Baldwin Dom Donald's Blog: Baldwin of Ford (?-c.1190), Cistercian abbot, then...

 Night Office Readings, (Augustinian Press 2001).

COMMENT: 

Need explanation of Baldwin's explanation of "the two Resurrections"

  Statue of Baldwin of Forde from the exterior of Canterbury Cathedral 



      Dom Donald's Blog: Baldwin of Ford (?-c.1190), Cistercian abbot, then...: Statue of Baldwin of Forde from the exterior of  Canterbury Cathedral              Tuesday, 20 January 2015 Tuesday of the...  

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FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER

THURSDAY  Year I

30 April 2015

First Reading

Revelation 19:11-20:15

Responsory          1 Cor 15:25-26; see Rv 20:13-14

Christ must reign until God has put all his enemies under his feet.

+ And the last enemy to be destroyed is death, alleluia.

V. Then death and Sheol will give up their dead, and will be cast into the fiery lake. + And the last ...

Second
Reading

From a treatise by Baldwin
of Canterbury (Tract.4: PL 204, 429-431.441-442)

 

   

The two resurrections

Our Lord's glorious resurrection teaches us that the fruits of obedience are resurrection and
life. These were the fruit of the obedience practiced by Christ who is the
resurrection and the life personified.

However, Christ died only once, and rose again only
once. A single resurrection
answered to a single
death. But for us who have been dragged
down to the depths by the burden of a twofold mortality, one resurrection cannot
suffice. Because we
have fallen so low, a single resurrection is not enough to bring us to the blessed life of heaven. We need two.

Nevertheless,
the resurrection of Christ is the cause and
ex­emplar, the model and
the effective sign of both our resurrections, first and second
alike. It is by our faith in   and our
sacramental imitation of the resurrection of Christ that we are re-created,
justified, sanctified, and raised from death. This is our first resurrection,
the resurrection of our soul, through which we are now dead to sin and live for
holiness, walking in newness of life as we wait for that redemption of our
bodies, which will mean that we have at last fully realized our adoption as
God's children. That will take place at the second resurrection, when Christ
will refashion these wretched bodies of ours and make them like his own
glorious body.

Our first resurrection begins when we first
show obedience to God, and is brought to completion by our perseverance in
doing his will. Our second resurrection begins with our glorification and
endures for all eternity. If we continue in obedience till the end of our
lives, then we shall also abide in a glory that knows no end.

The first resurrection has a glory of its own,
a glory of both body and soul. Let us see what the apostle says about this twofold
glory. Of bodily glory here below he says: Far be it from me to glory in anything
but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. As for the soul's glory, he explains that our glory is in the hope of adoption
as God's children.  

But the glory belonging to the second resurrection
will be the glory of the soul that sees God in the glory of his divinity, and
the glory of the body in its state of incorruptibility, when this perishable
nature of ours puts on imperishability and this mortal nature puts  on immortality. In that future life the saints
will be doubly clad. Robed in white and holding lyre and harp, they will sing
and play in their glory, praising God together for all eternity. Their mouths
will be filled with songs of rejoicing and their lips with hymns of gladness,
as they praise and honour our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God enthroned over all,
blessed forevermore. Amen.

            Responsory          Rom 6:3.8; Rv 20:6

All of
us who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death. + If we have died with Christ we shall also
live with him, alleluia.

v. Blessed and holy are
they who share in the first resurrection. The second death will have no power
over them; they shall be priests of God and of Christ.+ If we have ...

   

Lambeth Palace  built on land bought by Baldwin of Forde