<p><em>Breath of the Spirit is our electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.&nbsp;</em><em><a href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Get Breath of the Spirit scripture reflections in your inbox every week</a>.</em></p><div class=oldwebkit><div class=mobile-full><p>April 18th 2021: Third Sunday of Easter</p><p>Acts 3:13-15 17-19<br>Psalm 4:2 4 7-8 9<br>1 John 2:1-5a<br>Luke 24:35-4</p><p><strong>Reflection by&nbsp;Jeff Vomund</strong></p><p>Sometimes in the afternoon when I get too tired to work productively I take a little walk: not long usually about 10 minutes or so one lap around our apartment complex. For me the best walks happen during spring afternoons with their paradoxical combination of cool breezes and warm sunshine. When I feel that particularly springtime sensation on my skin along with birds chirping and the foliage blooming my whole body feels more alive. The sensory pleasures of my springtime stroll are almost always enough to revive my spirit for further work.</p><p>I never take that walk without thinking of todays psalm and response God let your face shine on us. Surely I imagine the image of Gods face shining upon us came to the Psalmist through a moment just like one of my walks with the suns nurturing warmth on full display. It is no wonder that so many ancient religions considered the sun to be a god.</p><p>This gift Gods love shining on us through the sun is transmitted to us through the mysterious interactions of wind and warmth with our skins cells. &nbsp;This revelation like all revelation comes to us through our bodies. Whatever we consider our soul to be we communicate with it using the synapses nerve endings and language that are the result of bodily experience. God communicates to us ultimately through our bodies: the words of Scripture the oils of anointing the bread of Eucharist not to mention the warmth of the sun and the cool of the breeze all proclaim it to be true. &nbsp;</p><p>Perhaps that is why the author of Lukes gospel seems so intent on showing us that the risen Jesus still has a body. The disciples are invited to touch Jesus and eat together. Jesus even asks the disciples to make fish. The gospel writer seems intent on making the point that Jesus is not a ghost but continues to inhabit a body albeit one different enough from our own that the Risen One can pass through locked doors! This emphasis on the risen body has been an essential aspect of our Catholic theology over the centuries. Writing against the Apollinarianist heresy (the belief that Jesus had a human body but a divine mind) in the 4th century Gregory of Nazianzus famously wrote what was not assumed [by Jesus incarnation] was not healed by it. In assuming our bodily nature in every way Jesus sanctifies our bodies just as thoroughly.</p><p>This bodily tradition suggests one reason why the Churchs recent declaration that same sex unions cannot be blessed (One cannot bless sin.) feels like such a betrayal to many of its LGBTQ+ members. It says that our bodies unlike heterosexual bodies cannot be trusted to accurately experience Gods love through our own loves. By implication our bodies are worth less than those bodies which can be trusted to interpret the divine love accurately. The message is that our bodies are damaged. It is an easy and frequently made leap to go from bodies that are worth less to lives that are worthless. We have heard it from Christian preachers who advocate imprisonment or worse for members of our community. We have seen it in the frequent brutalization of trans women of color. Many of us have at least for a time made that leap ourselves.</p><p>If one holds that body-negative mindset they might be tempted to interpret our first and second readings Peters call for repentance or Johns admonition that we keep Gods commandments as a rebuke of the body especially its sexual tendencies. But every aspect of our body has been assumed healed in the Incarnation; therefore the body is first and foremost a place of divine communion. True we can also use our bodies to sin but the resurrection suggests that we sin not by embracing our bodies but precisely by ignoring them. Obedience to God comes not from shutting out our bodies but from listening more closely to them. If Christs body is the sacrament of our salvation then we access that font of grace by opening to our bodily experience not shaming it.</p><p>This is not to say that every bodily whim can be taken as Gods call. If that were so then surely Eucharist would be taken under the form of chocolate chip cookies and whole milk! Obedience to the divine call comes precisely from the process of discerning what the longings of our bodies are asking of us. Those who advocate complete license to our bodily cravings and those who reject our bodys truth out of hand are ultimately both on the same theological team. They advocate against the deep and prayerful listening to the body as a source of sacramental connection to the divine love.</p><p>But the post-Easter accounts which emphasize Jesus body beg to differ. These passages celebrate our bodies as occasions to eat together touch one another enjoy each other given the current rate of vaccinations hopefully we can all enjoy these activities again soon! These passages advocate listening to our bodies neither to give in to every whim nor to deny every desire so that we might hear Gods call to greater health honesty and communion.</p><p>During this season of Easter joy how might we celebrate our bodies? How can they be for us places of joy and also places of listening discernment and generosity? For you that might be a well-cooked (or simply thoroughly enjoyed) meal or perhaps a vigorous exercise or a safe and lingering hug. It might even be a walk in the warm sun and the cool breeze. But whatever it is these Scriptures remind us that if we cannot find God in our bodies then we cannot find God anywhere else.</p><p>All of this reminds me of a short section from Mary Olivers poem Wild Geese the truth of which sounds a lot closer to Gregory of Nazianzus than I had first realized.</p><p><em>You do not have to be good.</em><br><em>You do not have to walk on your knees</em><br><em>for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.</em><br><em>You only have to let the soft animal of your body</em><br><em>love what it loves.</em></p></div></div><p>__</p>[caption align=left]<img src='https://www.dignityusa.org/sites/default/files/jeff.png'>[/caption]<p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span><span><i><em><strong><br></strong></em></i></span></span><i style=background-color: transparent;><em><strong>Jeff Vomund</strong>&nbsp;is a member of Dignity/Washington and currently lives in Arlington VA. After 15+ years of full-time parish ministry and 7 years of teaching students with particular learning needs Jeff now works at George Mason University as a Graduate Research Assistant and a Graduate Lecturer while pursuing a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology.</em></i></p><p><span><span><i><em><strong><a href=https://www.dignityusa.org/civicrm/mailing/subscribe>Get Breath of the Spirit scripture reflections in your inbox every week</a></strong></em></i></span></span></p>