Last week, I started a conversation about funeral music and leaving a lasting mark in the world. As part of that conversation, I noted that the Catholic Church requests that we, and our loved ones, be honored by a final place of rest. The Church’s position is rooted in the need for respect for our mortal bodies, because our bodies have been a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit, and members of Christ’s body, the Church, let alone, tabernacles for Jesus’ body through the gift of the Eucharist. Where certain heresies, like Gnosticism or Manichaeism, believe that our spirits are good and our bodies are evil, the Church continues to affirm that our bodies ARE good, and they deserve dignity. Though we know that our mortal bodies pass away, and that it is our spirit that goes to heaven, we also understand that we will, at Jesus’ Second Coming, be reunited with a perfected form of our body. I had this concept in mind when I came upon a YouTube video: “What happens after we die? – Robert Barron and Lex Fridman.” Within that video, Bishop Barron shares Cambridge professor and Anglican priest, John Polkinghorne’s, concept about the way that we are reunited with our bodies after death. (It is a short video, but well worth a watch.) So many things can be said about this topic, but I wanted to take time, this week, to share several quotes from scripture that affirm the goodness of our bodies here on earth, right now, and why that matters.
We can start in our affirmation of the body right where all things began, at the beginning of creation. In Genesis (1:26-27) we read, “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” We are the only creatures on earth that are created in God’s image and likeness. Our intellect and free will set us apart in deeply profound ways. It is for that reason that God gives humans dominion over all of creation. In many ways, we are responsible for providing an environment that sustains life for all of God’s creation, but humans come first in that mix.
It wasn’t, however, just at the beginning of time that humans had dignity. God’s care for us continues. For example, Psalm 139 (verse 14) affirms that each and every one of us can say, “you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” We may think that God “dropped a few stitches” when making is, in particular, but nothing could be further from the truth. “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). Just like I said, above, Paul tells us in his First Letter to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor 6:19-20).
The act of honoring our bodies can take many forms. It can be in choosing to go to bed earlier, so we get enough sleep, or making sure to eat healthful food. The situation can become a bit trickier when our choices impact others, as in choices related to chastity or interpersonal relationships. May we, all, remember that we are all “wonderfully made” by a God that loves us.