Christ cares and heals both our body and soul

THAT’S what we can learn from that gospel episode about some people presenting a paralytic to Christ, asking for healing. (cfr. Mt 9,1-8) Taking note of their faith in him, Christ did not delay in responding to their plea. But instead of curing the body immediately, Christ cured first the soul by saying: “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” 

 Of course, the usual villains took issue with what Christ did, accusing him of blasphemy. That’s when Christ, to show his divine authority, asked the paralytic to stand up and walk. And when the paralytic managed to stand up and walk, the crowd was completely left awe-struck and could not help but glorify God. 

 In this moment, Christ wanted to show that reconciling the soul is a more profound healing than repairing the body, that spiritual restoration—forgiveness—is the ultimate healing. As a corollary, he wanted to show that it is sin that is the deepest paralysis, making forgiveness the most necessary healing. He wanted to make it clear that healing the inner person is paramount, and that a restored soul is greater than a cured body. 

 Christ, of course, is also interested in giving our body its ideal condition. And we should also be. But we should make sure that our concern for the health of our body, which can make use of whatever human means are available, should never compromise our complete reliance first on God’s grace and mercy. 

 We have to remember that our body cannot achieve its distinction as being human if it is not animated by our spiritual soul that in turn should channel the very spirit of God. Without the spirit of God, our body would not be much different from the body of an animal. 

 Our body and soul should be properly united. This is how the Catechism describes this unity: “The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the ‘form’ of the body, i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.” (CCC 365) 

 This clarification is significant for it would show us that somehow the condition of the body is determined to some extent by the condition of the soul, and vice-versa. There is some kind of correlation between the two, though not in a strictly one-to-one mathematical kind of correlation. 

 To put it bluntly, we cannot say that just because one has an ugly face or a frail body, he too has an ugly soul or a weak soul. That is absolutely foul. In the lives of saints and holy men and women, we can see a beautiful soul in ugly faces and sickly bodies. 

 In fact, we have these prophetic words from the Book of Isaiah that described the future Christ: “He had no stately form or majesty to attract us, no beauty that we should desire him.” (53,2) 

 So, we have to be careful with making judgments based on looks alone and other external things. Just the same, we have to say that when the body is sick, especially of the mental, emotional, psychological kind, we cannot say that the illness is due exclusively to some organic malfunction. The condition of the soul has something to do with it also. 

 The main point to learn here is that the unity of our body and soul should have Christ as its living principle.

From knowing to believing

WE somehow can get that idea of how we can shift from simply knowing to what is more important, which is to believe, after considering that gospel episode about Christ meeting two men possessed by devils. (cfr. Mt 8,28-34) The devils, upon meeting Christ, said: “What have we to do with thee, Jesus Son of God? Are thou come hither to torment us before the time?” To be sure, the devils knew who Christ was, and yet they could not bring themselves to believe in him. In fact, all they do is to disobey and go against God. This is where we are reminded that we should not remain only in the level of knowing God. Of course, we have to know God as much as we can. In this regard, we cannot overemphasize the need to study as deeply and thoroughly as possible all that we can know about him. But we have to see to it that we truly believe in God, giving our all to him, and not only our intelligence. While we have to know God as much as we can, we have to see to it that our knowledge filters down to our whole being to such an extent that we truly give our whole selves to him. That’s what believing is. We go from knowing to believing to loving and to serving. When we believe we turn knowledge into life itself. And we also have to consider that in believing, while it depends on our human understanding about God and things in general, it actually depends first of all on that supernatural gift of faith which God himself gives us, especially through the sacraments. We should continually ask for this grace, nourish it by constant acts of faith, and let it bloom into deeds. We have to always remember that given the fact that we are not meant to remain only in the natural level, relying simply on our human powers, but rather are meant to enter and share the supernatural life of God since we are his image and likeness, we have to be clear that we have to be guided by faith rather than simply by our own reasoning and our other human ways of knowing. Faith is God sharing his knowledge with us. It is how we begin to share the life of God. And he gives it to us very willingly. It just depends on us on whether we receive it or not, and to respond to it or not. Faith contains truths that go beyond the natural realities of our life. Thus, it has supernatural truths or mysteries which we have to learn to feel at home with. This means we have to learn not to stick to our natural reasoning alone, but to go beyond it. To be sure, faith does not supplant our reasoning or intelligence. Rather, it makes full use of it, although its scope is far wider and deeper than what our intelligence can fully know and understand. As the Catechism puts it, faith is first of all a gratuitous gift of God, it is grace. But it also requires the correspondence of our intelligence. It is also a human act. It asks us to do our best to understand it as much as we can. It seeks understanding. We have to remember that since the reality that governs us transcends the natural order, our human faculty of intelligence and reasoning just cannot depend on the data provided by our senses and our own understanding of things.

Staying calm amid life’s storms

THAT’S what we can learn from that gospel episode about Christ’s disciples caught in a storm while in the middle of the sea. (cfr. Mt 8,23-27) They, at first, were gripped with fear, a very understandable reaction. 

 And when they noticed Christ simply sleeping in the boat, they woke him up, expressing their fear. That’s when Christ simply stood up and calmed the turbulent sea, leaving them greatly astonished. But Christ faulted them for their lack of faith. 

 Yes, we too can easily be frozen in fear when we encounter the different forms of life’s storms. But like Our Lord’s disciples, we should just go immediately to him and ask for his help. And to be sure, he will always be there to help, but maybe in ways that may escape our understanding. In this, we should not be surprised and start to loosen our faith in God’s powerful and wise ways. 

 There’s really no reason to be too worried and anxious when we encounter some difficulty in our life. In fact, we have every reason to be confident and at peace, focused on what we are supposed to do. And that’s because we are always in God’s hands. 

 Whatever situation we may be in, we can be sure that God will always provide for what is truly needed by us, and it may not be what we want. We just have to trust him completely for he knows better than we do, and what we want may not be what we need. It may not even be what is good for us. 

 God always knows what to do in any situation we may find ourselves in. He may allow some evil to come to us, an evil that can do us no harm unless we let it, but God knows how to draw good from evil. 

 Ours is simply to trust God completely, and out of that trust, we should always feel confident and courageous to do what we are supposed to do. We should not waste our time lamenting and feeling like a victim, or wallowing in doubts, passivity and self-pity. 

 We have to remove ourselves from that state mentioned by St. Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians: “children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.” (4,14) We have to keep going. There are a lot of things to do. 

 Yes, there will always be challenges, problems, difficulties that humanly speaking may be impossible for us to tackle. But as long as we have trust in God, we can sincerely echo St. Paul’s words: “I can do all things in him who strengthens me.” (Phil 4,13) These words have been verified to be true in the lives of all the saints, especially the martyrs. 

 It’s important that we be confident and at peace always, because that would put us in the proper condition to do the things we are supposed to do. It will make us bold and courageous, fruitful and productive. 

 It is a confidence that is not presumptuous. It goes together with prudence, discretion and tact. It is meek and humble, not pompous, arrogant and vain. It reassures and inspires people. It would make us credible in our witnessing to Christ’s saving message. 

 It is a confidence that is both in heaven and on earth. It happily blends eternity and time. It is not simply theoretical. It is also realistic and practical.