Do you respect your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit? Is bodily health for you simply a biological exercise or spiritual as well? - Daily Reflections February 3,2015

WHOLENESS IS FOR HOLINESS

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of the Presentation of the Lord. Joseph and Mary brought the infant Jesus to the temple in accordance with the Jewish Law of consecrating to God every firstborn that opens the womb. As the Christ Child presented in the temple was welcomed by Simeon as the light of the world, modern-day faithful come and bring candles to church to be blessed by the priest. Thus, the name Feast of Candles or Candelaria.

       The candles blessed yesterday will be used today at churches for another religious practice attributed to St. Blaise, a bishop of Sebaste in Armenia martyred for the faith, known, among many others, to have healed a boy who was choking. The priest, using two candles formed into a cross, lays it before the throat of every faithful while praying: “Through the intercession of St. Blaise, may the Lord deliver you from all sickness of the throat and from all ailments.”

       It’s interesting that our Catholic tradition includes a special regard for physical healing and wholeness. Christianity has often been accused as a religion that despises the body. Some even claim that Christianity demonizes the body designating it as the evil part of man. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The world does pay special attention to the body but in a way that trivializes the body. And when one trivializes the body, it is as good as demonizing the body. The Christian faith does not do this. In fact, it divinizes the body. Don’t Catholics profess every Sunday, in the recitation of the Creed, the resurrection of the body?

       St. Paul, in Romans 12:1, wrote: “…offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, your spiritual worship.” Catholicism proclaims that holiness is to be achieved as the state of both body and soul. Every part of our body, every action that proceeds from them, is meant to honor God. St. Irenaeus wrote once, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” In wholeness, there is holiness! Fr. Joel Jason

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: Do you respect your body as the temple of the Holy Spirit? Is bodily health for you simply a biological exercise or spiritual as well?

Jesus, You took on a body, revealing its very dignity. Help me recognize it daily, constantly. Amen.