The Incarnation and Bodily Life

As Christmas nears it is a good time to ponder the significance of the Incarnation, God becoming man. The December issue of First Things reviewed a new book titled Body, Soul, and Human Life: The Nature of Humanity in the Bible which tries to address some of the findings of neuroscience and how bodily problems (spine damage, Alzheimers, chemical imbalance) can seemingly change a person dramatically. The book reaffirms that we are not souls that happen to have a body, but we are thoroughly integrated, embodied creatures in which body, soul, and spirit are all critical. This is my greatest disagreement with the Grace Walk folks, who insist that we are souls that just happen to have a body. Not so. The Incarnation of Christ is one important part of understanding this.

This is not to say that our mortal bodies are not fallen. They are. And as Paul pointed out, this mortal must put on immortality to be worthy of being in the immediate presence of God, so it must be changed. Christ demonstrates this for us. He took on mortal flesh, to fully experience our bodily existence, and in His resurrection demonstrated how it must change. His body changed so much that the Emmaus road disciples did not recognize him even though his wounds remained visible. But even in His resurrecton He maintained His connection with us, with a body. And in all the Biblical discussion of eternity with God it is clear that our life will be bodily, but in a new body. Bodily existence is integral to our existence, and it will always be so.

This has lots of implications for mortal life. One reason that 'two becoming one' in marriage includes bodily union is that our bodies are integral to who we are. Marriages in which there is no bodily union are candidates for annulment in the Catholic church for that reason, and that is grounds for divorce in public law as a result of this even though secular philosophy would probably no longer acknowledge this. A marriage without bodily union denies a fundamental part of our identity. This is one reason that Paul in his writing on marriage warns against staying apart for more than short periods of time. In death, one reason we treat the body with respect even after the spirit and soul have departed is in recognition that this was an integral part of the person during life. It is also why recreational sex and promiscuity is a serious sin: it violates the sanctity of the total person and is not just 'something your body does' as if your body is separate from the real you. It is also a reason why homosexuality is fundamentally disordered: it violates the fundamental reality of who we are as people who were intended for 'one flesh' marriage with the opposite gender. Our bodies are in many ways integral to who we are. Pope John Paul wrote about this much more completely in his Theology of the Body (which could be on my Christmas list, for anyone so inclined!), but at Christmas as we ponder the coming of God in the flesh it is a good time to ponder if we are treating our flesh as the Creator intended.