Awakening as the Beloved

We awaken in Christ’s body
as Christ awakens our bodies,
and there I look down 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

I move my foot, and at once
He appears in a flash of lightning.
Do my words seem blasphemous to you? — 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 in Him recognized as whole, as lovely,
and radiant in His light
We awaken as the Beloved
in every last part of our body.

by Symeon the New Theologian