4. Self-Denial Leads to Self-Ttransformation

                                           The long road to self-transformation starts with the daily struggle of our everyday life in which is contained like in a seed the mystery of our own resurrection to a new life after death. Jesus wanted his disciples to understand this great truth from his own life and death from which they had to learn lessons. For this purpose they were instructed about how to conduct themselves in their day to day life. All those who want to follow Jesus and become his disciples should deny themselves, take up their daily cross and follow him (See Matthew, 16: 24-25; Mark, 8: 34-35; Luke, 9: 23-24). Why did Jesus insist on self denial for our well-being? The reason is that our self has two aspects to it - one is the visible, outward-looking, and dependent on our body, and the other invisible, inward-looking and dependent on our soul. Usually we tend to understand by self the former that connects us to the world , neglecting the latter that connects us to God. Although our real self is the latter one whereby we are the images of God Himself, our apparent self forces us to be engaged in the world forgetting all about our real self. When Jesus demanded self denial from us, he wanted us to deny our false self that masquerades as our real self. The difficulty here as well as in our spiritual life in general is to separate what is essentially inseparable, namely, the body and the soul and in their turn the apparent and real selves. We say that the soul is separated from the body at death, and self denial involves a certain kind of death to our false self in order to let the real self shine forth.
                                       In order to overcome this seemingly insuperable problem, Jesus asked us to leave everything behind including our own selves besides our near and dear ones etc. (See Matthew, 10: 37; Mark, 8: 34-35; Luke, 14:26; John, 12:25). As we cannot escape this world and its compulsions on us as long as we live in a body thoroughly attuned to this material world, how is it possible for us to leave everything behind? Same is the case with our social life beginning with our family and the wider society. Even those who completely abandon the world like the monks and nuns cannot avoid the world and its demands altogether, beginning with our need to eat and drink. Similarly, our need of the society and the necessity to interact with it cannot be ignored either. What about the demand of Jesus to leave behind our own selves? Clearly, one leaves behind one's own self through self denial. Similarly, one leaves one's family and the world itself by being detached from them. 'Detachment' means to curb our natural tendency to be attracted and be attached to persons and things we have a liking for whatever reason. True detachment prevents us from being sucked into relationships and attitudes that enslaves us robbing us of our freedom to be open to any other genuine relationship. An attached person cannot have true relationship with God either as we cannot serve two masters at the same time. This is why Jesus said that we cannot love both God and Money at the same time (See Matthew, 6; 24; Luke, 16: 13).
                                                          True detachment has nothing to do with indifference or insensitiveness to human problems as some might think that detachment from the world is an escape from the world! On the contrary, a truly detached person is so totally free from the compulsions of this world that he or she can be fully involved and be sensitive to human problems. Let us remember here what Jesus said about the Pharisees and Lawyers among the Jews in their zeal to observe the traditions of the humans neglecting the commandments of God (See Mark, 7: 5-8). The kind of self-denial required for our self-transformation leading to our own resurrection is implied in genuine detachment from the world and its nefarious attractions. It consists in doing our daily duties with dedication and humility offering our success and failure to the glory of God and for the benefit of humanity. Jesus admonished Martha that only one thing was necessary and Mary had chosen the better part that will not be taken away from her (See Luke, 10: 41-42). Was it not necessary for Martha to prepare lunch for Jesus and if she also were to just sit at the feet of Jesus, who would serve lunch in time? Was it too much to ask for a hand in helping her to prepare the same? Jesus did not deny the value of Martha's service that was also necessary. What was unacceptable to Jesus was her anxiety and vanity, that was evident from her 'busybody' attitude, denigrating the value of listening to the word of life Mary was engaged in. Only one thing was necessary that had two inseparable parts, namely, clarity of thought and purity of heart deriving from clarity. Detachment and true action would follow negating the too human tendencies of being blindly attached to what one does and seeking approval and glory from others. Genuine detachment contained in self-denial saves us from this kind of peril into which we are prone to fall. Gradually, self-transformation takes place as the Holy Spirit abides in us to support and sanctify us.

3. Self-Transformation is Necessary for Eternal Life

                                                                       Resurrection means complete transformation of our self that is definitive and belonging to the divine order. This is what we see in the resurrection of Jesus Christ whereby he became a life-giving Spirit in contrast to Adam who became a living being in his creation by God (See 1 Corinthians, 1: 45). Resurrection implies death and coming to life again with a transformed and transfigured body that may be termed a "spiritual body" (See 1 Corinthians, 15:  42-44). The great philosopher of the 20th century Ludwig Wittgenstein has this to say about death and eternal life: "Death is not an event in life: we do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean not infinite temporal duration but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present. Our life has no end in the way in which our visual field has no limits" (Tractatus Logico-philosophicus, 6. 431). We see here how eternal life can be understood philosophically using our ordinary language by comparing it with the limitlessness of our visual field for the sake of understanding the concept of 'endlessness'. The right way of considering eternal life is not an infinitely long time, but timelessness itself. The consequence of this understanding is very relevant to our present life that will have repercussions on our eternal life, especially because living in the present meaningfully is most important.
                                                                     Living in the present does not mean that the past has no relevance nor that the future has no impact on our lives in the present. It means that given the fact of the influences of the past and the future, we have to live moment to moment with alertness so that our present life may flow smoothly into eternal life. In fact, we already start living eternal life from the temporal end to be changed into the unchangeable life eternal. Jesus invited us to "watch and pray so that we may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,but the flesh is weak" (Matthew, 26: 41). This was said in the context of his prayer at Gethsemane when the disciples took it easy and slept through the agony of Jesus in spite of warning them. It shows that our dependence on God is absolutely necessary to convert our temporal life into the eternal one and the primary means for the same is our humble payer for power from above. Prayer is effective when its effects are seen in our lives like the shedding of the old personality in us for a new one. This means a revolution in our life through a new outlook, new aspirations and positive qualities of life. Such a life heralds the beginning of eternal life, the culmination of which is in the Kingdom of God announced by Jesus (See Mark, 1: 15; Matthew, 3:2).
                                                                     The life of Jesus was ordered to glorification through resurrection before which it passed through the daily challenges and obstacles causing suffering and death. His life is our model to be followed for self-transformation leading to glorification through our own resurrection. Suffering and death are inbuilt into our lives accepting which whole-heartedly for transforming them into effective means of wholeness in our lives is approved by God through His Son, Jesus Christ. If we are prepared to accept ourselves with all our limitations, trying to overcome them if possible, we are already on the road to eternal life. All our religious practices are meant to enrich ourselves before God so that the graces showered upon us may be utilized to improve our final destiny. If we follow the instructions of Jesus, demonstrated by his own life, our lives will be enriched with permanent love, joy and peace reigning in our hearts. This is but the beginning of eternal life already here on earth!   

2. The New Life is Eternal Life

                                                                       The human tendency is to look at life within the confined space of this world and there is nothing wrong in it as we are born and brought up within this material world. We start with the material kind of life nourishing our body and should end with the spiritual life that helps the soul to shine forth. St. Paul says the same in 1 Corinthians, 15: 46 and the whole chapter is about the resurrection of Jesus and our own resurrection and different kinds of bodies including the "spiritual bodies". The main difference between the physical and the spiritual is that while the former is temporal and temporary, the latter is eternal and never-ending. The physical and the material, represented by the body, does not have life in itself and is not suitable for eternal life by itself. The spiritual and the immaterial is fit for holding life in itself that is also eternal and can communicate the same to the body turning it into a "spiritual body".
                                                                        The things go wrong the moment we adhere to this world and its attractions in such a way that we are enslaved by them. There is no harm in using the world and the material things in it in order to grow physically strong that should be but a prelude to help explore our soul's life in its fullness. Normally, there is no separation between the two till death and yet for spiritual growth we have to be conscious of the two with opposite natures for managing harmony and real growth. Jesus exhorted us to leave everything behind starting with our self in order to follow him (See Mark, 8: 34). Leaving everything behind is incompatible with our deadly attachment to the things and persons of this world and is made possible with our detachment from them even as we live among them and interact with them. Jesus also advised us to store our treasure in heaven since our heart is where our treasure is (See Matthew, 6: 20-21).
                                                                       From the use of language by both Jesus and Paul, it is clear that our ordinary everyday language is good enough to explain divine mysteries to ordinary people. For, sophisticated  people will try to thwart the simple explanations offered through ordinary language by their sophistries gained from various kinds of philosophies. However, they are on the way to meet disaster as their sophistries cannot stand without the solid support of ordinary language. Even the scientific language ultimately has to depend on the ordinary language for a sure footing for the highly developed special language used in their investigations. Therefore, the validity of the ordinary language,if used to express highly placed matters of divine life, cannot be questioned by empirical sciences. The final reason for the same is that both scientific and religious languages are independent of each other where one may not impose its own views on the other. In Wittgenstein's thinking, they belong to different "language-games" independent of each other and therefore the one cannot be questioned by the other in the matter of meaningful use of language.
                                                                    The independence of language-games from each other may be compared with the games we usually play, say cricket and football. Because their rules are different no one will say that either of them is not a game nor will they be judged for correctness and acceptability by means of the rules of any one of them on the other. Similarly, religious and scientific languages belong to two different language-games with different rules of their particular languages learnt from the communities they belong to. Agreements in their communications arise from conventions and social customs learnt from the kind of life they have been living through. This being the case, both Jesus and Paul as well as others after them, formed communities of disciples and believers to whom they could communicate divine mysteries meaningfully. In this context we should be able to see how the new life is eternal life.   

1.THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST FROM THE DEAD

                                                                        INTRODUCTION

                                                                        What is the scope of this Study? In this age of scientific and technological advances, who is going to be interested in faith in someone who died and returned to life fully transformed with a view to transforming the entire universe including the human beings? It is essentially an invitation to all people of good will to just stop in their tracks and consider the message of Good News extended to all. No one can be forced to accept this message as it is essentially an invitation like for participating in a wedding feast. The invitation specifies that everything has been prepared and the invitees only need to attend it in good taste. The minimum requirement that need not be specified is to present oneself fittingly in the common celebration(mentioned as 'wedding garments' in the parable of the wedding feast in Matthew, 22: 2-14). Would anyone say that this invitation and the expected minimum requirement to attend it worthily is unreasonable? The same is the case with the message of Good News (Gospel) proclaimed by Jesus Christ and continued by the Apostles and the disciples of Christ and later on by the Church. What is the connection of the Good News with the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
                                                                           Jesus announced the imminent arrival of the Kingdom of Heaven (Kingdom of God) as the substance of the Good News that started in his person with his resurrection from the dead. As there are innumerable studies on the historicity and credibility of the fact of resurrection of Jesus, we shall not go into it directly. Our method here is to inquire into the rationality of the belief in the resurrection of Jesus in the atmosphere created by the scientific spirit of the age, denigrating thereby anything outside its purview as rationally suspect. We want to examine this premise on rational grounds that cannot be shaken off by any reasonable person. We shall be using the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein and his analysis of language as the use of language cannot be avoided by anyone wishing to express something. Wittgenstein himself ended his book on the "Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus" with the famous observation: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one should be silent".   
                                                                          In order to follow Wittgenstein, one has to be patient in reading through his observations without preconceived ideas about reality, way of knowing and ways of expression etc. with a view to seeing things as they are by closely looking at what is presented before us. In his 'Philosophical Investigations', No.104 Wittgenstein says: "We predicate of the thing what lies in the method of representing it. Impressed by the possibility of a comparison, we think we are perceiving a state of affairs of the highest generality." In order to forestall the possibility of a dispute of what constitutes a language,Wittgenstein makes the following observation in P.I., No. 494: "I want to say: It is 'primarily' the apparatus of our ordinary language, of our word-language, that we call language; and then other things by analogy or comparability with this". What is more, we need not bother about theories and explanations as they do it in empirical sciences since everything is open to view and nothing is hidden from us. We only have to look closely at phenomena and describe them as they are presented to us as everything is open to an open mind, without preconceived notions. Here one feels a bell ringing from what St. Paul said in Romans, 1: 18-25 about our refusal to see what is plainly before our eyes for revelation of truth resulting in our wickedness and self-deceit.      
                                                                      In the Gospels we see how Jesus uses ordinary language to expound the mysteries of the Kingdom of God through parables, analogies, stories, comparisons etc. validating our everyday language as capable of communicating the highest mysteries. This observation is all the more relevant in the context of highly developed scientific and mathematical languages for special purposes. While this is legitimate in itself, the underlying and unspoken disdain shown to our everyday ordinary language by at least a few of the experts is not only unwarranted, but also self-defeating. Wittgenstein has shown how it is self-destructive by showing that any expression of ideas must at its base be supported by our ordinary language for its verification and meaningfulness. So, back to the everyday ordinary language as at the root for meaningful use of any language. The conclusion is that what we want to say about the resurrection of Jesus Christ too should be able to be communicated in our everyday ordinary language. The best way to do it is to look at Jesus himself how he prepared his disciples for the event of his resurrection, although at the time they hardly understood what he meant. We shall try to delineate in the following Posts the point Jesus wanted his disciples to learn about his resurrection from the dead and the new life concomitant with it, that is divine life itself.