As I drifted off to sleep last night I remembered that the Hebrew word for “glory” also means “heaviness”. So your text from Philippians serves as a good companion to the “natural”v.”spiritual” discussion of 1 Cor 15 and a corrective when our minds make”spiritual” all wispy and thin.
In a homily once a friar took us on a brief tripthrou0gh IHS’s encounter with Nicodemus who came to him by night. He said it was customary in the evenings to go up to the roof of the house to catch the cool breezes, and suggested that as IHS spoke of the Spirit, the breeze was stirring the leaves of the trees.
And certainly this year many of us have seen that not all breezes are gentle and pleasant. Many are ‘heavy’ enough to destroy buildings.
Enough of this thin aetherial Spirit (still small voices to the contrary notwithstanding)! The Glory of God is “heavy” enough to support all creation, and the glorious body for which we hope ... well, who can say? But maybe we should abandon Victorian ideas of unearthliness and take up a notion of things almost TOO real to fit in the physical world.
Thanks. I did post the text from Philippians as a good companion to the “natural”v.”spiritual” discussion of 1 Cor 15.
As for “spiritual light” versus weighty impact, Jesus, having His “sails up,” was “driven” by the Spirit into the wilderness with its wild beasts to fast for 40 days and nights.
And as for doctrine, the element of mystery in unrevealed things must be respected, such as in aspects re the issue of predestination (which is not resolved in Rome either: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregatio_de_Auxiliis), rather than insisting on answering every implication if scripture does not, and making such into dogma.
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?35 Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36)
“A Song of degrees of David. 1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.” (Psalms 131:1)