The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 51: Unity of Soul and Body (2024)

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

The soul and the body “are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.” The Catechism introduces us to this profound mystery and begins to unpack our nature as a body and as a soul. Fr. Mike shows us how so much pain and confusion in modern times—and indeed throughout history—stems from an attempt to separate these two inseparable parts of our being. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 362-368. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

My name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in the Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in the Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 51. That means we only have 300 and 14 days left or something like that. Is that right?

Is that accurate? I think so. I'm not sure. Well, you guys, I'm using the Ascension Edition of the Catechism, which, as I said the other day, is gorgeous and beautiful and super helpful. It also includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Same words, same thing. Awesome. Also, you can download your Catechism and Year Reading plan by visiting

ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app to receive daily updates and daily notifications. As I said, it's day 51 reading paragraphs 362 to 368. Today, here's the next section. Remember that we're in the section about the person of man, like human beings. And there's four sections that we talked about yesterday. He is in the image of God. Male and female is in the image of God. In his own nature, he unites the spiritual and material worlds. That's today. Tomorrow, he has created male and female and fourth. God established him in his friendship. So we're going to talk about the soul and the term soul has a number of different uses throughout scripture and in the life of the church.

So in paragraph 363, it will highlight the fact that the term soul often refers to human life in general or even the entire human person in general, but soul specifically refers to the innermost aspect of a person, that which is of most value to him. So Jesus says, you know, what does a prophet a person, if they gain the whole world and lose their soul, that part by which we are most especially in God's image. And it's incredible, you know, soul signifies the spiritual principle, meaning that we are spiritual beings

as well as corporeal beings, that we have this reality in us, that yes, we have bodies, and we also have souls. In fact, you might be able to say we are bodies and we are souls. The unity of the soul and body in paragraph 365 is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the form of the body, that because of its spiritual soul, that the body made of matter becomes living, the human body. And that's remarkable. Again, one of the quotes we're going to hear from today is Gaudi Metspez, where it says,

Man, though made of body and soul is a unity. So we recognize that what a human person is, is body and soul together. So I guess maybe an imprecise way of me saying that is, you are your body or you are your soul. It's kind of, well, the way Godimus Bez says is that you're made up of body and soul. But a human person is body and soul. Does that make sense? I mean, it's just one of those things where it's like, well, this isn't part of you and that's part of you. This is an analogy. I just kind of, hopefully this is helpful analogy. You would say that a book is made up of

paper and ink and words. And so you have the sense of like, okay, the paper and the ink are the thing you feel and the thing you see. But what gets communicated to you, what makes it a book in so many ways is the words that ink shapes on that paper, right? So it's kind of like something is represented by the thing you hold in your hands. The part that is present is material. Also communicates something that is immaterial. It communicates ideas.

So I don't know if that's a good example. Maybe we should just stick with the example of the human person being both body and soul. So that's a good example. Maybe we should just stick with the example of the human person being both body and soul. So that's what we're talking about today. And we're talking about the fact that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God. The body is created, you know, by the human parents. But the soul is created immediately by God, meaning it's not mediated by human beings. The body is produced by parents,

the soul is not produced by parents, and also the soul is immortal and doesn't perish when it separates from the body. All these things are what we're gonna talk about when it comes to who we are, what human beings are, body and soul, but truly one, this unity. And so let's pray, let's ask the Father to just be with us and thank Him. Thank Him for the gift of the body. Thank Him for the gift of our souls.

So we pray, Heavenly Father, You have made us in Your image and likeness. You've made us soul and body. Not that You have a body God, but that we are in Your image. We have an intellect and a will. We can choose, we can love, and we give you thanks because not only can we choose and love, we choose and love in our bodies. We also can use our bodies against you. We can use our bodies, we can use our wills, we can use our intellects to reject you or to say no to you.

We just ask you, Lord God, keep us entirely yours. Keep us body and soul united in love for you And at that moment Lord God at the end of our lives where our body and our soul are separated Hold our soul in your hand take our soul to you so that one day in the resurrection of the body We can be reunited with our bodies giving you glory for all eternity. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Okay, here we are. Let's say 51, rating paragraphs 362 to 368. Body and soul, but truly one. The human person created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual.

The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that, then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being. Man whole and entire is therefore willed by God. In Sacred Scripture, the term soul often refers to human life, or the entire human person. But soul also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him, that by which he is most especially in God's image. Soul signifies the spiritual principle in man.

The human body shares in the dignity of the image of God. It is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the spirit. As Gaudi Metspez stated, Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition, he 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. The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the form of the body. That is, 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. The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God, it is not produced by the parents, and also that it is immortal, it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body

at the final resurrection. Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the Spirit. St. Paul, for instance, prays that God may sanctify his people wholly with Spirit and soul and body kept sound and blameless at the Lord's coming. The church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul. Spirit signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end, and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God. The spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart in the biblical sense of the depths of one's being, where the person decides for or against God.

Alright, there it is, paragraph 362 to 368. Man, it's just, it's so incredible. I mean, what a remarkable thing. This might be plain and obvious to everyone who's listening to this, but it is so incredibly important for us to recognize that again, you are your body, you are your soul. Though we're made up of body and soul, it's a unity.

And this reality, of course, this is, you know, this was not profound, it's a unity. And this reality, of course, this is, you know, this was not profound. Well, it was profound, actually. I know back in other cultures, back in other eons, right, you know, hundreds and thousands of years ago, when the Christianity encountered other peoples and other lands, one of the things that people had thought was that, yeah, you are your soul and your body is a trap, right? Your body is the cage that holds your soul. And the church in Christianity is saying, actually, human person is a body and soul, he said duality, but really body and soul unity. That's what a human person is.

Even, you know, Tertullian had once said, he's an early father of the church. He had said that the flesh is the hinge of salvation, that unless we understand the reality and power, the importance of the body, there's no way we can possibly understand Christianity. Why? Because we recognize that how did God save us?

Here we are in this world that's good but fallen. How did God save us? He could have simply declared over this world and he could have just simply declared over us, you are saved because by God's very voice, or he created by his very voice, he could redeem, right? And yet, God ends up saving us. He ends up redeeming us by taking on a body and entering into this world and in living in his body and suffering in his body and loving in his body and dying and rising in it and ascending to heaven in his body. That is how he is affected salvation.

In fact, that's how he communicates salvation to us, right? Through baptism, where water touches our body, through anointing, where oil touches our body, where the Eucharist, where bread and wine become his very body and blood, soul and divinity. And we're fed to this is remarkable that we need to understand that a human person is both body and soul. That not only was radical back in the day, it has recently become radical again. Because people might claim that they are in the wrong body. That is impossible. A person cannot be in the wrong body. A person can perceive incorrectly, but

God did not put them in the wrong body. That is an error that would go against a central core of our beliefs as Catholic Christians. The body and soul are truly one. That what you are is that body you have right now. What you are is that soul that is animating that body right now. And it's just really, really remarkable. Again, going back to this, I mean, paragraph 362 highlights not only the biblical origins of this where the Lord God formed band of dust from the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, right? So there's the corporeal form from the dust and there's this breath, right? The breath of life that gives him life. But the very last line highlights this truth.

Man, whole and entire, meaning body and soul, is therefore willed by God. God wants you to exist. God wants human beings to exist and God specifically wants you to exist. Now we recognize that the realities surrounding any given person's conception might not be the best. And yet at the same time, it is good that you exist. And you do not exist on accident, even if you were conceived in a way that was in the midst of brokenness. Even then, you are willed by God. Not that God wanted the brokenness, but God can bring great good out of the brokenness, including including you, your existence. That line, man whole and entire, is therefore willed by God, is so incredibly important for us. One of the

reasons why is because, here's an example, we will say very often that God loves you. I will talk to people all the time and tell them God loves them. And sometimes in low moments and sometimes in difficult moments people will say, well, of course he does. God has to love everybody. Well, God doesn't have to love. Well, I would say like this. God loves everybody. Yes, he doesn't have to.

Another way to say it is God loves everyone, but you didn't have to exist. Yes, God loves you and maybe because his very nature is love that maybe you could say in some some way, in some sense, God has to. But you don't have to exist and yet you do exist. Why? Because God wills you to exist. He wants you to exist. He wants you to exist so that he can love you. And that is remarkably wants to share his life with you. That's so profound. Another thing is so profound is in paragraph 365 where it says, the unity of the soul and body is so profound, the one has to consider the soul to be the form of the body. It's because of the spiritual soul, the body made of matter, just stuff right, becomes a living human body, spirit and matter. So human beings are not two natures united,

rather their union forms a single nature. This is so so incredibly important. Why? because Because so there take that Because we'd say that the reality of course is that There's a desire there's a desire to reduce human beings to their bodies alone or to their souls alone To say that man is just another animal in this world. Yes, we are animals in the sense that we share bodies with animals that we're, yet we're corporeal like animals are,

but we're distinct in the sense we also have a soul and also the vice versa. Like I mentioned before, there are people who say, no, the real you is your soul. The real you is what's unseen and the body just happens to be the trap, the cage, the expression of what's unseen. Well, it goes deeper than that. The human person is the unity of soul and body so that human person is a single nature, not a double nature. Last couple things, it's sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit. So again, Saint Paul, you know, spirit and soul and body. What does that mean? Well, the church teaches that this distinction between spirit and soul doesn't introduce a new duality into the soul. Like part of your soul is soul and part of your soul is spirit.

The term spirit signifies that from the beginning of creation, like as we're made, human beings are ordered towards a supernatural end. That the reality of like spirit is that we're made for God, that we're made for more than we have, more than is in this like spirit is that we're made for God, that we're made for more than we have, more than is in this material world, that we're made, yeah, made for the Lord. That's what that spirit, when St. Paul refers to holy, you know, entirely spirit, soul and body, that spirit refers to the fact that you are oriented, that you are ordered, that you are made for a supernatural end. And that our soul can be freely raised beyond all it deserves to have communion with God,

which is remarkable. That last little note, it says the spiritual tradition of the church also emphasizes the heart. And it's a biblical sense of the depth of one's being. You know, on the side of your Catechism, there's a little number and that number is, there's a bunch of little numbers.

Next to 368, there's at least, I think, seven numbers. One of those is the number 2562, and that refers to a different paragraph in the Catechism. If you ever turn to paragraph 2562 and 2563, it talks about the heart. In fact, it asks this, it says, where does prayer come from? This is a section on prayer.

It says, where does prayer come from? Whether prayer is expressed in words or gestures, it is the whole person or the whole man who prays. But in naming the source of prayer, scripture speaks sometimes of the soul or the spirit, but most often of the heart, more than a thousand times. According to scripture, it is the heart that prays. If our heart is far from God, the words of prayer are in vain.

And it goes on to say in 2563, it says, The heart is the dwelling place where I am, where I live, according to the Semitic or Biblical expression, the heart is the place to which I withdraw. The heart is our hidden center. And that's what we mean by the heart is referred to as the soul, the depths of one's being, where a person decides either for or against God

in our soul, in our heart, we decide either for or against God. And so this day, I just ask that God helps me to be His and help God helps you to be His as well. Because of that, then to that end, I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.