New Vision

So back in April, I got a chance to go to Japan, and while I was there I got these new glasses that I am wearing… and I have to say it was the easiest experience ever. In what would have taken weeks to get new glasses, I got mine in 30 minutes. And for a quarter of what I would have paid for here…

Sometimes in our lives, it takes a lot of time for us to get new vision; to gain new perspective. Whether it’s the moment we graduate High School or the moment we give ourselves to our spouses forever, or the moment we become a father or a mother. In those moments, our vision of the world changes… Or perhaps it’s something tragic like a death of a loved one, or finally hitting rock bottom with our addiction and going to group. But more often than not it takes a lot of time for this change.

So perhaps it’s a little ambitious, but my hope today, is that through this homily, I will be able to give you a better vision of reality in under 12 minutes.

The readings today seem totally unrelated but I want to say there is one thing, one thread, that connects them all: the body.

We live in a modernist society that sees the body as “nothing more than matter, to be molded, manipulated, and used” (These Beautiful Bones, 26). The world sees the body as void of purpose or meaning… and it's up to us to decide what we want to do with our body. As the mantra you’ve probably heard, “my body, my choice…” We can ignore or neglect it if we like, or we can indulge every passion. We can nip it and tuck it and make it into whatever we want. We can give it away, again and again, to anyone, even any stranger, if we want to. We can use it for profit or for success.

But this is not the truth. This is not Catholic anthropology. This is not how God created us. We are not just souls trapped in a body… or souls that have a body... no we are our bodies. We are both body and soul. Our bodies are us. Say for example, a stranger comes up to you and punches you in the arm. You wouldn't be like, "Why did you use your fist to hit my arm?!" But you'll most likely say, "Why did YOU, hit ME?" That's because we are our bodies.

St. John Paul II, in his Theology of the Body, explains it this way… he says that the body “expresses the person” and that it “reveals the living soul,” making what is invisible visible to those around us (Theology of the Body, 14:4).

What does that mean? That the body is how the world sees us and knows us. That through our hands and feet, our mouths and eyes, who we are and what we love is made known to others. Every look we give and action we make communicates something about ourselves. “People know we’re happy when we smile and angry when we frown. They know when we’re sad when we cry and nervous when we bite our fingernails…” (TBB, 27)

And this is a blessing because “without our bodies, we couldn’t communicate to those around us our joys and sorrows, thoughts and desires…

We couldn’t with a glance, a touch or a word, make the beauty of our souls known to another… without our bodies, we can’t express love. We couldn’t hug our children and kiss our aging parents…" (TBB, 28)

It is through the gift of our bodies that we are able to love and be loved… but that’s not all.

The first reading said, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living”… but rather he “formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made them.” Death was not the original goal of the body. In fact, if we never fell, God created the body and the soul to live forever… We were formed in the image of God, soul and body. Not only our souls but our bodies also reveal the image of God. We can with our bodies show love or we can chose to wound others with our bodies. Or when we give our bodies to disordered desires, we wound our souls. What we do with our bodies has eternal consequences… What you do with your bodies in the privacy of your home or in the privacy of your room matters. We can either live in the truth of our body and soul: that we were created in the image of God, with the ability to love, reason, create and (with our bodies) bear fruit… or we can deny that truth.

My brothers and sisters, our bodies matter… our bodies were created good and created to not only reveal to others our souls but to reveal to others God himself. St. Paul says in the second reading, “for you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake become poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich…” Jesus became poor, how? By taking on a body. By becoming human. And because of this, now our humanity, our body and soul is raised up to be like God.

Through the humanity of Jesus, we have been rescued. Through his incarnation we have been saved. Jesus literally gives his very body on the cross to save us, and he sacramentally gives his body to us in the Eucharist, so that we can receive that body and unite it with ours and be transformed by it.

Notice how the Catholic church worships, it’s always through the body. There's incense, candles, water, fire and art work all around. We stand, sit, stand, sit, stand, kneel, stand, kneel, walk, kneel, sit, stand… all in one Mass! Why? Because our bodies communicate something. Our bodies reveal our souls and what we do with our bodies matter! It is with our bodies and not despite our bodies that we are saved…

Notice what happens in the Gospel… the synagogue official Jairus comes forward and falls at the feet of Jesus and says, “My daughter is at the point of death… come lay your hands on her that she may get well and live.” And when he heals her, he immediately tells the people to give her something to eat. Because the body is important.

And on the way to the daughter, a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years is healed by touching the clothes of Jesus! Get this: That not only does Jesus have power to heal, that not only does he heal and save through his body by laying on his hands, but even the clothes that are on his body have power. 

What?! You mean to say that the clothes we wear, can have saving power? Yes! In so far as what you wear leads others to the truth of Christ, the truth of the dignity of the human person, that you and I are created in the image and likeness of God and have the dignity of the creator of the universe. Yes, our clothes have power! It can help others encounter the beauty and power of the image of God in a person... But our clothes can also distract or keep hidden this dignity and instead reveal the lie, the lie that the world wants us to believe. The lie that our bodies don’t have a purpose or dignity. And that our bodies are simply meant to be used, and that there are no consequences to how we use our bodies. And we see this every where in our world today. People using bodies and allowing their bodies to be used. We need to combat this lie and show the truth of our bodies, that our bodies are created to reveal not only our souls but the image of God himself.

I want to leave you with a quote from C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory: 

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations.

It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people.

You have never talked to a mere mortal.

Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors…

…Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses."

You are body and soul. Your body reveals not only your soul, but it reveals God himself. Like C.S. Lewis said, “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses."

Go out today, and encounter Christ in others, and through your body allow others to encounter the beautiful image of God in you.