The human body

Everybody’s got one. Head, shoulders, knees and toes, and a whole lot more. The human body is an amazing thing, as any science teacher will tell us. And with the body goes the soul. You can’t have one without the other. As sure as turkeys and Christmas are related, so are bodies and souls. Inseparable. Together, they make up the human person.

And that person, body and soul, is a reflection of God. “Made in the image and likeness of God.” That’s us. This is not just a pious phrase, depicting some lofty spiritual idea that has long been consigned to the dustbin of history. Quite the opposite. The fact is that the human body is just as important in God’s eyes as the soul. And that means your body. After all, he made it! Pope John Paul II once said that the human body is so important that it is the 'sacrament of the person'. This means that the human body expresses who we are. Just as the eyes are considered 'windows to the soul', the body and its actions the give us a glimpse of the soul, telling us about it.

The implication is: if we look after our bodies, we look after ourselves. So our bodies are precious because we are precious, as people. Infinitely so, since we are God’s greatest creation.