10th Trinity August September
Luke 7, 11-17
And it came to pass that on
the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large
crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they
became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his
mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city
accompanied her.
And seeing her the Lord felt her suffering, and
said to her, “Weep no more.”
And approaching, he touched the coffin, and
pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”
The dead man sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus
gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing
there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed,
saying,
“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among
us, and God has come down to us, his people.”
Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all
of the neighboring regions.
10th August
Trinity
September 23, 2012
Luke 7: 11-17
Watching as a high diver plunges into the depths, he seems
to disappear for a time before he re-surfaces. This is the time of the year
when we are being encouraged to plunge into our own depths. And in the deepest
and darkest part of our being there lies the fear of dying.
Part of this fear comes from the body’s need to protect its
existence. But the other part comes from the soul’s fear of transformation, and the little ego’s fear of extinction. This is because in our time, the little ego is
so intensely interwoven with our bodily existence.
In today’s reading, a mother mourns because her son, a young
man, has died. His path has taken him to where we all must go—into our deepest
fear. And there he meets Christ, who calls him awake and bids him rise, to take
up his bodily existence yet again.
Thus Christ establishes a new eternal archetype: one’s self
rises and lives through its relationship to the greater Self, the I AM. Christ
calls us awake and bids us rise, both now, and after we die. In the words of a
mystic:
We awaken in Christ's body
as Christ awakens our bodies….
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ's body
where all our body, …
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly, real,
and everything … is in Him
transformed
and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.[1]
[1]
Symeon the New Theologian (949 - 1032), “We awaken in Christ's Body”,
translated by Stephen Mitchell.
