With All Our Being.

“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off . . .” Origen, the great third-century theologian, took Jesus’ words literally and castrated himself. You can guess what temptations he had! But Eusebius, the church historian, said that he interpreted the text “too literal and puerile in a sense.”

Unlike Origen, we are repulsed by Jesus’ apparent invitation to self-harm. The human body is good, a gift from God. Some people inflict harm on themselves because of an unbearable pain which only finds relief thus. We should so love such brothers and sisters that they may love themselves, body, mind, and soul.
Our bodies are lovable because they open us to love others. If we see others with contempt or to be used sexually, we have plucked out our eyes. If our hands grasp others to manipulate them or abuse them, we have cut off our hands and so with our feet and every part of our bodies.

Holiness includes living the full richness of the bodily life. Aquinas said, “Nothing in the mind if not first in the senses.” If we reach out to others with all our being, sensitive to our fingertips, hearing the unspoken hesitation, detecting the other’s need for recognition, our body is whole even if by the accidents of history we have lost bits. My Benedictine great-uncle was a chaplain in the First World War and lost an eye because he risked going to the front and serving people. With all his being, this one-eyed man saw more than most of us.

Fr. Timothy Radcliffe. Taken from Give Us This Day.

Timothy Radcliffe, OP, is former master general of the Order of Preachers and author of Stations of the Cross (with art by Martin Erspamer, OSB) as well as Take the Plunge: Living Baptism and Confirmation.