I am still using the book the Wisdom Jesus by Cynthia Bourgeault. I was looking at a section on the Mystical Body of Christ and came across this poem of Simeon the New Theologian who lived in the eleventh century. I was glad to meet this poem again and want to share it with you.
We awaken in Christ's body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ. He enters
my foot and is infinitely me.
I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ, becomes all of Him
(for God is indivisibly
whole, seamless in his Godhood).
I move my foot, and at once
He appears in a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous?--Then
open your hear to Him
And let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love Him,
We wake up inside Christ's body
Where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy as Him.
And he makes us utterly real.
And everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in him transformed
and recognized as whole, lovely,
radiant in his light.
We awaken as the Beloved
in every last part of our body."
Worth a reflection! Cynthia has a note that she was first introduced to this poem by Father Curtis Almquist, SSJF and has continued to use the translation but has been unable to substantiate its source.
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