Resurrecting Chicago

Fulgentius was a bishop  –a theologian it turns out– who in an obscure treatise on forgiveness written centuries ago, gave us a coherent explanation of what it means to die and rise with Christ both spiritually and corporeally.

In that treatise, the good bishop was speaking about the second coming of Christ and the events surrounding it.  Those of us who are transformed by Our Lord “undergo a change which is God’s free gift.  Those who in this life have been changed from evil to good are promised a future change as a reward.”

Our first resurrection, then, is through justification and spiritual rebirth.  “Unless you are born again…you shall not enter the kingdom of God.”  It is a grace, an initial change effected by God’s gift, says Fulgentius.” Like our Lord we become new Adams (and new Eves) and are new persons in Christ. ” Later on,” Fulgentius continues, “through bodily resurrection, the transformation of the just will be completed.”  This transformation will result in a “perfect, abiding, unchangeable glorification.” Our second resurrection completes us.  (Taken from the first reading, Monday in the 33rd week in ordinary time by St. Fulgentius from his treatise on forgiveness.)

And, the purpose of all this change? The Baltimore Catechism states it simply in it’s answer to the question: ” Why did God make me?   God made me to show forth His goodness and to share with Him His everlasting happiness in heaven.” Our Western culture leaves no room for God, nor for a reason that we are here, the motive for our existence. God loves us and the world doesn’t seem to care.

If you think the question of where God, Who is Uncreated Being, could have possibly come from  is a stumper, even more incredibly to ask the question “When?” concerning an eternal being is absurd. These questions buckle my knees. (I know these are useless inquiries concerning an Uncreated Being Who always was.) And yet, the mind keeps seeking understanding.

But let me ask a simpler question:  Can your judgement accept a moment when you were not? Do you know how you or any being was formed and who had the recipe?  Then, why not through Faith accept the first resurrection: to die to self and rise with Christ.  The second resurrection is the completion for which we hope.  That hope, the scriptures tell us, will not disappoint us.

Go Ahead. Color me purple, the Advent color, like “the purple mountain majesty” of Katherine Lee Bates in her “America.”  If black is the absence of light, purple is its promise. Somehow as the light begins fading into night, the blue darkening to black reminds me of tomorrow’s light, bright and warm. Painters– artists, I mean — deal with hues and shades and the secrets of color which the rest of us usually miss.  Like painters,we can begin to notice when day light slowly reveals purple sky.

We should take note, when the first purple candle of Advent is lit and the priest’s vestments and the church banners stun us with a kind of somberness, especially after last Sunday’s rich, glorious celebration of the feast of Christ the King.”

When the bible recounts  an appearance of the Lord, He appears as a bright light. “The light shone in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

The bright light was testimony of His presence.  The Hebrews had a word for that light, “Shekinah” which means a  glorious light, like when the sun shines brilliantly.  In fact, the Holy of Holies shielded this glory of God from the people. That glory which they could not see they called  the “dwelling place” or simply, “the presence.”

Somewhere St. Augustine answers the question of why God shields himself from us.  Or, better, why we shield ourselves from God.

He tells us that we can’t look at the face of the sun without experiencing a painful momentary blindness. Instinctively, we know that we must protect our eyes, that directly trying to see the sun is impossible.  It blinds us.  If we can’t even see the face of the sun because of its brightness, how can we expect to look on the Being Who is Light itself?

The first Sunday of Advent reminds us that the world was in darkness until the messiah came.  Then, slowly it dawned upon us that He was the light which was to come into the world.”

So, lets walk through the purple shade of Advent as we prepare for that day when as in Bethlehem we will experience “in that dark street shining the everlasting light.”