ACAT 18: God’s Governing Style

In exploring God’s infinite perfection, the Baltimore Catechism leads us to three more attributes to ponder, and all in one sentence.  Question 20 of Lesson Two explores the style in which God governs his creation by asking if God is just, holy and merciful.  The answer given is a threefold, interrelated “yes,” with each attribute explicitly defined:

Just: Providing what is deserved, whether merit or punishment

Holy: Exalted in goodness

Merciful: Less exacting than justice demands

The Baltimore text gives an example of a judge in a court of law who is motivated by wisdom and virtue.  A criminal found guilty in this court will be sentenced according to what is right – no more, no less.  Occasionally, circumstance will arise where the person’s guilt is mitigated by factors beyond control, such as impaired thinking, ignorance of the law or extreme and immediate need.  In such cases, a just judge would show mercy by overriding the typical sentence with something more fitting, and in no way does this suggest the judge is corrupt or bending any rules.  A just judge follows the rules.  A holy judge asks what is morally right.  A merciful judge considers each person’s humanity and frailty, and keeps or adjusts decisions based on what will lead that person to a better way of life.

When taken together, these three attributes form a solid platform of checks and balances.  Any overreliance on one detracts from the ability of the others to achieve their intention.  God’s justice is no less real than God’s mercy, yet neither dominate, nor do they switch off and on.  All three operate simultaneously at any given moment: justice and mercy bound together in holiness.  However many sermons, books and homilies may focus on one aspect over the other, the reality is a constant, perfect and simultaneous triad.

Our post last week considered God in the spiritual tradition of St. Thorlak, which portrays Him against the backdrop of His purpose, which is LOVE.  God brought creation into existence with love, through love and for love… so, it ought to follow that God governs creation likewise: with love, through love and for love.  This is where we can find a solution among those who assert one aspect of God’s governance over another (that is, the fire-and-brimstone image on the one hand, and the none-are-ever-condemned image on the other).  LOVE is what motivates and binds justice, holiness and mercy into one cohesive truth.  1 John 4:18 shows how this works:  “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.”  If God is wrathful, there is reason to be afraid – either fearing God’s punishment for what we have done, or fearing that we can never reach or maintain a level of goodness to stay in the safe zone out of God’s way.  Likewise, if God holds none of us to any standard of virtue, nothing in any other part of the catechism, or any religious teaching, makes sense.   Some will say that Jesus’ death erased sin and guarantees salvation for all, even to the point of eliminating the concept of hell or damnation.  That also fails to hold up under scrutiny and test, and it gives rise to a different kind of fear – that of everyone making up their own rules, justifying themselves without consequence, and gradually losing sight of the common good.

Perfect love casts out fear.  If God is the essence of love, there ought to be no fear or chaos in God’s governance.  The triad of justice and mercy bound by holiness is perfectly balanced, with neither fear of wrath nor moral chaos.  Loving justice defends those who are abused and restores what is taken by holding abusers accountable.  Loving mercy considers those who stand accused and invites them to choose the better way before the evil of their actions is locked in.  Both exist simultaneously.  Nobody loses.  Those who decline God’s invitation to holiness reap the fullness of justice… and, those who accept God’s invitation to holiness reap the fullness of mercy.

ACAT 17: A Concept of God

Lesson Two of the Baltimore Catechism outlines the characteristics of God which most of us have heard in one way or another.  Most of these qualities are beyond anything we can relate to in human terms:

  • Spiritual
  • Perfect
  • Infinite
  • Without beginning
  • Without end
  • Everywhere
  • All-seeing
  • All-knowing
  • All-powerful

Without anything like this in our concrete reality, it falls to our imaginations to construct our idea of God.  That presumes, however, that we have a well-functioning imagination.  Many of us do not, and even who do still find this far past the range of speculation.  It often seems that our concept of God comes out like the mythical gods of long ago: Giant, thunderous, demanding, frightful in abject perfection (with ourselves, by comparison, looking like wretched fools or worse). In other scenarios, God ends up like a forerunner of Santa Claus, a benevolent grandfather figure who sees everything we do, knowing all that we feel, think and say, and exists to dispense gifts to us based on our merit.  Imagining God can feel like living in a snow globe, existing solely for God’s amusement – or abandonment when He tires of watching us.  It gets to be such absurdity that we eventually dismiss the whole thing as either too big to imagine, or outright fiction.  Autistics particularly struggle with the contradiction of concrete realities which consist of abstract qualities.  Perhaps, then, we might start with the implications of God rather than trying to comprehend His descriptions.  St. Augustine took this approach in his teachings, and over the centuries, he would influence many others, including our own St. Thorlak.  How did he – a scholar, and also a likely autistic – present these heady realities of God to the medieval Catholics of Iceland, few of whom were literate, all of whom labored day and night to survive on fishing and farming in an unreliable and punishing climate?

Thorlak’s intellectual leaning was a peculiarity to his fellow Icelanders, including those at the Oddi, the center of Icelandic scholarship.  He found his niche 1,359 miles (2,187 km) abroad, studying theology at the renowned Abbey of St-Victor in Paris.  He never intended to subsist on academia, though.  Thorlak was eager to return to his homeland with the mission of bringing this marvelous knowledge of God to those unable to pursue theology.  And, in the way many fellow autistics have of drawing out profoundly simple yet powerful solutions to confounding complexities, Thorlak showed a way to see the unseeable God by using the backdrop of His purpose: LOVE.

In that manner, then, let us employ the Catechism’s list of attributes to understand not a demanding deity, not an indifferent toymaker in the sky, but One who embodies and defines the essence of love.

We, being human, have the limits of our minds and senses; thus, the first three attributes reflect the limits to how we can know God.  God is spiritual, perfect and infinite.  Spiritual suggests He exists within the interior and unseen realm, the experience itself of being.  One of the earliest translations of “spirit” is “breath.”  We can think of God as the breath that says “yes” to all that has existed, exists now, and will exist far beyond our participation.  Perfect means complete, whole, without flaw.  Infinite: God encompasses the totality of all that is.  Since creation is very much alive and unfolding, that totality is not finished, nor can we comprehend how far back it goes or how far ahead it will go on.

Without beginning, without end… everywhere… all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful: These are, in one sense, embellishments on the notion of being infinite.  God’s essence and intentionality infuses and sustains all creation, which includes us and the world around us and the universe in which our world exists.   But more specifically, these reflect the intentionality of God.  He exists not just to exist, but to be, see, know and act.  Why?

What if the answer is love?  If God is love’s very essence, then creation is the expression of joy so ripe that it had to be given form.  The “love” that is God is that creative love underpinning the interests which propel our spirits.  God’s love is no mere greeting card sentiment.  God’s love is all-consuming, all-knowing, all-seeing and without end.  God’s love of the very notion of humanity and earth and universe, and all its intricacies, is indistinguishable from God Himself, and exceeds the capacity of God to remain statically fixed or detached.  It is such a burning drive that God, unable to be contained, brought it all into being to experience it.

Repeat: God did not simply imagine us.  The delight He took in imagining us was so consuming that He was moved to experience us.  Hence, God actively sees, knows and empowers what He has given form and substance.

Autistics know the difference between thinking about something and experiencing that intense rapture which drives us, draws us forward, consumes our minds and feels like the meaning of life itself.  Onlookers call this our “special interest.”  We go along with that terminology because it avoids degrading our joy into something pejorative, like “obsession,” but it grossly dismisses how greatly that joy affects us.  (To the point, who would ever gaze upon a loved one and whisper, “You are my special interest?”)

With “love” as God’s backdrop, we see that he is neither dictator nor spy in the sky.  God supplies all, designs all and sustains all because He is love which cannot be contained.

This may still be too much to comprehend or believe, especially when we look around and see everything that is NOT love.  Where did all the mess come from, and why does God not step in and clean it up for us?  We will continue this discussion as we explore more of the Catechism.  In the meantime, let us recall that list in answer to the question, “In what manner does God love us?”

Spiritually.  Perfectly.  Infinitely.  Without beginning or end.  Everywhere.  Seeing and knowing all, and loving us with all His power.

ACAT 16: What Are We To Believe?

From the Baltimore Catechism:

How shall we know the things which we are to believe?

We shall know the things which we are to believe from the Catholic Church, through which God speaks to us.

Where shall we find the chief truths which the Catholic Church teaches?

We shall find the chief truths which the Catholic Church teaches in the Apostles’ Creed.

Let us comment, then, on these two questions as we pick up our look at the Catechism once more.

The Baltimore Catechism was ostensibly prepared and published for use by school-aged children being raised in the Catholic faith.  However, it is still a valid and informative resource outside that context – for instance, as a starting point for those unfamiliar with, or seriously questioning, the Catholic faith.  To that end, this week’s questions seem almost circular.  “How do we know what to believe, if we want to be Catholic?” – “Find out by being Catholic.”  It also seems a bit too direct for many sensibilities if we conceptualize “The Catholic Church” as a monarchy (or worse, a dictatorship).  Autistics often feel the tension between a desire for truth and the cultural persuasion to see truth as a relative construct.

In reality, the Catholic Church is a much broader entity than a mere governing board.  “Church” means both the community of believers and the structure surrounding us – both in a literal and figurative sense.  The structure can be both bricks in the building in which we worship and the beliefs we hold as part of that community.

The Catholic Church as a community of believers does indeed have people in charge, from the top down, and these people are as human as anyone we know.  Some of them are skilled leaders.  Some are shining examples of honesty and integrity.  Some are insincere.  Some are manipulative.  Some start out one way and are influenced into acting another way, for better or for worse.  All are human.  All have the same potential for growth, for grace and for salvation.  If any of us are looking for that one leader who makes no mistakes, who never lapses in judgment, who has no weaknesses, let us stop here.  We will not find perfect people in the Catholic Church.  But this is a function of our humanity, not a failure on the Church’s part.  We are exactly as likely to find flawed people anywhere else we look.  The Catholic Church was not established on any pretense of perfection, and anyone who tells us otherwise is plain wrong.  (The Church does exist, in part, to teach us to strive toward perfection, but the understanding has always been that we are not there yet, and cannot reach that mark until we have completed our earthly lifetimes).

The phrasing of the Baltimore Catechism does reflect its nineteenth-century origin.  However, it remains accurate to say, “If we want to understand the Catholic way of life, study the totality of the Catholic Church, and we’ll find out.”  And, yes: Catholics do believe that God speaks to us through the design and operation of this Church.  The Baltimore text explains that this includes the teachings of the Pope, the councils, bishops and the priests.  We can go further and add deacons, lay ministers and earnestly practicing Catholics in the pews.  The lives of the saints also give us great insight about what it means to live the Catholic faith.  Though there are certain basic tenets, there are as many valid expressions of this faith as there are individuals following it.

These basic tenets are indeed enumerated in the Apostles’ Creed.  This prayer is more often recited in private or small-group prayer than the Nicene Creed, which is prayed by the entire congregation at Holy Mass each week.  The two creeds are basically the same, with the Nicene Creed being a revised wording to more specifically define elements of the faith causing confusion prior its clarification in the fourth century.

The Baltimore Catechism proceeds next into a detailed discussion of the Apostles’ Creed.  Our Spiritual Director, Fr. Mark Nolette, has written a series of articles diving into the relevance and complexities of Nicene Creed.  Find them in these issues of Harvest Magazine, a publication of the Diocese of Portland, Maine.

September/October 2019 Issue

November/December 2019 Issue

January/February 2020 Issue

 

ACAT 14: Care for Our Body

How can we take care of our body without compromising our soul?

The tone of this question may sound a little confusing.  How would taking care of our body compromise our soul in the first place?  In a reasonable manner, not at all.  Caring for our body is responsible and Godly.  There is no conflict between practicing physically wellness and spiritual wellness.

The problem is, physical wellness, as a concept, has become very marketable, and very profitable.  Wellness has been taken from its place of common sense and elevated to an ideal which we are encouraged to strive toward at all costs… particularly those costs transferring from our pockets to those selling products promising to bring us that much closer to this nebulous but never quite fully defined state of “well.”

In the spirit of keeping things simple, we look back to why our bodies exist (= to know, love and serve God), and feel that provides a sufficient enough answer to the question.  We can take care of our bodies by optimizing their ability to help us know God, love God and serve God, and by minimizing the things that interfere with our knowing, loving or serving God.

Every principle of wellness seems to flow logically from the know-love-serve-God formula.  If God endowed us with the body we have, we naturally have an obligation to give it care that reflects our acknowledgment of this gift.  We ought not to abuse or overindulge our bodies’ capacities for pleasure or pain.  We ought to recognize the interconnection between physical, emotional and mental wellness and strive for balance in all that we do, produce and consume.  We do well to notice the chain reactions between mental distress, emotional distress, physical distress and spiritual distress.  A healthy body promotes a healthy mind, and a healthy mind promotes a healthy spiritual connection to God.

Anything truly good promotes wellness without cultivating worry or scarcity.  Godly wellness flows from the abundance and peace characteristic of God Himself.  Within this formula, then, nothing can compromise soul care.  Physical fitness, self-care, food and beverage, leisure, expressions of love and beauty all have a place within a God-knowing, God-loving and God-serving life.  Only when any of the above take excessive attention from knowing, loving or serving God does soul care become compromised.

How can we tell when something takes excessive attention from knowing, loving or serving God?  We dare say, when it reaches the point where we wish God weren’t watching.  If we feel like we have to sneak something we intend to do, take a closer look.  Why sneak it?  Who will disapprove, and why?  Would God disapprove?  If so, it’s not good for the soul.  If we’re not sure, it’s probably a very good time to find out first.  And, if not… then maybe this is a good time to revisit how we understand God.  There are definite limits to the bodily pleasures God intends, and definite reasons for the limits of Godly order… along the same lines as the limits imposed by a wellness-oriented lifestyle.  Denying indulgence in one area is often the avenue to produce a greater good in another.  This is just as true in soul wellness as it is in body wellness.

In the end, recognizing that “caring” is far healthier than “pleasing” is a shortcut that applies to body care, soul care… and even our relationship with God.

ACAT 13: Body Vs. Soul

Does taking care of our body somehow interfere with taking care of our soul?

We come back to the interconnectedness of soul, body and mind with hopefully a little more clarity.

All three elements – body, mind and soul – are integral parts of who we are.  The core of our identity rests in the soul, the center from which our thoughts, feelings, intentions, impressions and actions arise.

Much has been debated over the centuries as to the role the body plays in the health of our soul.  Some contend that the body and soul are in constant battle, with the cravings of the flesh ever drawing us toward pleasure at the expense of virtue and morality.  Some feel that morality is subjective, and that contentment of the body reflects, or promotes, contentment of the soul.  Some fall somewhere in between.

The Catholic Church has a very well-defined moral code spelled out in its Catechisms, consistently seen from the Baltimore edition to the 1992 edition published under Pope John Paul II, to the most recently published 2011 Youth Catechism (YOUCAT).  The Catholic Church is very specific in telling us that comfort of the body must not take more importance than the integrity of our soul.  Why?  Because, a life ordered around pleasing the body is incompatible with the intended design and operating parameters of the soul.

Here is a way to summarize the right order of living:

The role of body and mind is to promote and uphold the purity and integrity of the soul.

  • Purity: Preservation from corruption
  • Integrity: Wholeness; being undivided

We can use a chart like this to compare operating parameters:

Body Soul
Mortal (will die) Immortal (cannot die)
Tangible Intangible
Can change appearance Cannot change appearance
Does not determine who a person is by itself Determines who a person is by itself
Has infused, actual cellular identity Has infused, actual essential identity

 

Though we might see this as a list of opposites, taking care of our body does not have to interfere with taking care of our soul, or vice versa.  It would be absurd to think that God would set up a creature opposed to itself.  The two are not designed to be at odds.  In fact, when each maintains awareness of the other, body and soul work in harmonious balance which upholds the wholeness of the entire person.

Imbalance occurs when we exaggerate emphasis on our body’s needs or consider our bodily needs more frequently than considering the needs of our soul.  Think in terms of the chart above.  If we spend a great deal of energy on things that are mortal, we have less to devote to the immortal.  If we focus on sensual feelings, we spend less time feeding our intangible needs.  If we put more stock in our body’s appearance than our soul’s identity, we neglect that core part of ourselves that makes us who we are.  It begins to sound like common sense.

Living in right order means that our body’s actions respect our soul’s operating parameters.  Choosing body over soul neglects the immortal.  What does this mean, since a soul can’t die?  It will never cease to exist… but, if neglected, a soul can starve.

One last question: Can it ever be that we give too much emphasis to soul care, and not enough to body or mind?  No.  Here’s why: The soul is the essence of our life.  A healthy soul produces a sound mind and actualized body.  A very, very healthy soul produces a very, very sound mind and a very, very actualized body.  Shall we keep going?  Is there such a thing as too much health?  Thankfully, no!

When we look at it this way, then, the best way to care for the body is to lavish excellent care upon the soul.  Does care of the body interfere with care of the soul?  No; it BEGINS WITH, and THRIVES UPON, care of the soul.

 

 

ACAT 12: Soul Care is In Our Control

Is our soul’s care completely in our control, or is it affected by outside forces?

 

Before we attempt a question this big, let us please keep in mind our reason for asking in the first place.  We are looking at this section in the Baltimore Catechism:

Q: Why must we take more care of our soul than our body?

A: In losing our soul, we lose God and everlasting happiness.

Now the variables of control come into play.  Is the soul interconnected with body and mind, or is it separate?  Recall this graphic:

By proportion, the importance placed on body and mind should be less than that placed on the soul.  This is because body and mind are the components of ourselves which are enlivened and given identity by the soul, which is our core identity.  The body and mind are those parts of us which interact with the outside, and the soul is that which dwells on the inside. We might say that body and mind are influenced by the soul from the inside, and by forces beyond our control from the outside.  As such, any consideration of outside forces begins with body and mind… and, if we want to go even further, we can consider body and mind as outside forces unto themselves!

But, first, what do we mean by “in our control”?  The choices we make?  How can we ever know if anything is purely “in our control”?  Even our behavior, which originates in the body, can be arguably influenced by factors beyond our control, both from outside ourselves and far within, on the molecular level.  We did not start our own hearts beating, after all!

Let’s hurry up and define some of these things before we get too far out of hand.  Outside of high philosophical and theological circles, we think the following definitions will suffice:

– IN OUR CONTROL: Things we freely choose

– AFFECTED BY OUTSIDE FORCES: How far our actions stray from our intentions

All this, and we haven’t even answered the question yet.  Is our soul’s care completely in our control, or is it affected by outside forces?

The care we give to our soul is the sum total of the intentions we formulate (which are in our control) and the choices we make in the context of both things we can and cannot control.

We cannot control the majority of forces which act upon us.  But our intentions are solely ours, and so the choices we make are often like arrows shot in wind, fog and all sorts of tricky circumstances.  The important point to remember is that intentions count in the equation.  We are not purely victims of circumstances, nor are we masters of our own fate.  We are conscious beings in between, and the God who put us here knows that we are not always able to act without influence and interference.  If we keep God in our intentions, our souls will not be lost.  The more we keep God in our intentions, the more our souls will stay on the path God imagined for us.  And the more we focus on outside forces, the more easily we will find ourselves disoriented.

ACAT 11: Lapses in Soul Care

What can we do to correct lapses in soul care?

So far, the formula has been kept very simple.  Care of the soul is done for love of God, trust in God’s designs and in the sight of God’s gaze.  What then, can we do, when we fall short -whether by deliberate choice or by underestimating just how difficult these things can actually be to accomplish?

First off, let us make this very clear: Lapses in soul care are part of the earthly human condition.  Even with the purest intentions, we live and operate in an environment that does not readily support soul care.  The constantly flowing thoughts, feelings and sensations of ordinary life make it difficult, if not impossible, to separate out the things that remind us of God at their very substance from the things that feel so good we look to them, and away from God, in their appreciation.  It really does not take much to distract us from God.

What, then, when that happens?  Once or twice, we can catch ourselves and gently turn our minds back toward God.  Habitually, though, if we forget to do this, it can become very easy to focus more on what is right in front of us than what we can only recall through faith.   Our bodies are great attention grabbers, and once they grab top billing, soul care drops down: first to an afterthought, and then to progressively lower levels of priority until it reaches “cut.”

It comes back, then, to cultivating a sense of awareness: of God, of ourselves, of one another, in that order.  But if our soul care has dropped significantly, we may need to build our awareness from the bottom back up.  By recalling the God-endowed value of others around us, we begin to remember the God-endowed value of ourselves; and then God Himself, Who Endows Value.

Sound spiritual practices are rooted in awareness, but when we find soul care slipping, there are also specific means of maintaining this awareness once it has been recovered.  Catholics enjoy the sacrament of Reconciliation, also known as Confession, as a means of directly eradicating impediments to soul care.  Outside of Reconciliation, there is prayer, community support, pastoral counseling, liturgical participation, spiritual reading and reserving time for silence to get us back on track.  That last one, reserving time for silence, was a practice championed by our Patron Saint Thorlak during his time as Abbot at the Augustinian Monastery at Thykkvibaer.  More than just unplugging or refraining from talking, recollected silence is a deliberate listening.  Consider the difference between passive silence and active listening to see how the faculties are enlivened and engaged by periods of deliberate silence.

Is there ever a point of no return, where we lapse so greatly that thinking of God seems hopeless?  Not during earthly life.  God is always a glance away.  He created us, endowed us with infinite value and set us up with an incredible operating system.  Nothing we do to ignore, forget or disown our soul can erase its existence… or its value.  Our souls can never depreciate.  Our responsibility, then, is to remember our souls’ value, and adjust our actions accordingly.  It’s that simple.

ACAT 10: Putting Our Soul At Risk

What courses of action are harmful to our soul, or place our soul at risk?

We continue our deeper look at the warning put forth by the Baltimore Catechism that neglecting to care for our soul leads us to lose God for all eternity.  Even as appropriate as it may be to view that word “lose” as a sense of defeat, failure, or game-over, it is just as apt to consider that “lose” can also refer to something slipping out of sight, or not being where we can find it.  Either way we are separated from God.

It would require a great deal more than annotation to delve into how a person’s actions can put the welfare of the soul at risk.  Our task here is to give an overview and a sense of direction, rather than an exhaustive treatment.

Generally speaking: We place our soul in harm’s way any time we seek to remove it from God’s gaze.

If we think of God’s gaze being filled with his love for us, then the things that would lead us to avoid God are those which are not good for our souls.  Try as we might, we cannot think of any exceptions to this guideline (and it’s not for lack of trying!)  Observe some examples that come to mind:

  • Going against anything moral (lying, stealing, cheating)
  • Purposefully calculating something that hurts another person
  • Doing things we would not have God watch us do
  • Avoiding God when we feel embarrassed, inadequate, frustrated or angry

That last one may surprise some of us.  God does not punish us for reacting to our feelings, does he?  No.  But notice the example does not say to avoid the feelings or the reactions… it says that avoiding God in those moments puts our soul in harm’s way.  God knows us and loves us in our strengths and our failings, so why would we feel the need to pull away when we are at our most vulnerable?

So very often we base our presence on what we bring to the room. And just as often we on the spectrum can feel overwhelmed, or empty, or unglued, or insecure, or shaggy around the edges, or grouchy, or tested to our very last limit… and be absolutely correct in declaring, “Leave me alone! I’m not very good company right now!”

Statements like this are not what would put our souls at risk.  However, cultivating the habit of assuming God assesses us based on the quality of our successes, our moods or our cumulative merits is unfair to both ourselves and to God.  God does not operate on human terms.  He created us.  He knows our operating systems, but is not subject to them.  Taking our own space is perfectly fine for a time, but going to the extreme of shutting ourselves out of God’s gaze cuts off our spiritual oxygen.  God knows us even at our worst moments, and loves us exactly as he loves us in our best moments.  God’s love is not merit-based and does not fluctuate, either calculatingly like the stock market or erratically like the weather.  God’s love is a constant… a given… an immovable absolute.

Even when we remove ourselves from his gaze.

The flip side here is that God’s love never wanes; and so, it also does not push, beg, force or chastise.

Are there consequences to the things we choose?  Most certainly.  Is there such a thing as Divine Justice?  Most certainly.  Does Divine Justice work the same way we understand human justice?  Most certainly not.  It can feel like there are no eternal consequences to the things we do, whether openly or in secret, whether we believe they count or believe they have no effect on any other person… but it remains those things which lead us to cut the connection which put our soul in mortal danger.

ACAT 9: What Happens if We Neglect Our Soul’s Care?

If care for our soul means knowing, loving and serving the purposes of God in our lives, neglect would be those times when we disregard opportunities to know God, love God or serve God’s purposes in the things we ordinarily do.  Sometimes this happens through circumstance and chain reaction, very often because “God-things” are not immediately visible and get pushed aside by the visible, tangible things taking up all of our attention first.  It takes lifelong practice to remember that God is invisibly present in everything, as present as the atmosphere which sustains us, and there will be times when it simply slips our minds.  The more often we can call God back to mind, the stronger our foundation becomes for remembering His presence and incorporating God into our conscious activity; but, realistically, there are always going to be times when other concerns of the moment occupy our minds first.

Neglect is not always a passive thing, however.  Sometimes we neglect things purposefully, like when we ignore incoming calls or let the laundry pile up.  Neglect can equally be a function of habit, or avoidance, or even a deliberate act of aggression – such as choosing not to follow through on something we have promised.

What happens when we neglect God’s presence in our lives?

Neglect in any relationship results in growing apart, loss of familiarity, loss of comfort, and loss of trust.  These things can all be gained and rebuilt again, but if continuously neglected, the gap becomes greater and greater, eventually creating unfamiliarity, discomfort and distrust.

As we go further, we realize that, if God created us and is present in all creation, it is not possible for Him to be unfamiliar, uncomfortable or distrustful with us.  It rests entirely on our shoulders to remember Him.

Following the spectrum described above, neglect can range from gradually, even accidentally forgetting God to deliberately turning away.   The effect is the same, regardless: loss of spiritual connection and purpose.

What happens if we lose our spiritual connection and purpose?

Plenty.  For starters, waking up in the morning gets harder and harder.  People around us get more and more tedious.  Tasks feel fruitless.

This sounds a lot like depression, but is it the same thing?  We know that depression is caused by biochemical imbalance resulting from many different contributing factors, sometimes spontaneously and sometimes from depletion due to chronic distressing.  But in both cases, imbalance results because our bodies are not designed to live like this.  It is just as untrue to say that all depression is spiritually caused as it is to think that spiritual unrest can’t happen in perfectly healthy bodies.  Body and soul work together for the same purpose, like harmonious melodies in the same composition.  So, it is fair to say that a loss of spiritual connection and purpose results in hardship on both body and soul.

When we find life pointless, we stop thriving.  We also tend to dry up in terms of what we might have to offer others around us.

This might just be enough to say that neglect of the soul is not a good thing.  The Baltimore Catechism goes us one step further: it says that chronic neglect puts us at risk of losing our soul forever.  This, again, would be the result of our failure to cultivate and maintain that connection to God.  He relies on us to stay connected with Him in our lifetime so that we will want to see Him face to face in the next.  If we grow unfamiliar, uncomfortable and distrustful now, we’re definitely going to shrink away from any idea of spending eternity with Him.

But, if not with God, who holds all creation together in Himself… then… where?

In losing our soul, we lose God and everlasting happiness.

That remains unknown.  We can’t know where we will be.

In other words, our soul will be lost.

ACAT 8: Body and Mind Serve the Soul

Q: Of which must we take more care, our soul or our body?

A: We must take more care of our soul than our body.

Q: Why must we take more care of our soul than our body?

A: In losing our soul, we lose God and everlasting happiness.

Last week, we examined the notion that our soul can and should be cared for, lest we lose it altogether – so the writers of the Baltimore Catechism warn, without much in the way of elaboration.  Before we examine particular questions, we ought to look at the relationship between body and soul, both in the 21st century context and as we surmise the writers originally intended.

 

In looking at the whole person, body + mind + soul are most often viewed as harmonious equals.  Body = our physical identity; mind = our thoughts, words and ideas; soul = our essence; that which makes us who we are.  This organic approach acknowledges the interdependence of all three aspects without assigning priority to one over another.  It seems quite reasonable: if our body is in good health, our mind functions well; if our mind and body function well, our core self thrives.  When one aspect is compromised, the other two experience consequences in kind.

This organic approach works if all three aspects are truly equal.  Many would propose they are.  If we consider, however, our previous examination of what comprises a “soul,” we begin to see that equality between the three is not possible.  It becomes obvious when we recall that the soul is the core of our identity as imagined by God.

  • Disharmony within the body can impact, even disable the mind; but can it alter or determine who we are at our core?
  • Disharmony within the mind can impact our thoughts and words; it can greatly tax our bodies; but, again, can it alter or determine who we are at our core?
  • Disharmony between body and mind can create numerous setbacks in our ability to live well and function well; but can it alter or determine who we are at our core?
  • Disharmony between body, mind and soul may give rise to an inability to perceive or be satisfied with our core identity, and can result in restlessness, protest and desire to alter one or all until we feel satisfied. But this is where it gets complicated and absolutely another discussion all by itself.  First things first.  We’re only at the foundation stage of this block tower, and those blocks about body, mind and soul identity are far too important to neglect when we get to them.  Don’t worry; we’ll get there!

In sum: Is there anything that can alter or determine who we are at our core?

In the Catholic worldview, no.  Only God, who loved our core identity so greatly that he created it, and gave it a body and mind to serve its life here on earth.

This bears repeating:

Our body was fashioned and given to serve our soul.

Our mind was fashioned and given to serve our soul.

Body and mind do work closely together, and are to a great degree interconnected – although we can make the case that there is some autonomy of each.  The mind can still generate thoughts and ideas when the body is disabled.  The body can do things without thought, or without words, or without ideas.  However, the two working together is the ideal, and that is generally what is held true in the pursuit of wellness.

Our body and mind are given to us to serve our soul.

Then, what is the soul’s purpose?

(Remember? Say it with us!) To know, love, and serve God in this world, and to be happy forever with God in the next world.

Body serves soul -> body’s purpose is to promote knowing, loving and serving God in this world.

Mind serves soul -> mind’s purpose is to promote knowing, loving and serving God in this world.

Why couldn’t the writers of the Baltimore Catechism have said that, then?

Perhaps they were not speaking to an audience who would have imagined body, mind and soul as being organically equal.  Somehow, the past few decades have pushed so to break out of stereotyped, externally assigned identity that we have forgotten the reality that each individual has a unique, INTERNAL identity that was not merely assigned to them by God, but comprises their very existence as initiated by God.