ITS other names can be the spiritual life or our life of relation with our God and Creator.
It’s that aspect of our life that constitutes the very core of our being, our principle of unity and of direction. It’s where our deepest yearnings are born and pursued, where our real identity is developed and known.
For many of us, unfortunately, we need not only to be reminded about it, but rather to be introduced to it. My impression is that many hardly have heard of it before. Do we still wonder why we have so much mess today?
It should be distinguished from our physical or biological life, or our social, professional or political life, etc. These aspects cover only part of our being and concerns. We have to be keenly aware of the utility of these distinctions.
Its basis is, of course, the fundamental truth that as persons, we are not soul. Our Catechism says:
“The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual.” (362)
Of these two constitutive elements, the soul holds a more important and leading function. Again our Catechism says:
“’Soul’ refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value to him that by which he is most especially in God’s image. ‘Soul’ signifies the spiritual principle in man.” (363)
This does not mean that the body is not important. It is. About this, the Catechism again clearly says:
“Through his very bodily condition, man sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator.
“For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day.” (364)
I hope we can find time to digest this doctrine of our faith well. By it, we can discern what pertinent practical responsibilities we have toward the body and the material world in general.
But it is very important that we also understand very well the nature of our spiritual soul, so we would know what practical duties we have toward it.
I believe that most of our problems today, politics included, stem from our neglect in the care due to our soul, or to our interior life.
Just as the body needs to be taken care of—feeding and nourishing it, keeping it healthy by a regimen of hygiene and exercise, etc.—the soul too needs to be taken care of.
How? By seeing to it that it is also regularly fed, nourished, cleaned or purified, exercised, etc. Its proper source of nourishment are truth of faith, aside from the highest forms of natural truths.
It is cleaned and purified when, in a manner of speaking, it gets to study, pray and love. In short, when its spiritual faculties—the intelligence and the will—are exercised.
It grows and is strengthened whenever it is allowed to do good, to develop virtues in ourselves, and to spread all forms of goodness around us. It’s when it is immersed in God that it gets its best nourishment.
The main problem at present is that these activities are neglected, and we simply focus ourselves more on the physical and the biological, the social or the political, etc. This is dangerously inadequate.
Very helpful in understanding this need is to go through the pertinent doctrine articulated by St. Paul when he talked about the spiritual man as compared to the carnal or sensual man.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, he says: “We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from God, that we may know the things that have been given us by God.
“But the sensual man does not perceive the things that are of the spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him and he cannot understand, because it is examined spiritually.” (12-14)
It’s important that we learn to take care of our soul or our interior life, since neglecting it can only mean that we unavoidably become crooks, whether we are a priest or a politician.
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