Human existence is at once spiritual and corporeal. As such, we must engage both aspects of our being holistically so that in doing so, they can work together as one. We must not focus on one at the expense of the other. That is, we must not pursue spiritual contemplations as a way to avoid and reject our physical being and its needs even as we must not become so attached to material being and the good and pleasures available in it that we ignore their spiritual wellbeing. One without the other will always leave us incomplete. Our lives will be imbalanced, and in that imbalance, we will find ourselves lacking much which we need. We will become full of stress, anxiety, and angst. While we will enjoy elements of happiness, our lives will not be fully happy. We will always sense something is not right, something is lacking, and if we don’t know what to do, we will end up making matters worse, as we redouble our engagements in those areas of our life where we think we found the most joy, only to find that such exclusivity will never fully satisfy us. To be sure, most people tend to be more attached to material rather than spiritual realities, so much so, that their spiritual senses have become dull, but once they realize this, they often go to the other extreme, trying to cast off their physical being as if it were a prison; they lose a part of themselves, and in doing so, ignore much of their own moral responsibility because they think nothing of their material existence and its needs (or the material needs of others).
In order to prevent such an unholistic engagement with the world, in order to avoid the errors of the so-called gnostics and their rejection of material being, Ilias the Presbyter said that if we embrace spiritual reality, we must not become attached to it, but rather, we must follow the example of the incarnation by taking our spiritual being into the depths of our material, that is sensible, being: “The man of spiritual knowledge is one who descends from the realm of intellection to that of sense-perception in a sublime manner and who raises his soul heavenwards with humility.”[1] We should combine our spiritual and physical experiences together, so that our spiritual experiences are informed by our physical senses, and our physical senses are informed by our spiritual senses. When they are united in this fashion, when they are working together, we will be able to better experience reality as it is, an understanding which is needed if we are then to act properly in the world, making sure we do not discount either aspect of our being. We should let ourselves be humbled by our experiences, and in that humility, engaging the world and all that is in it; thus, lowing ourselves with humility we will be able to find ourselves rising up, up beyond the heights we thought we attained when engaging spiritual contemplations alone. That, we are to soar only when we engage their whole being, perfecting all aspects of it:
Through the practice of the virtues the outward aspect of the soul becomes like the silver-coated wings of a dove. Through contemplation its inward and intelligible aspects become golden. But the soul that has not in this way regained its beauty cannot soar aloft and come to rest in the abode of the blessed. [2]
The practice of the virtues is incomplete if they we only engage the so-called spiritual virtues; charity, love, looks for the good of the other, which will include their physical well-being. If we think all that matters is our spiritual existence, then we could easily come to ignore the physical needs of everyone, including and especially those whom we should love and desire not to needlessly suffer. This is why such a focus will easily lead us to becoming cruel, because we will think nothing of anyone’s physical anguish. If we truly embrace the virtue of charity, how could we ever discount such suffering? Prudence looks to what actions are available to us, and discerns which are the best and worst options; if we ignore the whole of being and only look to a portion of it, our discernment will be impaired. Imprudence can lead to impudence when we neglect the holistic nature of our being. The same can be said with other virtues, such as justice; it is difficult to truly determine what is fair if we only look at a portion of the whole (which is also why justice cannot be individualistic, but rather, must be social in character).
Therefore, we must not ignore the physical world; our material being is a part of who we are. We must make sure our spiritual and material elements come together and form one properly integrated whole. We can, for a time, engage one apart more than another, if we think it needs the most engagement, the most work, to make sure it comes up to par, just as athletes will consider which portions of their body have not been properly exercised and work on them until their whole body is in perfect physical condition. Indeed, sometimes, if some aspect of our lives has atrophied, it can be important to do this. Nonetheless. we must not use such a need to neglect the integrity of our personal unity; we must make sure we also work with and engage the rest of our being, so that by trying to fix what has atrophied the other doesn’t begin to atrophy instead. We will soar when our whole being is properly integrated as one. Paul tells us in the resurrection, when we have become perfected with grace, we shall have “spiritual bodies” (cf. 1 Cor. 15:44), indicating what we are striving for, where both our body and our spirit truly come together as one. This is why many are wrong to ignore the material needs of others, saying that we care only about the welfare of the soul; such a depreciation of the body is anti-Christian in nature. We show care for the soul when we care for the body, because the two form one integrated person. If we think we can ignore the body, we show content, not only for the body, but for the one who created it, God, a contempt which runs not only against God as the creator, but also a contempt against God in the way God works with us and came to be with us in a body in the incarnation. The body is not some part of Jesus which was lost in the ascension. It is a part of who he is in his humanity, and so it is a part of who he is in eternity. That was one of the points of the resurrection. So to deny the body, to deny our need to take care of the body by saying we should only care for the soul, only lead to a destruction of the soul, because the soul will not find itself in the unity with the body which it is meant to have.
[1] Ilias the Presbyter, “Gnomic Anthology III,” in The Philokalia: The Complete Text. Volume Three. trans. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware (London: Faber and Faber, 1986), 50 [#21].
[2] Ilias the Presbyter, “Gnomic Anthology III,” 51 [#32].
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