Spiritual healing more important than bodily healing

THAT’S what we can gather from that gospel episode where Christ first forgave the sins of a paralytic man before curing him of his disability. (cfr. Mt 9,1-8) And that’s simply because it is the spirit and not just our bodily or biological constitution that truly gives us the life and the health proper to us. 

 This means that we should first take care of our spiritual life before we take care of our bodily health. Yes, we have to take care of both our spiritual soul and bodily condition, but we should be clear about the priority proper to them. 

 Nowadays, many people are concerned more about their bodily health than their spiritual health. In fact, there are many signs that show that many people regard their bodily health as the be-all and end-all of their life. 

 We need to correct this anomaly that, sad to say, is spreading like wild fire, thanks to the endless bombardment of false commercials and popular memes. We should not be averse to boldly proclaim the indispensable importance of our spiritual health in spite of the likely contradictions and rejections it can get due to a progressively worldly culture that is blind and deaf to the spiritual and supernatural dimensions of our life. 

 For this, we need to learn how to live our life with the Holy Spirit, which is what our spiritual life is all about. This is what sometimes is called as the Life in the Spirit. Our life is not simply biological and social, or merely natural. It is first of all a spiritual life that is poised to enter into the supernatural world of God as we are meant to do. 

 If we can only give to our spiritual powers just a fraction of the attention we usually give to our physical faculties, I think we would be much better off. Our problem is that most of the time we ignore the needs of our spiritual soul while we pamper and spoil our body. 

 Just look at the time, effort and money spent on things of the flesh—wellness craze, looks, sports and fashion, body cult, etcetera – and compare these with the ones spent for our spiritual needs—prayer, sacraments, interior struggle, etcetera. You’ll notice there can hardly be any worse inequality. 

 That’s why, in the long history of ascetical literature written and lived by saints through the centuries, there has been that consistent insistence to curb the tendencies of the flesh to give way to the more important aspirations of the spirit. 

 We need to sharpen our ability to discern the constant promptings of the Holy Spirit in our life. For this, we need to do some spiritual exercises like praying, offering sacrifices, having recourse to the sacraments, waging ascetical struggles, undergoing continuing formation, etc. 

 We need to convince ourselves that by living the Life in the Spirit, we would be putting ourselves on the road toward the fullness of our humanity. It’s in that Life in the Spirit where we would be freed from the constricting world of our senses, emotions and passions. 

 In this regard, St. Paul once said, "Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (Eph 4,22-24)

Faith should guide all our earthly affairs

WE need to be clear about this. Our Christian faith is not optional in our life. It is neither relevant only to some affairs and concerns in our life. It should be the main guide in all our affairs, be they in matters of the sciences and technologies, of politics and business, of our professions, and of course, of religion and our spiritual life. 

 We are somehow reminded of this point in that gospel episode of the apostle Thomas who was kind of castigated by Christ for not believing that Christ had truly risen unless he would see Christ and the marks of the nails in his hands and feet, and of his pierced side. (cfr. Jn 20,24-29) 

 “Put your finger here and see my hands,” Christ told Thomas when he appeared again to his disciples. “Bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe,” he continued. To which Thomas could only say, “My Lord and my God!” 

 That was when Christ told Thomas, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” 

 We have to be wary with our strong tendency to be guided only by what our senses and our understanding can show us. While they are useful, we should never forget that our life is not meant only to stay in the natural level. It is meant for a supernatural life with God, our Creator and Father, who wants us to be his image and likeness and sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 We need to humble ourselves to set us free from the grip of the purely natural in us so we can open ourselves to the supernatural life which God, through his grace, is ever willing to share with us. 

 Let us remember that our natural self cannot remain simply on the natural level. It has to choose between going north by entering the supernatural life with God, or going south by sinking into the infranatural level of the animals, not to mention, the bad spirits. 

 This choice that we have to make is due to the fact that in our earthly life we are actually being tested by God our Creator if we would choose to be like him and with him, as he wants us to be, or to be just by ourselves. 

 This test or choice is given to us in every moment and situation in our life. And to help us make the proper choice, God gives us the gift of faith that goes together with hope and charity. 

 Thus, faith should guide us in all our earthly affairs because only then can we begin to be with God. And being a supernatural gift that gives us some truths that are beyond our natural capacity to understand, we should just accept and believe what we are told or taught by it. 

 We should follow the example of the apostles who said, “Lord, increase our faith.” (Lk 17,5) Also the father of a possessed boy who said, “I do believe, Lord. Help my unbelief.” (Mk 9,24) 

 Of course, the epitome of person of great faith is Our Lady herself who in the Annunciation simply said, “Be it done to me according to your word,” (Lk 1,38) even if she did not quite understand how she could be the mother of the Son of God.

Faith should guide us in our trials

THAT’S what we can get from the gospel episode of Christ’s disciples buffeted by big waves in the middle of the sea and Christ was just asleep. (cfr. Mt 8,23-27) “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” the disciples woke Christ in terror. But Christ reproached them. “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?” he said. Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm, leaving the disciples completely amazed. 

 In life, we cannot avoid some special or extraordinary storms of trials and challenges. We, of course, should first go to Christ, and instead of being overly terrified or overwhelmed, we should strengthen our faith in the omnipotent providence of God who takes care of everything and who knows how to derive good from whatever evil we can encounter in life. (cfr. Rom 8,28) 

 We need to realize that our life always has more to offer to us than what we can understand, let alone, cope. In the face of all this, I believe the attitude to have and the reaction to make is to be calm, pray hard, and while we do all we can, we have to learn to live a certain sense of abandonment in the hands of God. 

 In this life, we need to develop a sportsman’s attitude, since life is like a game. Yes, life is like a game, because we set out to pursue a goal, we have to follow certain rules, we are given some means, tools and instruments, we train and are primed to win and do our best, but defeats can always come, and yet, we just have to move on. 

 It would be unsportsmanlike if we allow ourselves to get stuck with our defeats and failures, developing a loser’s mentality. That would be the epic fail that puts a period and a finis in an ongoing narrative, when a comma, a colon or a semi-colon would have sufficed. 

 We need a sporting spirit because life’s true failure can come only when we choose not to have hope. That happens when our vision and understanding of things is narrow and limited, confined only to the here and now and ignorant of the transcendent reality of the spiritual and supernatural world. 

 This should be the attitude to have. It’s an attitude that can only indicate our unconditional faith and love for God who is always in control of things, and at the same time can also leave us in peace and joy even in the worst of the possibilities. 

 We have to follow the example of the many characters in the gospel who, feeling helpless in the many predicaments they were in, earnestly rushed to Christ for some succor. They went to him unafraid and unashamed and they got what they wanted. 

 We have to be sport and adventurous in facing the different conditions of our life. And it would greatly help if we too can have an abiding sense of humor. Otherwise, we would just fall into states of sadness, pessimism and despair which actually are unnecessary and are avoidable. 

 This we can do if first of all we have a strong and deep faith in God, our Creator and Father. If we have that faith, we know that God holds everything in order through his providence. He takes care of everything, irrespective of how things go. Ours is simply to relate everything to him and to go back to him everytime we go astray especially at the end of the day.