Michelangelo’s Risen Christ

I think this image of Christ is powerful and beautiful. It’s Christ, resurrected, and “naked without shame”, having fully redeemed the dignity of the body and restoring creation to the purity of its origins! ❤️✝️ 

(Someone on my Facebook said that she didn’t like the naked version of the risen Christ. My first thought was “who told you that he was naked?” It’s our broken hearts that might make us uncomfortable, but it never was supposed to be like that. I wish we could all have our purity and dignity restored in such a way that we can see the body as fully beautiful again without twisting or shame. I continue to think this art is meaningful and lovely.)

From the Theology of the body Institute:

“But what has not been endured by Christ has not been redeemed by Christ. In order to restore nakedness without shame, Christ would have had to endure in some way nakedness with shame – as, indeed, he did.  Stripping their victims naked was part of the gruesome spectacle of Roman crucifixion, and Christ endured this indignity “heedless of its shame” (Heb 12:2). Indeed, he endured this indignity of the body to redeem the dignity of the body! Interestingly, both the Gospels of Luke (24:12) and of John (20:5-7) mention that Christ’s burial coverings were left behind in the tomb after his resurrection. The Catechism teaches that, together with the empty tomb, this signifies that “Christ’s body had escaped the bonds of death and corruption” (CCC 657).”

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