Just this week, I was reading a book with my undergraduate students called Sex and the Soul by Donna Freitas, which studies the ways today's youth and young adults (and a lot of older people too!) separate body and soul, and think they are separate. That's rather unfortunate for us, especially since it's not a true picture of Christian belief and the ways we are called to live our lives. Lots of non-Christians have wanted to claim that Christians are dualistic: that is, that they separate the body and the mind.  They claim we see bodies as evil, that we don't like sex, or eating, or anything else that is bodily.  Instead, we promote fasting and abstinence and giving up things as a way of trying to make our bodies insignificant.  

 

In practice, this time of year, I think we might be somewhat guilty of trying to separate our bodies and our minds, to our detriment.  We make mental lists and try to get through our "to-do's" while running our bodies to the ground.  We eat lots of cookies and chocolate and forget that this affects our minds and spirits.

 

But today's scriptures should remind us that Christianity truly advocates for a body-soul connection.  In today's gospel (Matthew 9:27-31), two blind men approach Jesus to be healed by him.  Jesus asks them point blank: "Do you believe I can do this?" and when they say yes, he says, "Let it be done for you according to your faith."  The two men go away, being able to see.  Soul and body are so clearly connected, for Jesus.  He will not heal the blind men's bodies unless their souls are also seeking Jesus' healing. (And Jesus usually makes this kind of connection when he's healing people.)  What is good for our bodies is good for our souls, and vice versa.

 

In the first reading (Isaiah 29:17-24), the prophet tells us what will happen when Jesus comes: the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the ones who "err in spirit" will find understanding, and everyone shall keep God's name holy.  This passage is filled with body/soul references to the point that trying to make an intelligible distinction between them is almost impossible.  

 

I would put it this way: to be whole is to be holy.  We cannot follow God and be holy without seeing the importance of both body and soul.