Having provided more than enough arguments for consideration of the problem in the liturgical key, let’s try to solve this problem from the point of view of moral and biblical theology.”
The mystery of the union of God and man in Holy Scripture is symbolically expressed through the image of the marriage between the bride and groom. The symbolism of the marital union of God and man permeates the entire Scripture. This is particularly vividly expressed in the letter to the Ephesians, in the fifth chapter: “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:22-25). “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:31-32). The Kingdom of God is often depicted as a wedding banquet, a supper. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son” (Matthew 22:2; Luke 14:16). And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?” (Matthew 9:15). “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom” (Matthew 25:1). “The bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast” (Matthew 25:10). “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). In the Old Testament, Israel is God’s bride, and the Lord is the Bridegroom: Song of Solomon 4:8, 4:9, 4:10, 5:1; Isaiah 49:18; Jeremiah 2:32; Joel 2:16. God is a jealous God for the people of Israel because Israel commits adultery with pagan gods: Exodus 20:5, 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24, 5:9, 6:15; Joshua 24:19; Nahum 1:2. Israel is portrayed as a harlot: Isaiah 23:16; Ezekiel 16:30, 16:31, 16:33, 16:35. The entire Book of the Song of Solomon is dedicated to the divine eros of God towards man. Throughout the Bible, the theme of divine eros of God towards man and the tragedy and triumph of the human heart’s response, gratitude to God’s love, runs deep. For further reading, the reader is referred to the books: St. Gregory of Nyssa: “Commentary on the Song of Solomon”; Christos Yannaras: “Variations on the Theme of the Song of Songs”; Paul Evdokimov: “The Frenzy of God’s Love.”
We have shown that the Kingdom of God is a bridal chamber where God is the bridegroom, and man the bride. The Eucharist is indeed the Sacrament of the Kingdom, that chamber where God and man become one. We have not forgotten what our goal of all these digressions is: to show that the Liturgy of the faithful and all other sacraments absolutely cannot be filmed or photographed. The Liturgy is an act of the highest intimacy, that moment where Two (God and man) become one. In such an act of love, there is no room for shame or propriety, only an endless impulse of self-sacrifice to the Other. To better understand this analogy, consider a typical wedding. Initially, there is the wedding banquet where, in front of everyone, the young couple may even kiss to the chants of “bitter” (comparable to the Liturgy of the Catechumens and the preparation period for any sacrament). But there comes a moment when the best man (witness) takes the young couple to the wedding room, while he remains outside guarding the door to ensure no one disrupts their profound, mysterious meeting in divine marital love (this is the Liturgy of the faithful, where there are no strangers, only Christ and the Church (Eph. 5:32); and we hear: Doors, doors…). The allegory of erotic union into a single God-man flesh of God and man, which occurs at the Eucharist, points to the upper room, where the resurrected Lord enters to meet the apostles sitting behind closed doors… (cf. the beginning of the archbishop’s service).
Thus, a video camera at the Liturgy of the faithful is like surveillance in the bridal chamber of the groom and bride, filming their first wedding night! How would the virtuous newlyweds behave, knowing they are being watched?! Could the newlyweds agree to the filming of their intimate union?! Therefore, if the sacraments involve not legal acts, but ontological and existential ones, the reality of meeting and union in an intimate act of God and a Christian (“the moment of touching the Divine”)… what can be the “propriety of members” of the entire being at that moment of meeting?.. No one else but someone who has known love – a Christian, not a witness but a participant in the Sacrament of Love, can witness this loving exposure of the Christian soul before God!
Sexual life is legally possible only after marriage! Although there are teachings about sexual life, no one peeks at the act itself, whether on television, in photographs, or directly, if they want to remain integral, preserving virtue. Let the reader draw further conclusions themselves.