Body Images
The long awaited mystery has been revealed. God is with us and all the world is made new. This was our Christmas proclamation and we can attempt to let it echo for as long as possible. But reality sets upon us once more. Yes, there are 12 days of Christmas but nobody, it seems, alerted our work places or schools. The tree has to be taken down, the nativity scenes are boxed up again and the air is let out of all the inflatable yard décor. The joy of Christmas is all too soon replaced by the longing to get past this next chunk of winter.
Perhaps you might consider letting the rhythm of the church calendar help to keep some perspective on these short winter days. Yes, God has come and the revelation of Epiphany is that God lived among us in a human body and continues to live among us now in a body of humans, the church. Thomas Merton writes,
“Every one of us forms an idea of Christ that is limited and incomplete. It is cut according to our own measure. We make him not only the incarnation of God, but also the incarnation of the things we and our society and our part of society happen to live for.”
Merton’s encouragement for us is to consider how God’s humanity has and can continue to shape our humanity. During these weeks after Christmas and before we leave on our Lenten journey, let’s take up this exploration of the body. Our hope is that we slow down the retreat from the divine coming, pulling back the veil and looking a little more deeply into the mirror. What will you see?