If one day our bodies will be raised anew in, with, and by Jesus, what does that say about how we live in them now?

Our bodies tire, ache, deteriorate, and change. The Christian faith names that honestly (perhaps, sometimes even emphasizes our physical and spiritual vulnerability a little too much). Still, historically, Jesus people have always held that the body that is wasting away is also the body God promises to raise. Thus, we cannot understand life with Jesus by leaving our our bodies--our fleshly, material, physical, dirt and dust filled bodies--out of it.

In Holy Body, we consider the whole person, our whole selves—spirit, soul, and body—and Paul's insistence that we are the temple of the living God. With Irenaeus, we attend to the flesh as the place where God's life saves and forms us. With Augustine, we consider why our loves can restrict us: even beautiful, good things cannot give us lasting rest when we cling to them as though they must last forever.

That brings us back to the work of living. The way we make and care for a life, the way we begin a day, the habits that keep us attentive or distracted, aware or distant, present or promiscuous... as the case may be. We can begin by offering ourselves to God through the work already before us, praying the Lord's Prayer as people who have received this day. We can ask whether our habits help us notice the person across from us--including the person we would rather avoid. And we can worship as a body, with our bodies, receiving together the life we cannot manufacture for ourselves.

Questions for reflection:

• Where, when, and in what circumstances have you experienced an alignment of your complete self: spirit, soul, and body?
• What practices are dividing your body and spirit? What would it mean to turn from them today and tomorrow?
• Do the habits of your day make you more attentive to God and to the person beside you, or make it easier to avoid them?

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 6:11–7:1; 2 Corinthians 4:8–18; 1 Thessalonians 5:23–24; Romans 12:1; Matthew 11:25–30; Psalm 1. In the liturgy: Psalm 84; Romans 8:27–28.

Voices: Irenaeus, Against the Heresies; Augustine, Confessions; Hans Urs von Balthasar on receiving life from God.

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