“Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint Exupéry,
THE SACRAMENTALITY of the BODY
“The Catholic faith, if you haven’t already noticed, is a very fleshy, sensual religion…”
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I love this line. At first glance it almost makes you uncomfortable. After thinking about it for a while I began to realize how very much we use our bodies at Mass. I adore the smell of incense. Just writing about it almost conjures up the smell. And the feel of Holy Water. If I miss my forehead I just don’t feel right. I do it again until I can actually feel the cool water touching my skin. And the bells at the consecration! Oh how I wish they ALWAYS did that! I love receiving under both species, because the taste of the wine lingers long after I’ve left the church. The music, the readings, the babies crying, even the sound of the kneelers going up and down…
All of these things evoke a feeling of being “somewhere” else. I can’t see God, but I can see His reflection. I can’t hear Him, but I can hear His echo.
The sacraments themselves are physical expressions of spiritual realities. We can’t see baptism, but we can see the water, the oil…we can hear the words. We can’t see the mystical change that takes place, but we are comforted by the outward signs. We can’t see confirmation, but we can smell the Chrism, we can hear our confirmation name. We can’t see marriage, but we can see the ring, hear the vows, …
“In the sacraments, spirit and matter “kiss”. Heaven and earth embrace in a union that will never end”
Isn’t that image absolutely awesome?
Which brings us to the greatest physical expression of God. The human body. Not a sacrament in the sense that Baptism or Holy Orders are sacraments. But a sacrament in the sense that our bodies are an outward sign, of an inner truth. Not only is the body a magnificent piece of machinery, able to produce song, and love, and dance, but it is also a mirror of God.
“The body, in fact, and it alone,” Pope John Paul II says, “is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world, the mystery hidden since time immemorial in God, and thus to be a sign of it” In other words, somehow the body enables us to “see” spiritual realities, even the eternal mystery “hidden” in God”
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We can’t see God, but we can see each other, and in doing so we can begin to understand who God is. If we want to know Him better, we need to know each other better. If we want to know each other better, we need to look to the way God relates to us, but also to Himself in the three persons of the trinity.
Which things remind you of God? Which outward signs? In what ways do you see God reflected in the physical world?
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13 users responded in this post
Ohh, I love that picture. I wish the priest would always face away from the laity, but the mass is the mass.
What things remind me of God? A more manageable question would be what doesn’t remind me of God. The more I grow in my spiritual life, the more things I am able to see God in. But I’ll just discuss one thing. And that is mathematics. Einstein said that mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe. I believe that. I believe it IS God’s language. Like any other since, many seemingly complicated things can be broken down into manageable chunks, and underlying all this complexity is, in a sense, simplicity. We have some glimpses of how so much of what we think are “different areas” of math turn out to be very much related to each other. So many seemingly different areas can be described by using one overarching language which encompasses the main ideas in all of them. Not sure how much sense that makes. But the idea is that there is something (it seems) at the core, or center of all of mathematics that it seems to “stem out” from. I’ll give you one guess as to where I think this “center” comes from…
I see God in so many things, one might actually be able to argue that perhaps I see Him in too many places. I see God in two lovers in a committed relationship, I see God in every individual. I see God in atheists, agnostics, and believers. I see God in the designs of our machines and in nature. I see God in myself and everyone around me. God is everywhere. He is a part of all people and all things, He is our world.
To bad I can’t read the book, sounds interesting
Dan,
Why can’t you read the book? If it’s funds, I’ll buy it for you!
Bobby,
I agree that God is in Math. I can barely add, but I still recogize that there is something “other worldly” about numbers. Just the fact that I can’t understand them, makes me think of God, as I can’t understand Him either.
Just as everything in the world “fits” together perfectly, due to God being in control, so too does mat “fit” together. And just like God, I have to accept that Math works and is objective truth, even tho it’s all Greek to me.
I love the Fibonacci series and the Golden Rule. The idea that there IS perfection and it can be expressed mathematically.
And music. Music is really just math expressed in a way that I can undertstand.
As the body is a reflection of God, Music is a reflection of math.
You can’t really “see” math, but you can see it’s results. I can’t hold “four” in my hand, but I can hold “four” cookies.
Excellent choice Bambino!
Dan,
I remember once praying in front of a 12 foot cross at a cemetery. It was freezing cold, and I was sitting inside of my car. There was rumors of apparitions of Mary and I was checking it out. But I was checking it out from the inside of my warm car. There was a man outside, in the freezing cold, also “checking it out”. Only he was on his knees. He looked homeless, tattered clothes, unkempt hair, scraggly beard…Ignoring Him, I began to focus on the Crucifix. I remember asking God why we couldn’t see Him. It would be so much easier to follow Him, I suggested, if we could see His face.
At that moment, the homeless man turned and looked directly at me. In my heart I heard the words, you are seeing my face! Every time you look into the eyes of one of your brothers or sisters, one of my children, you are looking at me. I live in each of them.
I’ve never looked at people the same way again.
“one might actually be able to argue that perhaps I see Him in too many places”
No such thing, Dan. That means you’re doing something right.
MK,
There is so much more I’d like to learn about music. I think you’re very, very right about God and music. Is anyone on this blog a music expert?
“I remember once praying in front of a 12 foot cross at a cemetery. It was freezing cold, and I was sitting inside of my car. There was rumors of apparitions of Mary and I was checking it out. But I was checking it out from the inside of my warm car. There was a man outside, in the freezing cold, also “checking it out”. Only he was on his knees. He looked homeless, tattered clothes, unkempt hair, scraggly beard…Ignoring Him, I began to focus on the Crucifix. I remember asking God why we couldn’t see Him. It would be so much easier to follow Him, I suggested, if we could see His face.
At that moment, the homeless man turned and looked directly at me. In my heart I heard the words, you are seeing my face! Every time you look into the eyes of one of your brothers or sisters, one of my children, you are looking at me. I live in each of them.
I’ve never looked at people the same way again.”
Thank you MK… I love that story!
MK-
Amazing story.
And the inability to read is a combination of funds and the fact I have finals in a month
Dan,
I’ll be happy to help with the funds. Email me and tell me where to have the book sent. As for time, heck, it’s only a few paragraphs so far. You could read them in line at the grocery store. Seriously.
Dan,
Take MK up on her offer! It’s a great book and its a short easy read. You won’t regret it.
MK,
I love the sensuality of the Cathlic Church. The deep ringing of the bells calling us to worship, the lingering of incense, even days after it’s been used, the soul piercing conviction of a well sung Psalm. The beauty of hundreds of voices raised as one, the profound bow at the words of the Incarnation, the soft wrinkled skin of the elderly couple that sits behind me as we embrace for the kiss of peace. Mass boring? Hah! Anyone who finds the Mass boring has attended as a spectator, not a participant.
I see God in so many places and things. I see him profoundly in the beauty of creation; the perfection of a flower, a breathtaking sunset, a photograph of the earth hanging in space, the majesty of a glacier, the industriousness (is that a word?) of an insect, the perfect bow of a baby’s mouth, the seemingly inexhaustable palette of the changing seasons. I see him through things created by man; an exquisite painting or a child’s drawing, a roaing symphony and a quiet piano piece, a towering skyscraper, a loaf of homemade bread, a glorious cathedral and a humble little church in Zakopane, Poland. Mostly, though, I see him in the people I love, my generous husband, my less than perfect - but perfect in my world, children, my gracefully aging parents, siblings, church friends, priests and religious who have helped me through difficult times and the friends who have given me the gift of allowing me to help them through difficult times. My grandmother dying of cancer in perfect peace.
DeeL,
That was just beautiful. I think even God stopped in to read the “book club” today…
Thanks MK
And Dan, I always have a supply of “give away” copies of this book, so if you know of anyone else who may be interested, I’m more than happy to send some your way ; )
DeeL,
That would be awesome. We’ll have to tell Dan next times he’s on…
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