We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and my poor hand is Christ,
Christ enters my foot, and is infinitely me.
I move my hand, and wonderfully
my hand becomes Christ …
Do my words seem blasphemous? –Then
open your heart to Christ
and let yourself receive the one
who is opening to you so deeply.
For if we genuinely love …
we wake up inside Christ’s body
where all our body, all over,
every most hidden part of it,
is realized in joy, as Christ,
and Christ makes us, utterly, real,
and everything that is hurt, everything
that seemed to us dark, harsh, shameful,
maimed, ugly, irreparably
damaged, is in Christ transformed
and recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in Christ’s light
Christ awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.
Symeon The New Theologian, as quoted in The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell
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