“You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.” Let me say that again – ““You do not have a
soul. You are a soul. You have a body.”
This statement, often attributed to
the author C.S. Lewis, although he never wrote it, has become very much in
vogue of late. Writers quote it and
celebrities tweet it. And, I must
confess, as I grow older and my body often feels weary and I even feel the
heaviness of carrying around an aging, declining body, I might even believe
these words . Fighting a sinus cold and
lung infection for the last two weeks and not feeling at all “myself,” Lord knows there are times when I might even look
forward to the hereafter, when I am freed at last from this body-home of mine! I’m sure some of you can relate.
Problem is, these words are simply
not true, in fact it flies in the face of what Our Lord taught and what we
believe to say “you do not have a soul.
You are a soul. You have a body.”
We, you and I, are both - soul
and body. Both, not one or the
other. That might be surprising to many,
many who’ve been raised to believe that the soul is what matters, the soul is
more important, or even that the soul is somehow better than the body. Soul good, body bad. Simply not what the Church teaches. We humans are body and soul. Soul good, body good.
And for many, it’s all about a
battle with the body. This world teaches
our young people to not be satisfied with their body, to hate their body even,
and it’s not just young people. I’m
convinced that the best-attended church Sunday mornings in Irondequoit is not
even a church, it’s L.A. Fitness, where yes, many go to keep their bodies, the
temple of the Holy Spirit, healthy and fit, but many go to worship their bodies
and where many put in hour upon hour working to change their bodies into
something they hope they’ll like better.
All week long, as I reflected on
this Gospel, I kept coming back to the scene in the upper room – the Lord
mysteriously appears before the disciples, and tells them not to fear, He is
not a ghost, He is “flesh and bones,” and He invites them to see His hands and
feet and touch Him.
And the clincher for me – “do you
have anything to eat?” They gave Him a piece of baked fish and He ate it in
front of them.”
The inescapable fact of Our Lord’s
Resurrection is this – Jesus was truly dead, and He was really raised up again
– not just soul, not only a spirit, but body and soul. Only a body has flesh and bones. Only a body is hungry and eats a piece of
fish. His is a different body, to be
sure, a body the disciples didn’t immediately recognize. A glorified body, a body no longer subject to
death.
And the resurrection He promises to
you and me, sisters and brothers, is this same resurrection – of our souls,
yes, but on the last day the resurrection of our glorified bodies as well. We profess this belief in the Apostles Creed
– “I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.”
We do not believe in a heaven in
which we are mere spirits floating around on clouds. We believe that Christ will raise us, body
and soul, our glorified bodies and purified, sanctified souls re-united,
re-integrated, never to die again, destined to live eternally within the
life-giving communion of the Trinity.
Brothers and sisters, that is good
news! And it makes me look differently
on my body. My body is not merely a
temporary abode, and it’s not even a permanent dwelling place, but an integral
part of who I am and who I will eternally be!
And if we really take that in,
really assimilate that, we can’t help but look very differently on ourselves as
bodies and souls. We will stop hating
our bodies, stop yearning for different bodies, stop the battle between body
and spirit.
We will find newfound respect, even
reverence, for our own and others’ bodies.
With this respect and reverence, our desires will become rightly
ordered. We will realize that we can’t
continue the desire to possess others’ bodies, or lust after others’
bodies. We will look on all our sisters
and brothers as human beings who are both body and spirit, created in the image
and likeness of God, created male and female, good and beautiful each, and we
will reverence them.
One of the marks of our fallen world
is the distortion we have all, to some degree, suffered in how we look on our
bodies and souls. In how we think of our
bodies as our possessions, as something we own and can do with as we please,
rather than an integral part of who we are as God created us. And this distortion from God’s original plan
is a source of great sin, of great disorder.
How much sin there is in the world because of the distortion of how we
look upon the human body!
The good news is that by the power
of Jesus Christ, crucified, dead and risen from the tomb, He can forgive us and
heal us, resurrect us if you will, from this distortion in the here and
now. As Saint Paul writes, as resurrection
people, we are to consider ourselves “dead to sin and alive for God in Christ
Jesus!”
Yes we will still one day join
Christ in death, and His empty tomb gives us great joy, great hope in looking
to our own resurrection, but His power in us, which comes especially in
receiving His own Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in Holy Eucharist, can begin
right now to heal and correct our distorted ways of thinking, heal and free us
of our sinful tendencies, and open our hearts and eyes to see as God sees.
Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ
is truly risen from the dead, body and soul, never again to die! Alleluia! Alleluia!
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