Besides having one of the coolest names of the church fathers, Symeon the New Theologian was also a poet who recorded his mystical experiences in a collection of poems titled “Hymns of Divine Love.” (His given name was George, which itself is not as cool-sounding as his adopted name). He was a politician (an imperial senator) turned monk, and eventually became the abbot of the St. Mamas monastery. Eventually outcast for his mystical teachings and spiritual practices, he later gathered a group of followers and started his own monastery. His poem “We Awaken in Christ’s Body” makes for a great Maundy Thursday reflection.
We Awaken In Christ’s Body
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 like a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous? — Then
open your heart 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, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
he awakens as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.
—Symeon the New Theologian (949 – 1032)
(Trans. Stephen Mitchell)
(graphic by Israel Galindo)
Make a good Lent.
