Because I have a spirit, I’m not simply an animal; and because I have a body, I’m not simply an angel. I am a rational animal, an animal with a soul. On the scale of things, I am a creature midway between the animal kingdom and the realms of angels.
If you take my spirit away from me, what’s left is a corpse (which is not a human-being); if you take my body away from me, what’s left is a spirit (which is not a human-being). I am neither a body nor a spirit. I am God’s material-spiritual masterpiece, a rational, thinking, loving animal. For me to be me, I must be both, body and soul; body and spirit bonded together making one unique creature.
And if I am going to live forever with God, I want it to be me up there with Him, not an animal or an angel, but me, the unique human being that I am, soul and body bonded as one; otherwise, I lose my true identity for eternity!
I would, as well, be doing my body a real injustice were I to leave it behind forever. My body gets me to Heaven as well as my soul! It is on my head that the waters of Baptism flow; on my brow that Christ’s sign is marked with holy chrism; it is my mouth that eats of the Bread of Life and drinks from the Chalice of Salvation; it is my ears that hear the Word of God and my hands and feet that carry out the great commandment of loving my neighbour as myself. It is largely through my body that I suffer pain in communion with Christ my Crucified Lord. In other words, all God’s graces come to me through my body.
I am a spirit, soul, and body that will be resurrected.
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