Our Bodies Are Us

Title: Our Bodies Are Us

Date: April 7, 1988 - Easter Thursday

Readings: Acts 3:11-26 / Psalm 8:2,5,6-7,8-9 / Luke 24:35-48

Jesus appears to his friends and wishes them peace. Today I want to speak briefly about this appearance and a connection we can make with it in our lives. When his friends doubt it is him, or fear that it might be a ghost, he tells them to look, to see, and to touch. He shows them his wounds and says, "...a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do." Then he accepts and eats a piece of fish with them. St. Luke is adamant in having us understand that he is really in this scene and no mere ghostly apparition or simply an internal feeling that he is present, as we sometimes sense at prayer. He is much more here.

It is this stress upon his risen bodily presence which, I believe, offers us much consolation. The human person is not a disembodied spirit. Nor are we angels. We are created with both bodies and souls and it constitutes who and what we are. That is why the Church is so insistent that on the final Judgment Day, we will be restored body and soul. Although this mystery goes beyond our feeble minds, we see hints to how it might be in Christ. Notice that he is both the same and different. At first they did not recognize him. This is no wonder. Could any of us recognize a human continence where all the wrinkles of age, the scars of disease, the marks of pain, and where all tears have been wiped away? Think what such a person might look like. However, after awhile, especially in the breaking of the bread, they come to see him for who he really is. Indeed, he still carries the marks of the crucifixion which are his badges of honor in his victorious fight against sin and death.

In the first reading, the cured lame man stands as a small signification that what happened to Jesus will touch each and everyone of us who believe in him. As a sign of this belief, we need to respect our bodies as his temples and extensions in the world. Our bodies are who we are and therefore we need to take care of them. Our bodies are us! This message emerges in our celebration of both Christmas and Easter where our humanity is elevated and then restored. This message touches all the doctrines and feasts of the Church. Yes, it touches moral theology, too. After all, in the various arguments about abortion, euthanasia, artificial contraception, etc. we are speaking not so much about the body as a shell or robot which we can manipulate as we wish; but rather, we are talking about our very selves and our personhood. People who see the issues of the Church disjointed do not realize that to allow selfishness to rewrite our moral principles would ultimately destroy the meaning of the coming of Christ into our world and his resurrection.