Body vs. Soul

[Gnarwhal]

Tonight's topic in RCIA was suffering. Near the beginning our catechist went into a mini-lecture about our "hierarchy of values" and distinguished between whether our choices reflect a value of the body or the soul. She didn't reference him directly, but she basically iterated C.S. Lewis' quotation, "You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body." She emphasized the importance of our thinking in terms of our immortal soul in contrast to the mortal, temporal body. She also cited Plato, saying something to the effect of "Bad things cannot happen to good people" (I'm really butchering the phrase), but the essence was that whatever suffering we experience cannot harm our soul, only our bodies.

I didn't really think about this until just now otherwise I would've asked her, but because of my timing, I'm coming here.

The logic I came away with is that the body doesn't matter because it's going to die and rot away eventually and that our highest goal is for our souls to reach heaven. What I'm curious about is, how do we hold this in tension with the scripture that our body is a temple (1 Corinthians 6:19)? Also, should we be careful not to excessively diminish the importance of the body given the ultimate end of bodily resurrection?

It seems like if we don't unpack it further, that we run the risk of a view that says we can treat our bodies like amusement parks, fill them full of junk food, alcohol, drugs, and all-around abuse them as we please. I understand that hedonistic pleasure isn't the point of our existence, but at some level isn't there a Christian mandate to be good stewards, not only of the Earth, but of our own bodies?

I don't know if I'm necessarily confused on this point, but just more unsure of which direction our thinking is supposed to go in this regard.

 

[pdudgeon]

definitely not an expert here, but our earthly body is created by God to house our soul and spirit, so we should treat it accordingly.
not with abuse, but as a tool given to us by God and through which we are to carry out His works and His purpose for us here on Earth.
ie. feet to move us from place to place, arms to reach out to others, eyes to see both Hs glory and the needs of His flock, ears to hear His Word,
a mouth and voice to speak His mesage, and to praise Him, etc.

so while we do not glorify or worship our bodies, they are not less than that either that we should mutilate or abuse them while our soul and spirit occupy this place on Earth.

 

[Davidnic]

The Body compliments the soul and should not be too far diminished. Indeed, the body reflects it. Although your RCIA instructor is not wrong there is a depth missing. Our bodies are not disposal. And although what was said does not say they are...we have to remember that body and soul are joined. Yes, the soul is important and because it is unseen we can sometimes focus on it to the exclusion of the body. And since the body is such a driving force we can focus on it to the exclusion of the soul. But we must always remember that the body we have is, although glorified, the body we will have in eternity (with all of its not accidental components...such as gender).

So what was said is not wrong as much as...imprecise and, as you said, in need of unpacking.

 

[Davidnic]

I think in focusing on suffering she was trying to show that there is a part of us that, unless we will otherwise, is untouchable. That we can not let the suffering of the body seem the be all and end all...and it is hard not to do that. But we do have to remember that the body is not transient although the pain of it is. We will have this body, gender, and identity...glorified and perfected, for all time. We are, physically, who we are in our bodies for a reason.

 

[Neophyte365]

That sounds like an interesting discussion, and I think I would have enjoyed participating. I like the idea that no matter what happens to us physically, which is outside of our control, our inheritance in Christ isn't affected. I might suffer a lot from a disease, but that doesn't change the hope I have. Viewing problems with eternity in mind seems really helpful for maintaining equanimity.

 

[MoonlessNight]

I don't know if there is an official dogma on this, but the Church's position has at least been highly sympathetic to the position of Aquinas which states that the person is a union of body and soul. While the soul can certainly exist independently of the body, (which we know both from the existence of the saints, and also philosophically from the fact that the human soul can engage in the noncorporeal power of abstraction) this existence is incomplete.

Indeed this is why the promise of the resurrection is so important. If we were souls trapped in a corporeal body, which the gnostics claimed and statements like CS Lewis's hint at, our condition would only be improved by the separation of the soul from the body and so it would be quite cruel for God to force us once again into bodies. However, the body actually completes the person and so the resurrection is actually a demonstration of God's great mercy towards us.

This is quite a vast topic so there is no way that I can address everything in one post, but I can give further details if anyone is interested and has more specific questions.