A Long Process
The human experience, and within it, our spiritual development, is a long process. What started within the womb of your mother has progressed as a movement of growth and development, struggle and discovery, day by day. We move along in an imperfect but growing consciousness of ourselves, and others. We are invited also to an imperfect but growing consciousness of God. All of this involves our emotions, thoughts, and multiple ways of bringing attention to our unfolding participation in being.
Those embracing life in Christ find something augmenting the discoveries they make. We envision God in self-revelation, supplying elements of grace pushing our journey deeper into life. Even our human capabilities are gifts from God, are they not? So, by divine favor of the Holy Spirit extends our awareness of life in God. How could we ever point to where our personal abilities leave off our God’s grace furthers our comprehension of life? It is not discernable.
Life in Christ is aptly called resurrection life. Jesus Christ was raised and affords his Resurrection to all who come to rely upon him and embrace a relationship with him. Your everlasting life, growing on beyond your death begins in this temporal life of yours. Life starts in the womb, moves on through the tomb, and develops unceasingly through endless ages. In the language of our prayer book, we visualize that in death we increase in knowledge and love of God, going from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in God’s heavenly kingdom. It is meaningful, critical even, to reflect on the process. Look here at how St. Paul ponders the wonders of life in Christ with the tools of human thought and language:
Someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? …With the resurrection of the dead, what is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. …The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:35, 42-44, 47-49
Even with the limits of human thought and language, it is beautiful that Paul brings these thoughts into our record of faith. It fosters our thanksgiving for the bodies we have now to support our growth in this life, and for the mysterious ways, God will support our continued adventure beyond this life. Even as you were in the formation toward birth, you had begun your process of growth into God. It has been evolving all this time. It is heading somewhere. Christ is bringing you into complete union with him and faithfully will see it through. Let us consider some additional words of St. Paul:
I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. …And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced a harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:6, 9-11)