For me, these glimpses into eternity where heaven and earth connect
are moments of re-membering. They are moments of remembering what we knew in theory and in spirit before we came here. Now we have been given the gift of Knowing on the deeper level through experience and opposition. Faith is to believe, Hope is the bridge of action, And charity is what we become If we can learn to remember him always.
It's an axiom of mine since I read A Christmas Carol for the first time as a teen that the story is nearly perfect in every way. It's easy to say it was touched by divinity, but of course, I don't know that that's the case. But this is where this conversation has led me: How was Dickens able to conjure up the entire Christmas story--the real one---and make such a beautiful work of art, when the greatest painters cannot get that same spark of divinity to paint the resurrection? And what I keep coming up with is the basis of reductive thinking: Dickens had something to say, a story to share that people should know. What would the point be of painting the resurrection? Blessed are those who cannot see, but still believe.
Today’s essay and the comments about us being the ones who are flickering in His presence caused me to remember the book Flatland by Edwin Abbott. Just as a 2 dimensional being cannot easily comprehend a 3 dimensional world, much less represent it to other 2 dimensional beings, we who are constricted to 3 dimensions and time (ok, 4 dimensions and our natty red robes) cannot fully comprehend the glory and majesty of the risen Christ much less be able to render it. Do other arts other than visual arts capture the utter incomprehensibility of the Resurrection? Music, perhaps? Maybe we’re just trying to render this in the wrong medium.
The best explanation I've seen for the mystery of the Lord's appearances after His resurrection are in passage 793 of Emanuel Swedenborg's True Christianity:
"We are still human beings after we die, even though we are no longer visible to the physical eyes of people still in the world. ...It is especially clear from the Lord himself, who showed that he was still human by touching people and eating things; yet he also disappeared from before their eyes...
"People were able to see the Lord because the eyes of their spirit were opened at the time. When the eyes of our spirit are opened, things that are in the spiritual world appear to us just as clearly as things that are in the physical world. The difference between people in the physical world and people in the spiritual world is that people in the spiritual world are clothed in a substantial body, whereas people in the physical world are clothed in a material body that has a substantial body [the soul or spirit] inside it. Substantial people see other substantial people just as clearly as physical people see other physical people. Because of the difference between what is physical and what is substantial, however, substantial people cannot see physical people and physical people cannot see substantial people."
IOW, the difference between substantial and material people is the dimensional difference between spiritual substance and physical matter, . In the miracle that allowed people to see the Lord after He rose, the eyes of their spiritual selves—their souls—were opened to see spiritual reality—the Lord present in His spiritual (substantial) body—even while they were still conscious in their physical bodies. Such is the case with all spiritual visions—they occur when the eyes of the soul are temporarily opened to see spiritual reality.
So the idea of the Lord being more real than the people seeing Him is very true; the flickering was their spiritual vision—the eyes of their souls—being opened and closed. Material beings were glimpsing a spiritual reality.
This reminded me of a really good song I think many of you will enjoy. "Death in Reverse" By John Mark McMillan and Sarah McMillan. Album "Mercury Sessions." Visual art fails to capture the resurrection, and I don't think music captures it either, but maybe it can come just a little closer.
“the risen body of Christ flickers and wavers along the borderline between our world and another.”
Lynn maybe onto something here.
as she could be obliquely referring to the world of the wave function and the world of the collapsed wave function we perceive .
I’m sure if some bravery & heavy lifting was pursued in the physics & mathematics fields with the finest minds humans have to offer , one would indeed prove the resurrection a proven phenomenon within the bounds of reality.
As if belief in multiverse theories abounds in said academic corridors without a shred of evidence or likely hood there of such worlds emerging or even existing which only existence lays in the millions of pages filled with equations of said evidence . Surly simply knocking out the equations for the resurrection would be an afternoon’s work by comparison to a universe?
The question is why the shyness in this area, for these fields proudly & confidently announce creation of infinite whole universe everywhere like magicians pulling rabbits out hats. Something is fishy here & we’re not trying to feed the five thousand. but smells more like a lack of bravery !
“Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.” Acts 17:29 Yvonne Hyatt
For me, these glimpses into eternity where heaven and earth connect
are moments of re-membering. They are moments of remembering what we knew in theory and in spirit before we came here. Now we have been given the gift of Knowing on the deeper level through experience and opposition. Faith is to believe, Hope is the bridge of action, And charity is what we become If we can learn to remember him always.
It's an axiom of mine since I read A Christmas Carol for the first time as a teen that the story is nearly perfect in every way. It's easy to say it was touched by divinity, but of course, I don't know that that's the case. But this is where this conversation has led me: How was Dickens able to conjure up the entire Christmas story--the real one---and make such a beautiful work of art, when the greatest painters cannot get that same spark of divinity to paint the resurrection? And what I keep coming up with is the basis of reductive thinking: Dickens had something to say, a story to share that people should know. What would the point be of painting the resurrection? Blessed are those who cannot see, but still believe.
Today’s essay and the comments about us being the ones who are flickering in His presence caused me to remember the book Flatland by Edwin Abbott. Just as a 2 dimensional being cannot easily comprehend a 3 dimensional world, much less represent it to other 2 dimensional beings, we who are constricted to 3 dimensions and time (ok, 4 dimensions and our natty red robes) cannot fully comprehend the glory and majesty of the risen Christ much less be able to render it. Do other arts other than visual arts capture the utter incomprehensibility of the Resurrection? Music, perhaps? Maybe we’re just trying to render this in the wrong medium.
“I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people”
The best explanation I've seen for the mystery of the Lord's appearances after His resurrection are in passage 793 of Emanuel Swedenborg's True Christianity:
"We are still human beings after we die, even though we are no longer visible to the physical eyes of people still in the world. ...It is especially clear from the Lord himself, who showed that he was still human by touching people and eating things; yet he also disappeared from before their eyes...
"People were able to see the Lord because the eyes of their spirit were opened at the time. When the eyes of our spirit are opened, things that are in the spiritual world appear to us just as clearly as things that are in the physical world. The difference between people in the physical world and people in the spiritual world is that people in the spiritual world are clothed in a substantial body, whereas people in the physical world are clothed in a material body that has a substantial body [the soul or spirit] inside it. Substantial people see other substantial people just as clearly as physical people see other physical people. Because of the difference between what is physical and what is substantial, however, substantial people cannot see physical people and physical people cannot see substantial people."
IOW, the difference between substantial and material people is the dimensional difference between spiritual substance and physical matter, . In the miracle that allowed people to see the Lord after He rose, the eyes of their spiritual selves—their souls—were opened to see spiritual reality—the Lord present in His spiritual (substantial) body—even while they were still conscious in their physical bodies. Such is the case with all spiritual visions—they occur when the eyes of the soul are temporarily opened to see spiritual reality.
So the idea of the Lord being more real than the people seeing Him is very true; the flickering was their spiritual vision—the eyes of their souls—being opened and closed. Material beings were glimpsing a spiritual reality.
My first thought when I saw the painting in this post was, Jesus is looking down and saying, “Hey girl.”
This reminded me of a really good song I think many of you will enjoy. "Death in Reverse" By John Mark McMillan and Sarah McMillan. Album "Mercury Sessions." Visual art fails to capture the resurrection, and I don't think music captures it either, but maybe it can come just a little closer.
https://open.spotify.com/track/7nANgc1uUNOyVEiAWZqQM9?si=8c9c541f4c7b448b
“the risen body of Christ flickers and wavers along the borderline between our world and another.”
Lynn maybe onto something here.
as she could be obliquely referring to the world of the wave function and the world of the collapsed wave function we perceive .
I’m sure if some bravery & heavy lifting was pursued in the physics & mathematics fields with the finest minds humans have to offer , one would indeed prove the resurrection a proven phenomenon within the bounds of reality.
As if belief in multiverse theories abounds in said academic corridors without a shred of evidence or likely hood there of such worlds emerging or even existing which only existence lays in the millions of pages filled with equations of said evidence . Surly simply knocking out the equations for the resurrection would be an afternoon’s work by comparison to a universe?
The question is why the shyness in this area, for these fields proudly & confidently announce creation of infinite whole universe everywhere like magicians pulling rabbits out hats. Something is fishy here & we’re not trying to feed the five thousand. but smells more like a lack of bravery !
“How strange it is that the reflection is often lovelier than the thing reflected.” — William Butler Yeats
Lovelier, and perhaps truer — somehow.
Goosebumps.
“Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.” Acts 17:29 Yvonne Hyatt
"enormity"? Ouch.
Yikes. I’m 63, I looked up the definition of enormity and I did not know about the first two.
Had to look it up…..the 3rd definition is indeed tremendous size or significance. Trust a classics scholar to use it.
But the earlier usage has a very negative connotation. I find that “these days” people tend not to realize the difference.