Tuesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 318

For this reason, when he came into the world, he said:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, As is written of me in the scroll,
Behold, I come to do your will, O God.

In conversation with Veterans at the hospital, I cite this verse, remembering that God took on human form in order to save us: “a body you prepared for me.” With them I reflect on the mystery, complexity, history and wonder of this particular body I call myself.

The incarnation of oneself – not to mention that of Jesus! -- calls for endless reflection and contemplation. It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of the body in the spiritual life, especially because our concupiscence despises the body. We use it for recreation and violence, for profit and subjugation, for power and humiliation. We take pleasure in destroying our bodies and those of others.

The Natural Law, as the Church understands it, teaches us to respect the body. We are grounded and enmeshed in this gorgeous planet Earth. We breathe its air, drink its water and eat its food. With every breath we receive the gift of oxygen from Earth's vegetation and give back carbon dioxide. Our brains are the most fantastically complicated, earthen mysteries in the universe, with literally trillions of interconnections of the billions of cells.

A Christian must be aware of the beauty and wonder of her own body, especially in a culture that considers suicide socially acceptable. Even when her body is broken by the challenges and threats of life, and pain becomes a daily companion, the disciple of Jesus reveres and welcomes it with tender solicitude. 

Many forms of meditation today encourage us to experience our body in its simple grandeur. I like to sit on my prayer bench and breathe. It's like being in the company of one's best friend -- daily and for life. 

But Christian meditation in the light of the gospel takes us deeper into the mystery of the body. It is not simply me; it is also a gift which I have received. Because it is gift, I am not free to dispose of it, or to trash it, as I please -- or as others might persuade me. I am not my own; I do not live for myself. 

Although I am beautiful and worthy of love, there is One whose worthiness and beauty so far exceed my own that I would be foolish to ignore that one. That would be preferring the flickering light of a candle to the brilliant light of the sun. 

Christian reflection of this particular passage from the Letter to the Hebrews -- a body you prepared for me -- insists that our bodies, our selves, are made for God. Jesus sacrificed his body on the cross to the Father whom he loved so deeply. He was delighted to discover he had a body -- so precious and dear and beautiful -- which could be offered to God in love.

Life is often cruel to our bodies. We find in the third chapter of Genesis the dire prediction:

By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Our bodies are broken by hard labor, disease, aging, and violence. But they are also redeemed by one who willingly suffered these very troubles for us. It is impossible that we could be saved in any other way. How could a disembodied God redeem our bodies? For that matter, how could a disembodied man be saved? He must be one of us, like us in all things but sin: 

in burnt offerings and sin offerings you took no delight.
Then I said, As is written of me in the scroll,
Behold, I come to do your will, O God.