seed of immortality

Henri Nouwen faced a dilemma when he was talking about resurrection. On one hand, our bodies return to dust. On the other hand, Nowen believed that "nothing we have lived in the body will go to waste." How can these two awarenesses be reconciled?

His answer came from the teaching of St. Paul where the body that returns to dust is compared to a seed. Seeds are virtually indistinguishable from dust. And yet seeds hold the promise of life. The seed carries both sides, the return to dust and the transformed life.

Nowen said that this teaching really woke him up, and made spiritual sense. "Our life is a seed that must die to be dressed in immortality."

That message mirrored my own experience. The moment of lying flat on my back breath and intensely aware of my mortality was a seed moment. I could not see it then, but afterward it was clear that I to be led through the seed moment of death against my will before my life could be clothed in a heavenly body.

It is my spirit now, not some angel living in me. and yet on the other hand, I am no longer the center. I am a witness. I need to practice receptivity.

Nouwen was interested in embodiment. "There is no divine life outside the body." He was not neo-platonist. The body is where it is at. But it is not the same body. It is an end-time body. For those with eyes to see, the second coming is here now. It is here and now in the spiritual realm, it is hidden in the lives we live. The spiritual body is hidden in the physical body. That is why the trapeze artist is like an angel. The trapeze artist gives a spiritual message with their bodies. The fly and they catch.

That night I received in my body the flier, and I was witness in my body to the power of the catcher. It was the most amazing flight show I have ever witnessed. It was the apocalyptic trapeze.

But it is not enough to see the end of time. What is needed is a path to move us into the end. Not just for people with special mystical gifts, but for everyone. That path in short is prayer, study of the life of Jesus, ministry of reconciliation across social divisions, and intimacy between lovers. It is the path of present moment prayer, it is the path of receiving the death of loved ones as a gift -- the greatest gift. It is receiving Nouwen's death as his greatest gift.

To understand how is mortal death is a gift, we must realize that he died many times before. He died daily. And in dying he sent out his spirit on the wings of love to all his Angels.

an angel has come

An Angel of Jesus Christ has come to open a doorway for the transformation of our life in the body, for our mortal bodies to be clothed in immortality, for our parishable clothed in imperishablity, our visible weakness, to be clothed in hidden poser: bodies of flesh and blood clothed in the stuff of stars.