Body and Soul
“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” “Be not afraid” is the verse in the Bible most googled by people. We are afraid of the future, of the unknown, of whatever could happen to us. These are the first words that came out of the mouth of John Paul II when he was elected Pope. He was a man who feared no one: he survived nazism and comunism; he was an orphan and had no close relatives. Jesus is telling us the same today: don‘t be afraid because I am with you always. Just be afraid only of whatever can kill your soul: sin. What are we afraid of? They say that you know a person when you know what he or she is afraid of.
Our soul can be wounded, sometimes grievously. The good news is that our soul is immortal and it can be revived by confession. We believe that we have a soul. Some people deny it. We cannot identify the soul in the body, but we can experience our spiritual powers. Some people emphasise the unity of body and soul, that we are one; others look at the two different realities than can only be separated by death. We are normally more concerned about our body than our soul. Our body is more visible, we are constantly aware of it unless we are sleeping. We can let our soul sleep, but we cannot stop looking after our body.
Why is the world so afraid of a little virus called coronavirus? Because it cannot control it. It is a little thing we cannot see and it could attack us any time. But we are not scared of other viruses that are more dangerous and they can cause more damage: temptations, addictions, vices, evil deeds, the seven capital sins. These are the things that we need to be afraid of, and protect ourselves against.
We wear masks not to infect others, but we gossip, we criticise others, we talk about people behind their backs: we are throwing other kinds of viruses at people. We keep a social distance, but we watch a lot of rubbish on television and YouTube. We sanitise our hands, but we are not going often to confession to sanitise our souls. We keep all the rules and regulations for the lockdown decreed by the government, but we are not doing what God wants us to do. We are more concern about our body than our soul. Our body is recyclable, but our soul is going to exist for ever. We cannot change much of our body, our height or the colour of our eyes, but we can do a lot to make our soul more beautiful. Look what the saints have done with their souls. We ought to be in a hurry because we have only few years to go.
We should pray about the things that separate us from God, and how we can protect ourselves against those viruses. The coronavirus will come and go. These spiritual viruses are with us all the time. We stop our nation for a virus that can kill our body, but we don’t think much about our souls. We can pray about the things that help us to kill these spiritual viruses and protect us from them. What gives me peace or what makes me angry? What helps me to become closer to others or what separates me from them? What moves me to be generous or what induces me to be selfish? In summary, what are the good and the bad spiritual viruses.
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