STILL JESUS [Sa, 11-19-22]

 REFLECTIONS ON FAITH & LIFE FOR THE YEARS OF WINTER

STILL JESUS [Sa, 11-19-22]

 

I heard a lot of chopping sounds from the kitchen before Helen came into the living room for mid-morning coffee time. “It sounds like you were busy,” I said.

She sighed. “It’s so satisfying. I have vegetable soup on the stove, and the bread is rising. I feel so authentic.”

Well, yes, that’s who Helen has always been, a competent person who works smart and gets things done. That’s her authentic self.

That’s who she still is. She’s still Helen…even though she’s old, and it takes longer to make the soup and the bread.

We recently watched the movie version of neurologist Lisa Genova’s novel, Still Alice. A brilliant linguist, only fifty or so, gets early-onset Alzheimer’s. Julianne Moore does an excellent job of showing the stages of Alice Howland’s decline into… nothingness? [1]

Genova is saying that she is “still Alice.” But is that right? It’s comforting, but is it true? Who are you when you don’t recognize anybody, even yourself? Are you really “still” your authentic self, even when you can’t get the satisfaction of working smart and getting things done?

I have reservations, but I think Genova is right. Alice was still Alice. Because, as CS Lewis says, “You are a soul that has a body, not a body that has a soul.”

Your soul is your self. Your self is not your body, not your brain, not your memories. Because you are a soul, you are always your authentic self.

That’s the point of the resurrection of Jesus. Even in death, he was still Jesus. That is what it means to conquer death. That is what it means to be Christ. That is what it means to be authentic.

John Robert McFarland

1] Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about that. As daughter Mary Beth said not long ago to her mother, “At least you don’t have to worry about early-onset anything.” She seemed to think that was comforting.