November 26th, 2013 Commentary to Henri Nouwen's Daily Meditation

http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Daily-Meditation--Wounds-Becoming-Signs-of-Glory.html?soid=1011221485028&aid=LJhG5q6mvpc

In case the above link to Henri Nouwen’s Daily Meditation doesn’t work:

Tuesday November 26, 2013 
Wounds Becoming Signs of Glory

The resurrection of Jesus is the basis of our faith in the resurrection of our bodies.  Often we hear the suggestion that our bodies are the prisons of our souls and that the spiritual life is the way out of these prisons.  But by our faith in the resurrection of the body we proclaim that the spiritual life and the life in the body cannot be separated.  Our bodies, as Paul says, are temples of the Holy Spirit (see 1 Corinthians 6:19) and, therefore, sacred.  The resurrection of the body means that what we have lived in the body will not go to waste but will be lifted in our eternal life with God.  As Christ bears the marks of his suffering in his risen body, our bodies in the resurrection will bear the marks of our suffering.  Our wounds will become signs of glory in the resurrection.   

My Commentary:

I believe it was Thomas Moore who said that the soul is the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit.  This tabernacle is at the center of the internal church of Christ planted and germinating within us to tap into.  It was a couple of weeks ago, there was an online debate about the resurrection.  Someone challenged the thought that perhaps it is just a metaphor.  If it was just a metaphor then what do we do with the centuries of martyrs dying to proclaim Jesus arose and gave us New Life!?

Sometime earlier before that I was watching a show on the History channel about the early Christians and how they basically developed codes to communicate to one another.  The Jesus fish is actually one of the first codes.  Basically a disciple would draw an arc and if the person he/ she came across completes it correctly, they knew they were Christians and could escape persecution together. 

One of the lesser known symbols found nearly on every Christian grave as a “creedal” code in some sense was the symbol of Jonah and the whale.  For the Early Christians the satiric story of Jonah and his survival in the whale represented for them Jesus triumphant rising from 3 days in the tomb and being the Messiah!  These ancient tombs are ironically buried beneath modern Israeli apartment buildings, underneath malls, vacant houses… nearly everywhere!  Think about that for a moment—the ravages of time as well as truthfully… Are we burying our faith or bearing our faith in Christ Jesus resurrection?

Those voices may have been silenced in actuality by death’s cool sting but as we hear from St. Paul—great encouragement! 1 Corinthians 15:51-58: “⁵¹Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, ⁵²in 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 will be changed. ⁵³For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.⁵⁸Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

Matt Maher let’s join St. Paul in singing: Christ is Risen!

http://youtu.be/IExdrZGQVeI

God Bless Your Tuesdays!

Nicole Collins