Human bodies as temples

One of the most positively intriguing aspects about me as a human being is the way I can look upon myself as a whole being: my body, spirit and soul are a unique whole that together constitute me. Even Jesus himself gives witness to the beauty and holiness of the human body when he heals others using his body. His holiness emanates wholeness unto others, thus showing us that holiness is wholeness.

Jesus makes use of his hands continuously to pass on to others his wholeness and holiness. He raises children and adults alike from the dead by taking them by the hand; he heals the sick by touching them one by one; he heals the High Priest's servant's ear, cut off by Peter's violent sword, by taking it in his loving hand and putting it back in its place; he washes his Apostles' feet, including that of his traitor Judas.

Maybe the most touching scene in this regard is when Jesus takes a child from among the crowd, crouches down beside him, so as to become small like him, even physically, and points him out as a model for all his disciples.

He extols the gestures that a sinful woman showers upon him - even though they are all intimate physical gestures: bathing his feet with her grateful tears, drying them with her hair, kissing his feet, and pouring precious perfumed oil upon his head.

He rebukes the intolerant Pharisee who felt scandalised at Jesus' "tolerance". In just two verses, Jesus heartily accepts a concentration of physical gestures, the signs of gratitude for the loving forgiveness already received.

Jesus never shunned or dismissed any sincere gesture, coming from people's hearts, even gestures pertaining to the human body, a symbol of their whole person. Jesus looks at the human body as the vehicle of the manifestation of God's action, the Kingdom of God, to use biblical jargon.

St Paul talks about the human person in this way: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. So glorify God in your body" (1 Cor. 6,19-20).

By "body", Paul implied the whole human person in its earthly existence. Notwithstanding all its limitations, the human person is the symbol par excellence of the manifestation of God because the divine Holy Spirit takes a visible and tangible manifestation precisely in the human body. That is how we can see God in our neighbour. That is simply how God's Word, the Divine Son, could become human "flesh" and dwell among us, human beings. That is also how He could give himself to us as "body that is given" and "blood that is shed".

All this implies that the most precious way in which God could give himself to us was in "my body, which is given up for you". Whenever and wherever scripture speaks of the human body, it underlines the principle that the body was created by God with the awesome power of being able to bring harmony to others. It is "very good" when it is perceived as part and parcel of the whole human person. Thus, the body can never be detached from the person. Ultimately, the human being finds fulfilment only when accepting the reality that each person is affecting others when relating to them.

Pope Benedict XVI in his very first encyclical letter says: "... 'searching' love... expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier. Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice" (#6).