Resurrection: Second Look

Resurrection: It Takes a Second Look

“Seeing things as they actually are usually takes time. How else are we to explain the fact that no one—no one!—noticed the resurrected Jesus at first sight? Seeing the resurrection requires a second look, another glance. It takes a while for our eyes to adjust to the light of the resurrection, and then all of life looks radically different…Seeing God’s “new thing” is about seeing an old thing in a new way through a new lens. Such is the miracle of Gospel sight—to see what has always been there in such a radically new way that it becomes a new thing. This is always a work of grace, and we can only handle so much of it at once.”

-Kris Rocke and Joel Van Dyke in Geography of Grace, Doing Theology from Below from Daily Quote, InwardOutward/ Church of the Saviour, InwardOutward.org, April, 30, 2019.

When friends ask what life must be like in the resurrection, I remind them that our only stories are those of the resurrected Jesus. The disciples on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection did not recognize him. Mary Magdalene did not recognize him. The disciples meeting Jesus on the beach were not sure who that was. Jesus came and went through closed doors. The resurrected Jesus gave fishing tips, cooked meals and ate dinner with his friends.

The Easter season is the perfect time to read and mediate on the appearances of the resurrected Jesus on Easter Day and the next forty days (Acts 1:3-8).

We may be more familiar to the four Easter Day appearances of Jesus (Mary Magdalene in John, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary in Matthew, two disciples on road to Emmaus in Luke, upper room to disciples first time when Thomas absent in John). There are at least 12 appearances of the resurrected Jesus. This Easter Season is an excellent time now to practice Ignatian meditative practices putting ourselves into the scenes not as familiar to us.

Jesus appeared to the disciples eight days after the resurrection (John 20:24-29) with Thomas present in the upper room. He appeared to seven disciples at the Sea of Galilee where he asked Peter to feed his sheep (John 21). Jesus appeared on a hillside in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20) perhaps to over 500 people as referenced by Paul (1 Corinthians 15:6). Jesus was later seen by his brother James (1 Corinthians 15:7). Of course, Jesus’ final appearance was the Great Commission after the disciples returned to Jerusalem and were led out to Bethany at the Mount of Olives. (Luke 24:50-52, Acts 1:9-11). Then we know that Paul also encountered Jesus a few years later on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:5, 1 Corinthians 15:8).1

The fact that people have difficulty recognizing Jesus tells us as least two things. The resurrection was so overwhelming that it was almost impossible to believe at first. Second, Jesus looked different in the resurrection.

May we in turn learn from this how it may be for those we love as well as ourselves in the resurrection.

1Msgr. Charles Pope, Blog, April 9, 2012, blog.adw.org

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.

Normal Resurrection

Resurrection

“Our memory of Jesus’ resurrection fails us if we only understand his resurrection as a miracle. Jesus’ resurrection was indeed a miracle; however, Jesus’ resurrection needs to be more than a miracle. It needs to be normal … every day … how we live and breathe: with resurrection power.” —Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE, from “Brother, Give Us a Word,” a daily email sent to friends and followers of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (SSJE.org).

Easter Banner, Trinity Cathedral

This is at the heart of spiritual direction, helping spiritual friends see daily, yearly resurrection in their lives in the daily, yearly Good Fridays that present themselves. It often does take more than three days to become aware of these resurrections. As we grow more conscious of the resurrections, we become more open to trust and become a little more patient that there will be a resurrection out of each new darkness we face.

My experience also is that I most often draw closer, spend more time with God during the darkness. It is in the dark Good Fridays of my life that I learn about surrender, where I “re-turn” my life and my will over to God.

A close family member or friend dies. We learn about the sacredness of life and spend more time living in the present with gratitude for each day. We learn to honor and be grateful for the relationship we had by extending to others the love and kindness we learned in that relationship.

Our children act out. We see our part in it and try to change our relationship with them. Our job becomes more and more difficult. We finally leave it or maybe even are fired. After much time we find a job that is our bliss. A medical illness slows us down. We seek a more meaningful life by living at a slower pace, a day at a time. We are caught in our addiction and lose our job. We change our whole life-style and outlook on life in order to live without the addiction. Someone has harmed us mentally, physically, or spiritually. Over much time we realize that unless we can forgive and move on, that person is still hurting us. We then slowly learn about daily forgiveness for the small hurts we feel each day.

Miracles that become the ordinary. God at work in our lives. Resurrection.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Purchase a copy of A Spiritual Rx for Lent and Easter from me, joannaseibert@me.com, from Wordsworth Books in Little Rock, or from Amazon.

Baggott, Anders: Time

Baggott: Time

“Our experience of time is not born of an intrinsic, fundamental element of reality called ‘time.’ What we experience is rather the changing geometry of the universe and the masses within it, which we synthesize in our minds and interpret as evolving instants of time.” —Jim Baggott in The Quantum Story: A History in 40 Moments (Oxford Univ. Press, 2011), p. 369.

Guest Writer: Isabel Anders

“Save us from the time of trial.” —The Lord’s Prayer.

“Preserve us in your will within the changing geometry of the universe.” —Quantum version.

Science writer Jim Baggott , author of The Quantum Story (which I just read) and new title Quantum Space (Oxford Univ. Press, 2019), continues to ask tough questions about the nature of the universe, what space is actually composed of, and the existence of time itself.

“Loop Quantum Gravity,” a new contender for the “Theory of Everything” physicists have long sought, zeroes in on the very fabric of spacetime rather than the pursuit of relationships among particles or strings. It deals with the possibility that time may not exist, a conundrum addressed by physicists as “the problem of time.”

LQG suggests that the ultimate essence of space actually is comprised of little loops of gravitational force. Yet Baggott points out that, in following such a formulation to its logical conclusion, “time gets lost in the equations”—as various theories vie to uncover what we know about the universe.

“[Time] has to be reinstated, in effect, as a juxtaposition of different spatial states, i. e., different geometries. So, as the geometry changes, it creates the impression, or illusion, of time,” Baggott concludes.

Does this bring us any closer, perhaps, to a stab at understanding eternity—a “glimpse” of how all persons and events could be equally present in God’s sight? Of a God who is the unchanging center of the shifting universe?

Certainly it brings to mind the words of Hebrews 4:13 that nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight—as well as these lines of Walter Chalmers Smith’s famous hymn:

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessèd, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great Name we praise.

In worship, the questions and the pondering cease for what we, who still feel as though we dwell in time, would call a “moment.”

Isabel Anders

Joanna joannaseibert.com