The Estuary of Theology 19 Challenge of John the Evangelist (2) John the Evangelist, amid persecution, hid the top-secrecy of the “my church” (cf. Matthew 16:18), namely the characteristics of the Christian priesthood, in the words, “bride” and “the disciple Jesus loved.” These words were convenient to hide it because they made people associate them with women. They were not so much off the point because the main task of the priesthood was to receive the role of the spouse of the Holy Spirit so that the Holy Eucharist, which Jesus had constituted, was born. John the Evangelist noticed that Jesus had compared himself to a bridegroom and seen his disciples as his friends invited to his wedding or his mother or his siblings. Then, he, by using the word “bride” only in his Gospel, the word Jesus had never used, tried to make Christians pay attention to the priesthood, which Jesus had prepared at the risk of his life and was essential for the Holy Spirit and the “my church.” John th