen (Let us Praise), Feast of Pentecost, Coptic Rite
In marriage a couple is called to become an icon of the Holy Trinity, a witness of restoration, of a drawing back to God in the intended natural state, of love lived and encountered. All who are in Christ are called to participate in His divine life through grace.
"You have reconciled the earthly with the heavenly and made the two into one, and fulfilled the economy in the flesh. And at Your Ascension into the heavens in the body, having filled all with Your divinity, You said to Your holy disciples and apostles, “My peace I give to you; My peace I leave with you.”
+ The Prayer of Reconciliation to the Son, Divine Liturgy of St Gregory, Coptic Rite
It appears that in the Liturgical movements of the Church several things are being imparted and are being called to attention. First that the marriage is not merely a blessing and a sanction but an affirmation of what should be, that in the marriage humanity is restored, male and female are restored to their proper relationship IN Christ. Second, the marriage is also iconologically linked to the Divine Marriage of God to Man (Anthropos). Thirdly, both of these 'marriages' are symbolized and actualized in a crowning.
"In a way, the first part of the ceremony — the betrothal, with the exchange of rings — is like any wedding, whether Christian or not. The second part of the service — the crowning — is the sacramental action that makes the wedding truly Christian, truly a means of participating in the life of the heavenly Kingdom."
The Coptic New Year (Nayrouz) expresses this in a hymn of crowns that the congregation prays: "Bless the crown of the year with Your goodness, O Lord..."
All of creation is crowned by the Church, the Church is the world's crowning. Every moment and every day, every year and every place is to be Crowned, has been Crowned and will be Crowned by Christ's Cross and Resurrection. The fallen bride is raised and healed as the Church, the restored Bride of Christ.
Marriage is a symbol for Crowning and Crowning is a symbol for Marriage. Through this marriage that is a crown, the Church and her members are brought into sonship and in the inheritance of Christ that befits those who are the Bride of the Bridegroom.
He has inherited him in heaven and he has inherited him on earth. The Lord becomes his inheritance and he becomes the inheritance of the Lord."
+ St Macarius the Great
"But watch, entreating that you may meet Christ the Lord with rich oil, and He may grant you the wedding of His true and heavenly glory."
+ From the Litanies of the First Watch of the Midnight Prayer, Agpeya, Coptic Rite
"Therefore let us also be vigilant, we who are called to an unseen martyrdom so as to receive the crowns of sanctification."
+ St Isaac the Syrian
This marriage of Heaven and Earth, this kenotic marriage, this union of man to God through grace can be considered THE crowning achievement. A crowning that resonates with the first crowning that occurred in the beginning when God created man in His image and likeness, and which will continue into eternity when God willing all of us who are wedded to Christ, as the Body of Christ, humble and holy, will see Him face to face (1 Cor 13).
"Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure’—for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”
+ Revelation 19:7-8
