Participating
in society is the mission we have received as Christians and as Church.
It is the way to live an authentic Christian faith life and to carry
out our responsibility to society. A dualism that separates the sacred
from the world and is concerned only about the afterlife separates our
daily life from the religious life. The biggest obstacle that nourishes
this kind of thinking is by seeing the spiritual as distinct from the
material. Scriptures do not make this division but gives us a holistic
view of life.
A
column in the Catholic Times, written by a theology professor, reminds
us of this reality which is, he says, a stumbling block to many
Christians. Scripture does not separate the spirit from the body. They
are one. "The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and
blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living
being" (Gen. 2:7). The soul is not imprisoned in the body as Plato
believed. Scripture points out the problems that can arise from this
understanding.
St.Paul
addresses the conflict between the spirit and the body: "The tendency
of the flesh is toward death but that of the spirit toward life and
peace"(Rm. 8:6). They are to work together. From the beginning,
Gnosticism and Neoplatonism have stressed the dualism of the spirit and
the material. Materiality was considered the shadow side of the spirit.
This
kind of thinking sees only the goal of the present life as being the
glory achieved after death, the professor says. This thinking
rationalizes our earthly pain and oppression, believing that our
economic and social structures are justified.
However,
Scripture, referencing the foundational experience of slavery in Egypt,
speaks about liberation, and not only from sin but from all that
enslaves us. Scripture does not see only a spiritual liberation but an
integration of spirituality and materiality. The reduction of
everything worthwhile in the world to Spirit is a concept that is far
from the teaching of Scripture, says the professor. Consequently, our
individual piety and our community worship cannot be separated from the
structures we find in society.
Scripture
invites us to fight for life and freedom by integrating our body and
spirit for well being, peace, justice, and the integrity of creation.
The dualistic mind will separate the spirit and the body and this will
lead, the professor warns, to many difficulties in living the spiritual
life. There is a need, he says, for a greater loving gaze at all of
creation, seeing it as an expression of God's love for all.
