Friday, April 08, 2016
Jan Elvee––painting; Symeon the New Theologian
Painting by Jan Elvee named "Jesus"
We Awaken in Christ's Body
by Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022)
We awaken in Christ’s body
As Christ awakens in our bodies,
And my poor hand is Christ. He enters
My foot and is infinitely me.
I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him.
I move my foot, and at once
He appears like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? Then
Open your heart to Him!
And let yourself receive the one
Who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
we wake up inside Christ’s body
where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him,
and He makes us, utterly real,
and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Him transformed
and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
we awaken as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.
