And With Your Spirit

Let’s continue to contemplate how our mind, body, and spirit are related. There’s a lot for us here.

MIND AND BODY DO THE LIFTING

I think we can all agree that we live in an age that neglects the soul. Man makes his body sleek and fills his head with information, but because his soul is left to carry the burden of life in this fallen world all alone, like a blow upon a bruise, man abandons his mind to error and his body to stress by leaving them unaided by his spirit.

The comedian, Norm Macdonald used to tell a joke about how the abbreviation for identification was unfair, because, as he said, “I is short for i, while D is short for dentification.” The punch line, “I think it’s clear which letter’s doing the heavy lifting,” reminds me of how we do harm to our mind and body to the degree that we neglect our spirit. We leave them to do all the heavy lifting.

SINGLE PARENTING

I was reading a chapter from a book on loneliness, when I was suddenly overwhelmed with sorrow for single parents. I put the book down and prayed for the ones that I know - and the ones I don’t.

I imagine it must be difficult, being unable to share the joy of seeing a child grow. But my heart breaks more at the thought of that same parent feeling lonely. It’s already an almost impossible task to keep up with the child’s needs, let alone to do so without the help of a spouse, like the mind or body left to make sense of life without the spirit.

WITH-NESS

When I reflect on my own life as a priest, I can see that Christ is inviting me to witness to His presence primarily by allowing Him to be with me, to live in my heart, alongside of my spirit, my “I,” and then to be with other people, so that by being with me they might be with Him. It’s a task that is easy, a burden that is light; He’s with me, and then leads me to be with others. It is a life of with-ness.

This is, I believe, what He wants for us as a church, but also for us as individuals. He wants our mind and body to benefit from the company of our spirit in all that they do, so that neither are widowed or divorced, but enriched by the one who dwells in our souls with our “I.” We bring the light of Christ to our minds when we discern our thoughts in prayer, and His strength to our bodies when we invite Him into our acts of love.

AND WITH YOUR SPIRIT

It’s no small gift to have received the divine life of Jesus of Nazareth into our souls at Baptism. And yet, how little use we make of His friendship. We excuse ourselves from prayer, and dismiss people who speak of intimacy with God. But then we go crazy trying to make ourselves perfect with self-help programs. I’m no stock broker, but even I know that’s a bad trade.

What if we were to allow the Son of God, who is always in our hearts, to help us. Then we would say to our minds when we have a tough decision to make, “The Lord be with you.” And to our bodies when they are tired, “The Lord be with you.” How much insight and strength they would find in our willingness to bring Christ to them.

We say to our loved ones, “I’ll help you,” and we try to offer this love to one another. So my hope was to remind you of what you say to me at every Mass - that the Lord of your soul wants to be with your mind and body, “and with your spirit.” +