“And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. And whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” - Revelation 22:17
Kempton New Church

Week 7
Day 1

    Listen:

Resurrection

Jesus says to her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, thinking it was the gardener, says to Him, Lord, if thou hast carried Him away from here, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away. Jesus says to her, Mary. She, turning, says to Him, Rabboni, which is to say, Teacher. (John 20:15-16)

What are our customs around the disposition of the body?

[At an interment, a hymn may be sung. The priest reads selections from the Word. All say the Lord’s Prayer. The coffin or urn is lowered into the grave. The priest says a few words about committing the natural body to nature while the spiritual body is released and lifted up. “He is not here; he is risen.” The priest reads a few more selections from the Word and gives a benediction.]

And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and shalt be buried in a good old age. Genesis 15:5

“Coming to one’s fathers” is passing over from the life of the body into the life of the spirit, or from the world into the next life. “In peace” means that he will have lost nothing, and thus that nothing will suffer harm, for when a person passes into the next life he does not lose any of the things that he possesses as a person. He retains and has with him every single thing except the body, which has hampered the interior exercise of his capabilities. AC 1853

They who know the internal sense, know that they shall come into the other life with a body, but a purer one. For in the other life there are purer bodies, for they see each other, converse together, and enjoy every sense as in the present body, but in a more exquisite degree. The body which a man carries around there on earth is for uses on earth, and therefore consists of bones and flesh; and the body which the spirit carries about in the other life is designed for uses in that life, and does not consist of bones and flesh, but of things which correspond to them. AC 3813:5

Whoever duly considers the subject can know that the body does not think, because it is material, but that the soul, which is spiritual, does. The soul of a person, upon the immortality of which many have written, is his spirit, for this as to everything belonging to it is immortal. This also is what thinks in the body, for it is spiritual, and what is spiritual receives what is spiritual and lives spiritually, which is to think and to will. Therefore, all rational life that appears in the body belongs to the soul; nothing of it belongs to the body. The body is material, and the material substance of the body is added to the spirit, or one might say, is almost joined to it, in order that the human spirit can live and be useful in the natural world. Things of the natural world are material, and possess no life in themselves. HH 432

The material form that is added and put on over [the spiritual] in the world is not a human form by itself, but only by virtue of the spiritual form, to which it is added and put on so that a person may be enabled to perform uses in the natural world, and also to draw to himself out of the purer substances of the world a fixed containant of spiritual things, and thus continue and perpetuate life. DLW 388

A person cannot live with the body in the presence of the Divine. Those who do live are encompassed by an angelic column, which moderates the Divine influx, for the body of everyone is non-receptive of the Divine; consequently it dies and is cast off. AE 78

In the internal sense of the Word, ‘a grave’ means life, which is heaven.... The reason it means life or heaven is that angels, who possess the internal sense of the Word, have no other concept of a grave, because they have no other concept of death. Consequently instead of a grave they perceive nothing else than the continuation of life, and so resurrection. For a person rises again as to the spirit and is buried as to the body (see no. 1854). Now because ‘burial’ means resurrection, it also means regeneration, since regeneration is the primary resurrection of a person, for when regenerated he dies as regards his former self and rises again as regards the new. It is through regeneration that from being a dead person he becomes a living person, and it is from this that the meaning of ‘a grave’ is derived in the internal sense. AC 2916

Comments and Questions
  1. What good or bad experiences have you had with interments? Do you have ideas about what would make an interment ceremony work better?
  2. Have you noticed the natural body being a hindrance to the exercise of your interior capabilities, such as good judgment, mercy, and humility?
  3. Is it helpful to think that you are “carrying around” a natural body, designed for uses in this world, but a burden in the long run? Does it help you to distinguish yourself from your natural body?
  4. Does it make sense that the natural body has no life or thought or feeling of its own, but that all life is from the spirit within the body? When does it feel most like the body itself is living? When does it feel most like the body is simply a tool?
  5. Why do we need to draw out of the purer substances of this world a fixed containant of spiritual things? How do we do this?
  6. Why do we have to die? Why do we have to die in regard to our former self in order to receive eternal life?
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