But a person cannot be coerced into spiritual relationship; it demands consent and must be self-determined. This second birth is more flesh-shattering and catastrophic that the first, and more umbilical cords are broken than in seeing the light of the day. If a block of marble bloomed, that would be something beyond its nature and capacity, and if the man of flesh becomes a spiritual man, this is the kind of birth that demands not only the services of the Divine Obstetrician, but also the will to "die" on the part of the fetus.
First is the dying to self in union with the Cross, then the Easter of an inner peace nothing can shatter. But before I can attain that birth, I must hear: "If anyone wishes to be a follower of mine, he must leave self behind; he must take up his cross and come with me." - Mat. 16:24 - But the Cross is no self-mutilation or masochism. It is plucking off of dead buds so that the new buds may blossom; it is the pruning of a tree for a richer harvest; it is the dull rehearsal for the triumph of a concert. God is not the God of dead things, but of renewed things. He does not change the ideal to fit the way people live; but he changes the way people live to give them the ideal. Only the person who elects to live for himself remains in the tomb. No self-denial is ever without a resurrection of the spirit; in each newborn soul there is verified: "Now at the place where he had been crucified, there was a garden." - John 19:41 -
The last womb through which we pass is the womb of time to give birth to eternity. Death is the penalty for sin; it is the Golgotha that individualizes us, regardless of how conformist we were in life. Here we step out of the ranks as our name is called; a line is drawn beneath the sum of days, and that is the computer slip we carry to judgment. During life many of our decisions were imperfect because flesh, time and a momentary advantage confused the issue. But when the bird is released from the cage, it flies; so at death the wings of the spirit of man in the light of his previous graces makes the ultimate and final decision of being for or against Christ.
"I believe in the resurrection of the body" is a Easter that the person looks forward to after his last breath on the Cross of life. In 1Corinthians 15:35-50 Saint Paul resorts to the Lord's analogy of the seed. The seed that is planted in the ground does not rise with the same body that was buried. The new one is quite different, though definitely related to it. The Easter of the divinized person is not just the reward of an immortal soul. The Resurrection is not soul-salvation, but person-salvation. Since Christ the Head of a regenerated Body rose, then the members are ontologically bound up with his Resurrection: "But the truth is Christ was raised to life - the first fruits of the harvest of the dead." - 1Cor 15:20 -
The ancient Jewish law obliged the farmer to bring the first fruit of the harvest and "wave it before the Lord" as a token that the whole field and the farmer himself belonged to God. Christ is that "first fruit" of our humanity. With all our failings, we are dedicated to him in our prayers, our works, our sickness and our joys. Our resurrection is assured, though it does require the last configuration. Christ, sharing in his death to share in his glory. As we might have shrunk from breaking the umbilical cord, so we shrink from shattering the cords of time. Christ came not to negate life, but to give it more abundantly. Anyone who ever denied himself a theft or an adultery has already placed death in the middle of his or her life as the condition of peace of conscience. All such acts stem not from our instinct of life, but from our wisdom of death. Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he has gone before.
When a person is raised up from his own dead past to a goodness which in terms of the past cannot be accounted for, he is face to face with the miracle of the Creed: "I believe in the Resurrection." Or when a person is able to take the worst the world can give, and make it contribute to his spiritual growth, he has modernized the miracle of the seed "which is the Word." As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his prison, "Who am I? They mock me, these lovely questions of mind. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine."
The only ones who suffer from the problem of identity are those who have no goal, no destiny, no eternal shore. How do we know the identity of New York State? By its boundaries. How do we know the identity of a baseball diamond? By its foul lines. How do we know our identity? By limits, by laws, by destinies, by God. Once the Good Friday/Easter Sunday syndrome is made the rule of life, then one sees that only the Christ-fettered are free.
I am not my own; I am his. What person anyway has not in his own personal life a thousand falls, a thousand resurrections? Into what open graves has he walked, and ere the dust was piled the winding sheets of the old self were left behind? Every time one's knee bends in confession, he admits to the crucifixion of his Lord, and when his wiggling feet, like worms, stick out from under the veil, he rises from the dead.
BY ARCHBISHOP FULTON J. SHEEN (1895-1979)
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
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