worms

"And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. For now is Christ risen, for now is Christ risen from the dead -the first fruits of them that sleep." This is the bold passage from Handel's Messiah that celebrates the assertion "I know that my Redeemer liveth!" The worms part is a rather

loose translation of the Hebrew in Job 19.26 where "worms" are not in the original but supplied in the oldest English texts. The verse, however, is a frank acknowledgement of the mortality of human flesh. Some Christians are concerned over the practice of cremation (I am not) but whether by the corruption of the body in the ground (worms or not!) or the consumption of the body by fire this body will be reduced "ashes to ashes and dust to dust" BUT with the "sure and certain hope of the resurrection of the dead." How many times I have recited these words at a grave, and how much present and powerful hope they bring. Our future is a physical, fleshly, material existence as proven by the physical resurrection of Christ. So Lent brings us to the grave, but only for a while.