"Why Are You Terrified?"

Jesus and the Apostles were out at sea. Jesus was catching up on some well-deserved sleep when a violent storm hit, so violent that the boat began taking on water. Jesus kept right on sleeping - until the Apostles woke him, screaming, "Don't you care that we are perishing?" Jesus rose, "rebuked" the wind and sea and then spun to face the Apostles, "Why were you terrified?  Do you not yet have faith?" (Mark 4:40).

After having been with Him, after seeing Him heal and cast out devils, after hearing His proclamation of the Father's great love for them, Jesus was shocked by the Apostles' abject terror. They had yet to look at the world through His eyes and to understand that nothing outside of them had the power to snatch them from the Father's hand - not even death. They would not understand until Jesus had been raised and the Spirit poured out on Pentecost.

In the light of Christ's Resurrection, the Apostles finally saw the world as it was: under the Lord's dominion. Nothing is outside His power. Yes, men can commit gross evils, but only because God allows them to exercise their freewills. And, the divine power can turn evil back upon itself with a simple command. The rulers of this world crucified the Lord Jesus; but the Father raised Him and Christ now sits enthroned at His right hand, ready to judge the living and the dead (Acts 2:23-24, 36). That is reality.

Our culture is disintegrating. Our brothers and sisters in the Middle East and Africa are persecuted and killed, and some form of persecution seems to loom on the horizon for us (in addition to that already occurring in academia and the court of public opinion). But I hear the Lord say, "Why are you terrified?"; and I remember the reality to which Jesus witnessed to before Pilate, and Peter and John before the Sanhedrin:

[Pilate said,] "Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:10-11). 

[The Sanhedrin] called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:18-20).

We follow Jesus, Who had power to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10:18), and Who has promised to raise us up, too (John 6:40). What do men and women who have been promised a resurrection from the dead have to fear?  I hate to insert Star Wars into such a serious post, but Obi Wan Kenobi's words to Vader at their final duel capture this truth perfectly: "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."What can possibly terrify a Christian? Nothing, except allowing ourselves to be robbed of that transformation and eternal treasure. We must continue praying for the grace to persevere and not give into a fear of pain. We must pray, so that

...we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:16-18)

This reality should fill us with a deep, authentic joy. Thank You, Lord. 

Of Swaddling Clothes and Grave Wrappings

Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. John, Apostle and Evangelist, the "disciple whom Jesus loved."  Today's Gospel reading came from the end of John's Gospel, from his Resurrection narrative.  It may seem a strange choice for the Christmas season, but while at Mass I recognized a profound symmetry at work.  Let me share a couple of lines with you:

"They both ran, but the other disciple [John] outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping down to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.  Then Simon Peter came ... and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on [Jesus'] head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.  Then the other disciple [John], who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed." (John 20:4-8)

For John, seeing Jesus' discarded burial wrappings was a sign; it allowed him to grasp the truth that Jesus had been raised.  This takes us right back to the shepherds at the time of Jesus' birth.  The angel said, "This will be a sign for you; you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."  For both John and the shepherds the wrappings acted as a sign.  For the shepherds it was Jesus' presence in the bands; but for John, His absence.  And both signs occurred in caves to which the men had been sent - the first was the cave of the Nativity, and the second was the rock-hewn tomb. In the first Jesus had been laid in a manger, most likely also carved from rock; and in the second Jesus' body rose from the rock slab on which it had been lain. I of course am not the first to see this; you can find it woven into the icon of the Nativity at left.  God's sense of symmetry is truly beyond words.

ABC's "Resurrection" and "THE Resurrection"

The fist episode of ABC's Resurrection wrapped up about 20 minutes ago, and I am already eagerly awaiting the next. Anyone who truly knows me will tell you that I love my Sci-Fi (not "putting on costumes and attending conventions" love it; but "I've seen every episode, and every movie, of everything worth seeing, and thought about it more than I will ever admit" love it). This new fictional series imagines what would happen if the deceased residents of a small town (Arcadia, MO) started returning, bodily returning, to their loved ones.  The mystery of course is how they are returning. The first episode focused on an eight year old boy, Jacob Langston.  Jacob, who had drowned 32 years before, woke up in rice paddy field in China, with no understanding of how he got there; and made his way home to the parents who had gradually learned to live with his death.  Fascinating premise, well-written, well-acted; it's my kind of Sci-Fi.  And even better, it's an easy segue to talking about the Faith.

What this series terms "resurrection," is actually either resuscitation  or reincarnation. Resuscitation is when medical personnel revive someone who has died; while reincarnation is the belief that the soul, or consciousness, can be transferred from one body to another. (From ABC's previews, it looks like the consciousness of the dead has been transferred into bodies that are flawless reproductions of their original bodies.)  

Of course, this is nothing like what we Christians mean when, every Sunday, we say in the Nicene Creed, "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead."  Our Faith is that we will be resurrected in the same manner as Jesus. Jesus was not simply resuscitated; and the body in which He showed Himself to the Apostles was the same one in which He had been crucified.  It was the same body, but "glorified," transformed, raised to a higher state of life.  It does not belong to this fallen world, but is a first glimpse of the new world, the impassible world, to be inaugurated at Christ's return.  That is what we Christians are talking about when we say, "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come"!  (For those who would like to go deepr, here is a good reflection on the nature of the resurrected body by Monsignor Charles Pope.)

Jesus in the Old Testament, From A to Z

My favorite Easter story has always been when Jesus appeared incognito to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. After listening to them share their disappointment over how His ministry ended and their bewilderment at the news Mary Magdalen and the other women brought about His Resurrection, Jesus took them to task, "'How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Lk.24:25-27).  Below are some of the passages our Lord would have showed them:

A.        First Promise of Redeemer (Genesis 3:15)

B.        Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-20)

C.        Sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22:1-18)

·         Isaac is his “one and only son”

·         Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice on his own shoulders

·         “God himself will provide the lamb for the sacrifice”

·         A ram is provided instead – a temporary substitute

·         Abraham named that place “The Lord will provide”

·         At some point in Abraham’s future a sacrificial lamb would be provided on that mountain (at the time of Jesus the region wasn’t known as “Moriah” but was the region of Jerusalem)

D.       Celebration of the Passover (Exodus 12:1-3, 6-8, 11-13)

·         Blood on doorposts and lintel (trace sign of cross)

·         Israelites had to EAT the lamb

·         If they didn’t eat the lamb then they would be struck down with the Egyptians

E.        Manna from Heaven (Exodus 16:1-4) / Water from the rock (Exodus 17:3-6)

F.         Sealing the Covenant / Covenant Meal (Ex.24:3-9)

G.       Daily Offering (Exodus 29:28-42)

H.       The Prophet (Deuteronomy 18:18-19)

I.          The Everlasting Kingdom (2 Samuel 7:8-17)

J.          Messiah (Psalm 110:1-4)

K.         “My God, My God” (Psalm 22:1, 7-8, 16-18, 23-28)

·         Jesus’ prayer on Cross

·         Gambling for his garments

·         Pierced hands and feet

·         Saved and offers thanksgiving (eucharist) sacrifice

L.         Resurrection (Psalm 16:8-11)

M.     Third Day (Hosea 6:1-2)

N.        Suffering / Resurrected Servant (Isaiah, Chp.53)

O.       Servant will bring Salvation to Gentiles (Isaiah, 49:5-6)

P.        Messiah to Regather God’s people from Gentiles (Jeremiah 23:3-8)

Q.       New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

R.        New Covenant / Cleansing Water/ Gift of Spirit (Ezekiel 36:24-27)

S.         Messiah to Rule Forever (Ezekiel 37:22-27) 

T.        Those Marked with Sign of Cross will be Saved (Ezekiel 9:2-6)

U.       Guilt of Land removed in a single day (Zechariah 3:8-9)

V.        Look on Him Whom They Pierced / Cleansing Water (Zechariah 12:10; 13:1)

W.     Ruler to be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2-5)

X.        The Messenger/”The Lord” will purify Temple (Malachi 3:1-5)

Y.        Righteous Man (son of God) condemned to torture and death (Wisdom 2:12-20)

Z.        Son of Man (Daniel 7:13-14)

0.34 Seconds - That's All It Takes

0.34 Seconds - the time it takes to blink your eye; that's as quickly as everything can change for the better.  When I prayed the Rosary this morning, I meditated on Jesus' Resurrection, putting myself in his tomb.  One second He was there, wrapped in His shroud.  And in the next second, with a brilliant flash of light, the shroud lay flat on the stone slab; He was gone.  That's how quickly God can change defeat into victory.  

We have little glimpses of this throughout life.  Think of those times when the phone has rang with a surprise invitation, or you ran into someone you hadn't seen in months; or you got an email out of the blue.  One moment everything was moving along as ho-hum as usual and then boom - you're like a rocket shooting into the stratosphere.  Life is not just one long struggle, carrying the Cross up Calvary; it's also shot through with these experiences of the Resurrection -and we never know when the Lord will surprise us next.

What we know for sure is that each second brings us closer to that instant when "we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed" (1 Cor. 15:51-52).

Confused By the Accounts of Jesus' Resurrection?

I can understand that.  When you put the Resurrection accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John side-by-side you will notice discrepancies.  (Click one of the above links to open that gospel's account of the Resurrection.)  But these are apparent, and not actual discrepancies.

In the The God Who is Love, I wrote about several of the events that God used to shape my life.  From time to time I felt the need to streamline anecdotes.  There were details that weren't needed to come to my point and I felt that, had I included them, they would have weighed the story down unnecessarily.  (Readers want something that reads smoothly - not a story constantly interrupted to fill in this or that detail or piece of background info.) Everything I wrote was true; but it wasn't as full of an account as I could have written.  That gave me a new appreciation for the way the four gospels narrate the same events from Jesus' life in different ways.

Looking at the four accounts of Jesus' Resurrection, I would like to suggest a chronology for the events of Easter morning that, if kept in the back of your mind, will resolve the apparent discrepancies.  In a nutshell, I think that the women who visited Jesus tomb that morning went back and forth between it and the apostles more than once:

1.    Jesus rose from the dead.
2.    The guards outside the tomb fled.
3.    The women (Mary Magdalene,  Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna, and one or more  unnamed women) arrived at the tomb to annoint Jesus' Body, but found it empty.
4.    The women ran to the apostles to alert them that someone had stolen the Body.
5.     Peter and John raced to the tomb, saw the grave wrappings, and left.
6.     The women returned to the tomb and saw angels inside.  The angels announced Jesus' Resurrection.
7.     The women were frightened by the angels' appearance but (possibly after a delay) set out to carry the announcement to the apostles, when Jesus appeared to them.
8.     The women reported all of this to the apostles but were not believed.
9/10 Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus.  He also appeared to Peter.
11.    Jesus appeared to the apostles and disciples gathered in the upper room.

Each of the gospel writers streamlined these events in different ways - omitted one or more of the numbered events, or omitted one or more characters (human and angelic) in their telling of an event. The accounts do not disagree with each other but each is fragmentary.  None of the gospels claim to give an exhaustive account.  Quite to the contrary; John's Gospel plainly says, "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (Jn.20:30-31).  

When you listen to the Gospel readings at Easter time, keep the eleven points above in your mind to see if it helps.  I would of course love to hear your thoughts about my stab at reconstructing the sequence of events that first Easter morning.

Resurrection & The New Moses

I have always found it curious that Matthew's Gospel omits Jesus' appearances in Jerusalem following His Resurrection and focus instead on Galilee.  When the women ran from his empty tomb to tell the apostles, "Jesus met them and said 'Hail!'  And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped Him.  Then Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see Me" (Mt.28:9-10).  No narrative of Jesus appearing to the Eleven in the Upper Room or on the road to Emmaus; Matthew simply continues: 

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.  And when they saw Him they worshiped Him; but some doubted.  And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Mt.28:16-20)

What is Matthew up to?  He was clearly aware of prior appearances of Jesus to the Eleven (Jesus had directed them to a specific mountain in Galilee, something not part of His message to the women; so Jesus appeared to the Eleven while still in Jerusalem) and yet Matthew felt compelled to get to this mountain and Jesus "Great Commission."  Why?

I put that question to the Lord the other day.  I had just finished my re-reading of Matthew, recalled being puzzled by this before, and thought, "I'm just going to ask the primary author!"  (The beauty of reading Scripture is that the same Spirit Who inspired it lives within us!)  And as I simply began to think about Matthew and his Gospel, I recalled the significance of the mountain.  

I would suggest that it is the same Galilean mountain spoken of in Matthew 5:1, "Seeing the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain and when He sat down His disciples came to him.  And He opened His mouth and taught them ..."  The three chapters following that introduction make up the Sermon on the Mount, where Matthew reveals Jesus as the New Moses, completing and deepening the Law that Moses was given atop Mount Sinai.  Again and again we hear Jesus cite the Mosaic Law, "You have heard that it was said ... but I say to you ...," one example being "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'  But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt.5:27-28).  

I believe that Matthew places the emphasis on Jesus' Resurrection appearances in Galilee to drive home His identity as the prophesied New Moses (Deut.18:19-20), dispatching the New Law from His Galilean Sinai, "All authority in heaven and on earth given to Me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them ... teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold I am with you always, to the end of the age."  Now that's a Gospel, that's "Good News"!  Amen?

 

The Eucharist and the Assumption

The kids and I came back from celebrating Our Lady's Assumption at Mass a few minutes ago, and I had to share a thought that passed through my mind after receiving Jesus in the Eucharist.  I was thinking about the way Jesus shared the glory of His resurrection with Mary when I remembered these words from John Paul II's encyclical Ecclesia De Eucharistia:

Those who feed on Christ in the Eucharist need not wait until the hereafter to receive eternal life: they already possess it on earth, as the first-fruits of a future fullness which will embrace man in his totality. For in the Eucharist we also receive the pledge of our bodily resurrection at the end of the world: “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:54). This pledge of the future resurrection comes from the fact that the flesh of the Son of Man, given as food, is His body in its glorious state after the resurrection. With the Eucharist we digest, as it were, the “secret” of the resurrection. ”

Mary is the first member of the Church to experience the full unfolding of Jesus' resurrected life within her, but the Lord intends it for every one of us who receives Him as the Bread of Life!  No matter what condition our bodies are in at the moment, how much pain or illness they carry, we have already received the Seed that will renew our bodies and introduce us into the life of glory.

The only truly "God-forsaken" place on earth

Alright, the title is a bit of literary flourish - it got your attention though, didn't it?  Because of God's immanence He is present to us absolutely anywhere.  I'm looking to get at another deep truth in this post though, one that a pastor shared with me twenty some years ago, and that returned to me while praying the Rosary last night:

Innermost chamber of Jesus' tomb

I was fourteen years old, just a year into seriously trying to live as a disciple.  My parish's new pastor, Fr. Bernard Wilkins, gave a slideshow presentation of his pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  I will never forget what he said when he came to Jesus' tomb within the Holy Sepulchre, "I put my head in to look and emerged . . . disappointed.  I realized that I had been expecting, at least unconsciously, to experience Jesus' presence there, but I felt nothing.  Then it occurred to me, 'the tomb is the one place you won't find Him'!"  Perhaps it was his guardian angel, repeating the question posed by his angelic comrades on the morning of the Resurrection, "Why do you seek the Living One among the dead?  He is not here, but has risen!" (Lk.24:5).

The Resurrection, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, is what transformed the Apostles into men of boldness.  The same Jesus Who had been raised to life after suffering death lived within them.  They were not crippled by threats of financial hardship, physical suffering, or martyrdom because they knew that "He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom.8:11).

Jesus' empty tomb is what allows us, today, to say, "If God is for us, then who cares who's against us?"  (my paraphrase of Rom.8:31)

Are You Body Conscious?

Who isn't, right?  I feel it every day when I go to the pool.  After my swim today though, as I was sitting poolside and letting the kids play, I experienced a different kind of "body consciousness."  I was praying the Glorious Mysteries and realized that it had been awhile since I had really been struck by the awesomeness of Jesus' Resurrection.  The Lord that I am praying too is not just spirit, He is flesh and blood!  He is physically alive, like me - well, more than me! 


The day will come when He will share this bodily resurrection with all of us.  The Blessed Mother already experiences it; that's what the Assumption was about.  It wasn't enough for Jesus that His Mother experience eternal life in her spirit; He wanted her to experience it in her body - the same body that carried him to term, nursed him, and served him in hundreds of thousands of ways during earthly life.  And that's what He is going to do for you and me too.

These truths get at the value we Christians attribute to the body.  Don't confuse Christians' talk about bodily health and fitness with society's worship of the body. Catholicism knows that we are, to use Aquinas' terminology, hylomorphic beings. We are a union of body and soul; that's our human nature.  Jesus saved us by offering Himself to the Father in both, not one or the other; and we are responsible to God for the care of both. "The flesh is the hinge of salvation" (CCC 1015). As Paul put it, "I drive my body and train it, for fear that, after having preached to others, I myself should be disqualified" (1 Cor.9:27).  Our cognizance of the importance of the body can even be seen in how we express salvation - it's not a matter of "faith alone" but of faith (interior) and works (exterior).  That's the big picture, the "full, body shot" if you will (James 2:14-20); and it's Good News.

I want to recognize my body and those of others for the gifts they are - allowing us, like Jesus, to express our love for God and others.  No need to fret over what people are thinking when they see me at the pool; that's such a myopic view of the value of our bodies, and I want the joy of God's big picture.

Rosary during the Week of Easter

Easter is such a tremendous Mystery that the Church actually takes eight days to unpack it.  That's right, liturgically, Easter continues through next Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday.  When I prayed the Rosary today I devoted all five of the mysteries to different aspects of the Resurrection accounts:

1.  The earthquake and descent of an angel to roll back the stone.  The Roman soldiers flee.  The women come to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body and are told of the Resurrection by the angel (Matthew)
2.  Peter and John, told of the empty tomb by the women, race to investigate it.  John looks in and believes, but Peter goes away wondering (John's Gospel).
3.  Mary Magdalene weeping at the tomb, asks the "gardener" where he has moved Jesus' body.  Jesus reveals Himself by speaking her name (John).
4.  On the road to Emmaus, Jesus opens the Scriptures to Cleopas and another disciple.  He opens their eyes to recognize Him in the Breaking of the Bread (Luke).
5.  When those two disciples return to tell the apostles that Jesus has been raised, the Lord then appears to the whole group (Luke).  He breathes on them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  Anyone whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.  Anyone whose sins you hold bound are held bound" (John).

Happy Easter!

More on Jesus' Baptism

I've written before about Jesus' death being foreshadowed in His baptism, but it wasn't until praying the Rosary a few nights ago that I also saw His resurrection there. The death is in the going down into the water, but the resurrection in the coming up into the presence of the Spirit and the voice of the Father. St. Paul even did the leg work for us, linking the resurrection to the Spirit and God [the Father's] declaration. Paul wrote that Jesus was "designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). I can't believe how dense I am not to have recognized this before, especially when I've taught on the symbolism of death and resurrection in regards to our baptisms!

We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

It's all in Your perspective

"You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives." (Luke 21:16-19)

The Lord Jesus - talking to his apostles about what lies ahead in their mission. The Lord Jesus - talking to you and me. Thanks Lord for putting it in perspective for me. I can be put to death, but you will raise me up; in being put to death, not a single hair will be lost, because you will give it back to me. I have to stand in awe that Jesus can bring us to this kind of vision of life and world, to see and have conviction about what are eyes don't register. That's gift, pure and simple. Have a good Thanksgiving everybody.

The Fire of "Twilight"

Well, the fourth book in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight- series actually, Breaking Dawn. That’s right, I too partook of the forbidden fruit (note the cover art). I really enjoyed reading these books, and there’s a lot that could be said from the faith-angle; but tonight I’m sticking with the themes of fire and the resurrection/glorified body.

SPOILERS ABOUND – you have been warned.
In book four, Bella finally became the bloodsucker she’d always hoped to be. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill, B-movie bloodsuckers though. The vampires of Twilight, while being blood-drinkers, are creatures of light. That’s right – in sunlight they become luminous; like a diamond, their skin refracts light. But I digress. The agent of Bella’s transformation was venom from the teeth of her beloved, very-pretty-yet-masculine-vampire Edward.
What I found so fascinating was the way the venom worked: it coursed through Bella’s body, an unseen, transforming fire. She felt as if she had been taken out of time; nothing existed but the fire. Her weakness and imperfections were re-cast as the fire methodically worked its way through her, the flames finally drawing in to focus upon her heart. And then she awoke, as if seeing reality for the first time.

That’s purgatory – an encounter with “God, [Who] is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). It can take place completely in this life, or it can be finished after our death; it all depends on how much we cooperate in the process. Two blogs back, I referenced 1 Peter 1:7, where we’re given the image of God refining us like gold in fire. He visits us in trials, allowing them to bring imperfections to the surface. And then with God’s grace we deal with them. We allow the Holy Spirit, often imaged by fire, to purify and transform us. God has to “pry us open” and deal with what we keep hidden in the depths of our souls. Jesus was adamant that “from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man” (Mark 7:21-23). When we shed our bodies at death do the impurities, the imperfections in our capacity to love, just disappear? If they are in the heart, and we take that with us, then no – and thus the need for an encounter with the fire of God’s Love after death. The Apostle Paul spoke of such a purification accompanying our judgment, “the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).

And this brings me to my next point – Bella’s new vampiric life as an image of resurrection and the glorification of the body. I was struck by how similar this “new” Bella was to the risen Jesus. First, there’s the subtlety of the body – to think is to move; there’s no more friction between mind (spirit) and matter. Bella’s senses are sharpened and integrated by a new mental agility – she recognizes beauty even in whirling specks of dust. The speed with which she moves reminds me of Jesus, appearing and disappearing as He chose. And then there’s Bella’s changed appearance – even her own father needed reassurance that it was really her. We see something similar in the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. He appeared and spoke with people who had known Him in his former life; but they didn’t recognize Him, until He desired them to (Luke 24:16; John 20:14). The prior form is there, but it has been changed. The beauty of the soul, and the beauty of God within the human soul, must show through the body in a new way. The ability to disclose ourselves to another must become dependent on something more than our appearance registering with their ocular nerve and cerebral cortex. (There’s mystery here to be sure – can’t wait to discover the answer!)

The other thing that strikes me is how Bella’s metamorphosis allows her to interact with Edward on a completely different level. It wasn’t until Bella was transformed that she could really engage Edward physically. They had married, and they had consummated that union; but Edward was always having to hold back, unable to unleash the full force of his passion because Bella was simply too fragile to handle it. There’s something to be said there about our relationship with God. In the beginning, He may seem to treat us with kid gloves. But as we progress, as we begin to mature, He begins calling us to embrace more and more of the Cross – for virtue to grow and be solidified through trial. When we read the saints, we catch glimpses of how each step on the road to Heaven brought deeper, more intense experiences of God’s presence. Like Bella, they found themselves bruised at times – but they “hardened” (becoming, in fact, more and more tender) and able to engage God as slightly more mature children. Their vision is sharpened, and they see the world a bit more clearly – sharing the gaze of its Maker. Don’t you get the feeling that when Mother Teresa looked at a street in Calcutta, she saw something there that escapes you and I? Rest assured, now that her transformation is complete, she sees even more.

By our being fused to the humanity of Jesus, we "participate in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4) ! Saints have used the image of a piece of iron, plunged into a fire: even though it remains iron, it takes on the "nature," the characteristics and properties of the fire - its heat and color. Jesus has opened up a new way of being human. Listen to how St. Paul describes Jesus' Church, His Spouse; she is "the fullness of Him Who fills the universe" (Ephesians 1:23). The Church, joined eternally to Jesus, is "Christ come to full stature" (Ephesians 4:13). In Jesus, we will be engulfed in God's Fiery Love, in God Himself! "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Jesus appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).

Now, still to consider: Why does our agnostic vampire, Edward, have such strong convictions about right and wrong, virtue and vice?

NOTE: A slightly adapted form of this post appeared on Catholic Exchange, Dec.26th, 2009.

A Slap in the Face!

What else can you call it? He left without a word. Personally, I think it's pretty freakin' cool.

Those were my thoughts while praying the Rosary and meditating on Jesus' resurrection. I wanted to picture Him strolling through the door of the tomb victorious, but that isn't what the Gospels give us. No, the women were there to anoint His Body, the angel rolled away the stone...and nothing. It's like Death and the Grave weren't worthy enough foes to waste a second of His time gloating. Jesus was just gone - going about business (actually pronounced BID-nis) .

I remember listening to a sermon when I was a teenager. Our parish priest had visited the Holy Sepulcher years before, the church built over the site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. He had gone expecting to "find the Lord" there, only to be bitterly disappointed. He bent down to gaze into the tomb...but felt nothing. And then the truth hit him - that tomb is the one place you won't find Him!

Note: No person was actually slapped in the writing of this blog, it was simply the goofiest pic I could find.

The Single Most Important Word in Human History?

My vote is for "Mary," And here's why:
Mary [Magdalene] stood weeping outside the tomb...she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus...Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rab-bo'ni!" (which means Teacher)" (John 20:11-16).

That one word, that simple speaking of Mary's name by the risen Jesus, did more to Magdalene, more to the world, than all other human actions rolled together - it was Jesus' revelation, His first announcement, that He had beaten death. And that is the hinge upon which hope, all true hope, for a future swings. Without it, what is the point in going on? No matter how good of a fight we put up, Death would still get the last word - that all powerful final word. Jesus changed it all though, turned despair on its head when He said, "Mary."