Body/Soul    

    In our search for the truth, we turn to philosophy in this pursuit of its ‘unveiling.’ We work to define elemental concepts that form the basis and perception of our reality. Central to the project is the understanding of the distinction between the body and soul itself. In platonic philosophy, the soul descends from the pure and perfect world of ideas to find itself imprisoned in a physical, material body. The purpose of life is to free oneself from the corruption of the material body to return to the spiritual realm of ideas. When St. Augustine imported this platonic viewpoint into his theology, the body becomes the prisoner of the soul. The expression of human sexuality tends more toward sin than grace.        When St. Thomas Aquinas imported Aristotelian concepts into the theological world, there is a more intimate marriage of the body with the soul. This perspective redeems the goodness of the body. It is incarnational and essentially good in its original creation. Much of what is expounded on today in the ‘Theology of the Body’ is drawn from this thomistic worldview.      
    While this emphasis seems to get us closer to the truth, there are still many unanswered questions that need refinement. One possible approach to this conundrum is to return to the anthropology of St. Paul. According to my professor, Fr. Ugo Vanni, who taught us the theology of St. Paul at the Gregorian University in Rome, a ‘body’ in Aramaic thinking is ‘anything that can be in concrete relationship with something else.’ So, you can speak of a ‘sarx soma’ that is a fleshly body but you can also speak of a ‘pneuma soma’ that is a spiritual body.    
    Why is this distinction important? If we accept this Pauline understanding, it will impact our understanding of salvation and life in the new creation. St. Paul in chapter 6 of his letter to the Roman speaks of Baptism where the fleshly body that we inherit from Adam and Eve is nailed to the cross with Christ and buried in the waters of Baptism. We come forth a new creation, we enter into a new transcendent reality. We grow deeper each day by means of the indwelling of the Spirit into the mystery of the God who is love.    
    We can be anywhere on a continuum of nurturing the spiritual body that ultimately becomes fully immersed in God’s love. Our joy in heaven will depend on the expansiveness of our heart. For those who do not know love, it is not God who condemns. Rather, hell will be the impossibility of being able to enter into and experience God’s love.    
    To sum up to this point: Christ, as the Word through whom the Father creates the universe, is the one and only unchanging Truth. God’s plan of salvation as expressed in the hymn of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, is to bring all things under the ‘headship of Christ’ to be ultimately taken up into the mystery of the Trinity. The Greek word for God’s plan of salvation is mysterion. St. Jerome translates this into the Latin vulgate as sacramentum. Thanks to our baptism, a whole new transcendent reality is opened up to us.      If we can accept this body/soul distinction, I would like to pursue one consequence of this weltanschauung or world-view. The sacramental life of the Church opens up a whole new universe to us. We are born into it through our baptism. We come forth into a new creation grounded in the Spirit. As St. Paul says, it is no longer I but Christ in me. We move along the continuum from the fleshly self of this material world to become a spiritual body in deep communion with the God who is love. Ultimately, as summarized in the hymns of Colossians and Ephesians, we become one in Christ.