The Harmony Between Body And Spirit

When one scours the newspaper these days, one can’t help but notice how much contemporary man progressively alienates himself from God and His Laws.

One reads of constant wars and unrests, bold kidnappings and robberies, grisly murders and assassinations, blatant graft and corruption, gross immorality and licentiousness, etc., just to name a few.

And in all likelihood, as one reads further along, he encounters a mishmash of false and erroneous ideologies, the most outlandish fads and fashions, ridiculous laws, grotesque humor and the most banal customs and mentalities; the whole shebang, so to speak, of absurdities that plagues the world today. Thus, one veritably faces a world increasingly steeped in a ludicrous frenzy of vice and error.

In Revolution and Counter-Revolution, Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira aptly points out that ‘the many crises shaking the world today – those of the State, family, economy, culture, and so on – are but multiple aspects of a single fundamental crisis whose field of action is man himself. In other words, these crises have their root in the most profound problems of the soul, from whence they spread to the whole personality of present day man and all his activities.”[1]

With the clouding of the light of reason, modern man inevitably loses the notion of a very significant principle - that he comprises body and soul. Consequently, he ignores the truth that the soul is worth incomparably more than the body. He tends to invert the hierarchy of values to such an extent that he relegates the soul to a lesser almost insignificant plane. Hence, by neglecting the soul he ends up adoring the body and giving undue emphasis to worldly pursuits and material things.

A Catholic learns in his basic catechism that, like the angels, his ultimate purpose is God alone. Be it on this earth or up in Heaven above, his proper end is to know, love, praise and serve God. Therefore, his very nature is to direct his mental and physical activities towards this end through the knowledge of truth and the practice of good.

As a creature of God, man must give himself in a total manner to the laws established by his Creator. Through his intelligence and reason, he discerns what is in accordance with natural law or not and what is orderly or disorderly to man.

However, due to the effects of Original Sin, man lives his earthly life in a trial. Though God endows him with natural and supernatural gifts, he needs to preserve, develop, and perfect them. And unfortunately, because of his fallen nature, he conducts his life on this earth tainted with imperfections.

While true morality is logical, coherent and knowledgeable to man per se, Original Sin impedes him to know it entirely. Proof of this is Plato, one of the greatest philosophers of ancient times.

Plato rightfully concluded the existence of God, the soul’s spirituality, the after life, and many other fundamental truths known to man. However, having been a pagan and no recourse to Divine Revelation and the Catholic Church’s infallible Magisterium, he erred gravely by affirming the social equality of the sexes, the suppression of the family, and the eradication of private property. In other words, he espoused revolutionary concepts that smacks of communism. Therefore, human reason alone, without the aid of Divine Revelation, grace and the Church, cannot grasp the fullness of natural morals.

“For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting.” (John 3:16).

Henceforth, the fruits of Christ’s Redemption and the establishment of His Church opened the avenues for man’s elevation to supernatural life and sanctity. And subsequently through the Church’s Sacraments, man practices virtue and finds nourishment to sustain his interior life.

Thus, like the body, the soul requires sustenance for she too can deteriorate or be subject to corruption. Temptations and tepidity weaken her. Evil passions and bad tendencies pose as constant dangers to her. In order to subsist and thrive in the supernatural life, the soul must also be nourished. She achieves this end through the partaking of the Blessed Sacrament, the sacred fountain of abundant graces.

The interior life is the soul of the apostolate, as Dom Chautard points out in his book[2]. He further explains that like a cup filled to the brim, good works should be nothing but an overflow from the inner life. Man achieves this through a life of prayer and contemplation, but above all, by replenishing his cup with the spirit of Jesus Christ drawn from the Eucharist. Therefore, the apostle acts like a reservoir from which water overflows to the benefit of others.

Can one imagine the immensity and power of the internal life in sanctifying others?

Dom Chautard gives a cogent and powerful argument:

“If the priest is a saint (the saying goes), the people will be fervent; if the priest is fervent, the people will be pious; if the priest is pious, the people will at least be decent. But if the priest is only decent, the people will be godless. The spiritual generation is always one degree less intense in its life than those who beget Christ.”[3]

The above passage only reinforces the notion that God desires that the salvation of men be worked through the ministry of other men, and in this case, the institution of the priesthood. But what a grave responsibility - how one’s heart bleeds when he finds a whole parish entrusted in the custody of a mundane and lukewarm pastor!

On the other hand, laymen also participate in this demanding yet lofty task of sanctifying souls as the following excerpt reveals:

“ With his deep understanding of the needs of the Church, Pius X often saw things with a most remarkable clarity. An interesting conversation of the Holy Pontiff with a group of Cardinals was reported in the French clerical publication, “L’Ami du Clerge.” The Pope asked them:

“What is the thing we need most, today, to save society?”
“Build Catholic schools,” said one.
“No.”
“More churches,” said another.
“Still no.”
“Speed up the recruiting of priests,” said a third.
“No, No, “ Said the Pope, “ the MOST necessary thing of all, at this time, is for every parish to possess a group of laymen who will be at the same time virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and truly apostolic.”[4]

Hence, one sees a very important principle being established here - that both spiritual and temporal spheres cultivate and elevate man’s generous spirit towards seeking first the Kingdom of God and His justice.

And in the light of this profound interpenetration and interdependence of spheres, one would be hard-pressed not to conclude – save for the most squalid and cynical of spirits - that Providence desires this harmonious cooperation between temporal society and the Church.

The osmosis that occurs between these two spheres results in the growth of one that serves as a boon towards the vitality of the other. For example, virtuous priests form holy families, which in turn produce saintly priests. Therefore, a virtuous cycle is established.

But there is something more; these holy families also become veritable fountains of virtuous public leaders and figures, doctors, lawyers, professionals, soldiers etc. thus giving fruit to a truly Catholic temporal order.

However, one must also qualify that temporal society’s contribution is merely natural since only the Church is a supernatural and eternal society. Like the body, it is perishable and transient. Nonetheless, it exerts a tremendous and penetrating influence over families, laws, institutions, customs, style, culture and civilization.

Once temporal society establishes a sacral and dynamic Catholic atmosphere, the Church’s action, in turn, habitually becomes successful and effective. The sacred splendor of the ministers of God, through the Sacraments and preaching of Holy Scriptures, then move the Catholic faithful to piety and virtue.

In discussing the affairs of temporal and spiritual societies, it would be inevitable to broach the subject of Church and State. In modern and secularist minds, there exists a prevailing erroneous and distorted perspective regarding the role of the State. The deep effects of liberalism and laicism in our days contribute immensely to perpetrating religious indifferentism from which sprout all sorts of errors.[5]

The State also participates in the salvation of souls since man, who is made up of body and soul, lives within temporal society. In the Divine plan of God, the State’s highest purpose consists precisely in recognizing the Catholic Church, in defending Her, in applying Her laws and serving Her. Hence, the essential end of the State is to serve the Church.

In his encyclical Cum multa, dated Dec. 8, 1882 (PE 88; 8-9), Pope Leo XIII writes[6]:

"The spiritual and temporal orders being, therefore, distinct in their origin and in their nature, should be conceived and judged of as such. For matters of the temporary order - however lawful, however important they be - do not extend, when considered in themselves, beyond the limits of that life which we live on this our earth. But religion, born of God, and referring all things to God, takes a higher flight and touches heaven. For its will, its wish, is to penetrate the soul, man's best part, with the knowledge and the love of God and to lead in safety the whole human race to that City of the Future for which we seek.

"It is then right to look on religion, and whatever is connected by any particular bond with it, as belonging to a higher order. Hence, in the vicissitudes of human affairs, and even in the very revolutions in States, religion, which is the supreme good, should remain intact; for it embraces all times and all places. Men of opposite parties, though differing in all else, should be agreed unanimously in this: that in the State the Catholic religion should be preserved in all its integrity. To this noble and indispensable aim, all who love the Catholic religion ought, as if bound by a compact, to direct all their efforts; they should be somewhat silent about their various political opinions, which they are, however, at perfect liberty to ventilate in their proper place: for the Church is far from condemning such matters, when they are not opposed to religion or justice; apart and removed from all the turmoil of strife, she carries on her work of fostering the common weal, and of cherishing all men with the love of a mother, those particularly whose faith and piety are greatest."

Therefore, on the one hand, it is clear that the spiritual sphere takes precedence over the temporal. On the other hand, however, temporal society, as desired and ordered by God, plays a vital role in man’s journey towards Heaven.

If one seriously analyzes the state of human affairs these days, he will eventually arrive to the sad conclusion that the modern world has digressed from such lofty yet logical concepts and doctrines. The plethora of Papal teachings giving light to the proper relation between Church and State lamentably fall into deaf ears.[7]

What then is the result when man ignores the primacy of the spirit over the body? Behold, ignorance, indifference, selfishness and egoism, abominations, confusion and chaos!
This way of being unravels a series of dynamic degradation of values and priorities from the general to the particular, from the abstract to the concrete, from the metaphysical to the physical and from the supernatural to the natural.

What is detrimental to the individual person then becomes a disaster when applied to the collective whole as a society. One must therefore reestablish the primacy of the spiritual over the material, the religious over the temporal and the supernatural over the natural, if one desires to rehabilitate an ailing and decadent society.

“This vision of the whole, the harmony of the beauty of God which one draws from, is that harmony and that supreme sanctity which man was made to love. And when he does not love it, he hates it. From whence it follows necessarily that all men, whether they wish it or not, live in the love or hatred of this grand twofold reality: The Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church and Christian temporal order, which ought to live around the Church, like the great halo which forms about the moon on moonlit nights.”[8]


Footnotes:

[1] Plinio Corrêa de Oliveirra, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, (The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property [TFP], York, PA, 1993), p.9.
[2] Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard, O.C.S.O., The Soul of the Apostolate, (Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc., Trappist, Kentucky, 1946,) p. 45.
[3] Op .cit, p. 39.
[4] Op. cit., p.165.
[5] "Based, as it is, on the principle that the State must not recognise any religious cult, it is in the first place guilty of a great injustice to God; for the Creator of man is also the Founder of human societies, and preserves their existence as He preserves our own. We owe Him, therefore, not only a private cult, but a public and social worship to honour Him…. This thesis inflicts great injury on society itself, for it cannot either prosper or last long when due place is not left for religion, which is the supreme rule and the sovereign mistress in all questions touching the rights and duties of men." " Pius X: Encyclical: Vehementer nos, Feb. 11, 1906. (PE 169; 3)
[6] Taken from The Papal Encyclicals, by Claudia Carlen IHM, The Pierian Press, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 1990. (Our emphasis.Ed)
[7] Gregory XVI: Encyclical: Mirari vos, Aug. 15, 1832. (PE 33; 20).
Pius IX: Allocution to the Consistory: Acerbissimum, Sept. 27, 1852. Encyclical: Quanta cura, Dec. 8, 1864. (PE 63), Syllabus, Dec. 8, 1864: prop 55. Leo XIII: Encyclical: Cum multa, Dec. 8, 1882. (PE 88), Encyclical: Humanum genus, April 20, 1884. (PE 91; 13 ff), Encyclical: Immortale Dei, Nov. 1, 1885. (PE 93; 27 ff), Encyclical: Libertas, June 20, 1888.(PE 103; 18 ff), Encyclical: Au milieu des sollicitudes, Feb. 16, 1892. (PE 119; 28 ff), Letter Longinqua, Jan. 6, 1895. (PE 134; 3 ff) Saint Pius X: Allocution to the Secret Consistory, Amplissimum coetum, March 27, 1905. Encyclical: Vehementer Nos, Feb. 11, 1906. (PE 169; 1 ff), Allocution to the Consistory: Gravissimum apostolici, Feb. 21, 1906. Encyclical: Gravissimo officii, Aug. 10, 1906. (PE 172; 1 ff), Letter: Le moment, May 17, 1908. Encyclical: Jamdudum, May 24, 1911. (PE 177; 2 ff)Pius XI: Encyclical Maximam Gravissimamque, Jan. 18, 1924. (PE 196; 2 ff), Allocution: Jam annus, to the Secret Consistory, Dec. 14, 1925. Encyclical: Iniquis afflictisque, Nov. 18, 1926. (PE 200; 8 ff) Encyclical: Dilectissima Nobis, June 3, 1933. (PE 215; 6 ff)Pius XII: Allocution to some Italian Catholic Jurists, Dec. 6, 1953
All of the above cited from The Papal Encyclicals, by Claudia Carlen IHM, The Pierian Press, Ann Arbor, MI, USA, 1990
[8]Taken from “The Principles of Catholic Society” a lecture given by Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.