A Show of Faith
Millennial, Priest, Minister, and Rabbi walk into a radio station...
A Show of Faith
May 25, 2025 Entrusted, Not Owned: Rethinking Our Bodies
What if our bodies aren't really ours? This question launches an illuminating interfaith exploration of physical existence that challenges our culture's deeply individualistic approach to health and wellness.
"You did not create yourself," reminds one panelist, prompting us to consider a revolutionary perspective: perhaps we're not owners but stewards of our physical forms. The rabbi, priest, minister, and millennial theologian each bring their tradition's wisdom to bear on how we might reimagine our relationship with our bodies as sacred gifts rather than personal property.
When Father Mario suggests we're "entrusted" with our bodies—like borrowed books expected to be returned in good condition—the conversation shifts from what we can do with our bodies to what we should do with them. This framing transforms even mundane health practices into potentially sacred acts. As Rudy confesses that his workout motivations evolved from vanity to longevity, Rabbi Stuart gently challenges listeners to spiritualize physical activities: "Why don't we see a sign at the gym that says 'I have entrusted you with your body, take care of it. Signed, God'?"
The most moving moment comes when Father Mario shares the story of a man with Parkinson's disease who expressed profound gratitude for his condition: "In having to deal with this illness, I have come to understand and know God in such a more intimate way that I would never trade my health for what I have now." This testimony stands in stark contrast to our culture's relentless pursuit of physical perfection at any cost.
The panel explores how Jesus prioritized spiritual healing before physical restoration in biblical accounts, suggesting our contemporary fixation with physical wellness often comes at the expense of spiritual health. They cite St. Francis de Sales: "Take reasonable care of your body for the sake of your soul, but do not become so attached to bodily health that you are disturbed when you lack it."
Whether you're wrestling with health challenges, questioning your fitness motivations, or simply seeking a more integrated approach to wellness, this conversation offers a compassionate reframing of physical existence that honors both body and soul. Join us in discovering how caring for your body might become an act of reverence rather than routine.
There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear. There's a man with a gun over there Telling me I got to beware. I think it's time we stop. Children, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down. There's battle lines being drawn. Nobody's right if everybody's wrong. Young people speak in their minds Are getting so much resistance from behind Every time we stop. Hey, what's that sound? Everybody look what's going down.
Speaker 3:Welcome to A Show of Faith where professors, priests, millennials and rabbbi discuss theology, philosophy, morality, ethics and anything else of interest in religion. If you have any response to our topics or any comments regarding what we say, like Debra did last week or two weeks ago, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at ashowoffaith1070 at gmailcom. That's ashowoffaith1070 at gmailcom. That's ashowoffaith1070 at gmailcom. You can hear our shows again and again by listening, pretty much everywhere podcasts are heard. Our professor is David Capes, protestant minister, director of academic programming for the Lanier Theological Library. Long live the king. And speaking of king, rudy Kong is our millennial. He's a systems engineer and has his master's degree in theology from the University of St Thomas and not feeling his oats today. Our priest is Fr Mario Arroyo, retired pastor of St Cyril of Alexandria in the 10,000 block of Westheimer.
Speaker 4:Hello, hello you feeling okay? No, I'm not. I can hear it. Yeah, I had a heck of a cold.
Speaker 3:Oh boy. Well, today we're talking about body and health and all that stuff, so you should give yourself rest. Yeah. I'm Rabbi Stuart Federo, retired rabbi from Congregation Shari Shalom, the Clear Lake area of Houston, texas. Retired rabbi from Congregation Shari Shalom, the Clear Lake area of Houston, texas. Miranda is our board operator and together with Valerie.
Speaker 5:They help us sound fantastic and I what's the sound of one hand clapping? No, that's two hands clapping Two hands clapping Right.
Speaker 3:Yes, okay, so Good job, stuart. Well, thank you, I do my best, okay, so tonight our topic is the human body.
Speaker 5:Do we hear from Rudy? By the way, rudy, did we hear from him? I am Okay, there, he is there. He is Good, good, good. How far are you from Cali Columbia?
Speaker 6:From Cali Columbia is about two hours 40 flight. Okay, that's nothing, it's a two hour flight. He should come and see you.
Speaker 5:Yes, I'm going to be down there lecturing in the fall.
Speaker 3:So he really needs to come and see you.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you need to come see me and bring your wife too. Bring your wife. Yeah, all right, I'll let you know when, as soon you know, as soon as we make those times. Anyway, I've been to Columbia before. I've been to Medellin, columbia, a few years ago, and I had just a fabulous time. I had a couple of lectures there and got to know some of the people, and I haven't been back in about five or six years. So, looking forward to it, I've got to work on my Spanish between now and then, but boy, well two people online on with us you can practice with.
Speaker 5:I know I'll have plenty of practice. Yes, you should. Now is this microphone working right here, so is that one? Okay, is that one is.
Speaker 3:Yes, both of them.
Speaker 5:Both of them are working. Okay, there you go, man. All right, I want to make sure. Yes, make sure. Anyway, what are we going to be doing? You're show director tonight.
Speaker 3:I am show director, so direct we're talking about the human body. Okay. And this is a little bit my take, but there are two ways to look at the human body that we are made in the image of God. Right.
Speaker 3:Okay that the human body is the what's the word? The temple of the soul. Okay, if how we look at the body determines what we do with the body. If we say the body is mine and I can do anything I want with it, it's mine, or you can say, which I think is the religious response, no, you are given the body, but the body ultimately belongs to God. If the body belongs to God, that obligates us to treat it, I believe, in a certain way. If we say that the body belongs to us, then we can do what we please with it, like any other possession.
Speaker 5:So, but can? Can, when you think about it? Can we do what we want with any possession? Though I mean, part of the response is is is the response of a person who is believer in God, as a person who's, who's engaged with God and his or her daily life, or is this just a person who just sort of has a distant understanding, that kind of thing? Because I think that makes all the difference.
Speaker 3:So do I. Yeah, so do I.
Speaker 7:I think that it's part of it?
Speaker 3:And if we say that we are made in the image of God, what exactly does that tell us about God in terms of the human image? What does it mean to be made in the image of God? Is that physical, is it spiritual? Is it both? So I think just talking about the human body as the base of our discussion leads to all sorts of different directions of the conversation.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean there's a whole lot of words, a whole lot of books and things being written these days on kind of a philosophy of the body, philosophy of I hope they're religious books. Oh yeah, they are, they are. It's the theology of anthropology, in a way.
Speaker 3:The theology of anthropology. Okay, way, the theology of anthropology. Okay, all right. It's what is a?
Speaker 5:man, what is human being and what is humanity and what composes, comprises a person in a way. So when you think about well, I have a body or I am a body, right, that's a different idea. Yes, also true, I am a body which also leads in different directions. I am a body, or I have a body or I am a body, right, that's a different idea.
Speaker 3:Yes, also true, I am a body which also leads in different directions.
Speaker 5:I am a body or I have a body. Is that part of basically, fundamentally, what it means to be me or a human being? And then are there other aspects of my being, like soul and spirit and those kind of things and mind and mind.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and how does the mind? This is a really interesting question these days. How does the mind relate to the brain? Are they sort of together, or is there a mind or consciousness? Where does it come from? Consciousness? That is outside of an extension of the brain, but then we have a way of thinking of the mind being in a sense separate from. We can't really. You know, I'm just kind of blown away here by all the thoughts that I'm having about thoughts and thinking. Right, right, and the idea of thinking as opposed to it's maybe in the brain, but is a thought a part of that brain or is the thought an extension of that brain? How do these thoughts and so much of our thought goes into our language, because every word is a thought expressed, right? No, we have thoughts we don't express. Thank goodness for that, right?
Speaker 3:And having the thought do our thoughts condemn us? Yeah, Another element of this.
Speaker 5:Yeah, right, and what do those thoughts do? So, anyway, there's so many elements to this, right, and what do those thoughts do? So, anyway, there's so many elements to this. It's not only what can we do with our bodies, but what does that say about God? And what are we to do with our bodies from a standpoint of Jew, of.
Speaker 3:Judaism and Catholicism and Protestantism. There's a lot of different elements, right? So, gentlemen on the phone, do we own our bodies or are we lent our bodies? Mario you're able to speak.
Speaker 4:I don't want to push your you know, I I wanted to say something that, um, I presume and I always do. I always like to at least um voice our presumptions that we're talking about the Judeo-Christian tradition, because if you're talking about humanity in and of itself, you know, for example, the Hindu tradition or the Buddhist tradition holds that the body is actually part of the contamination of the spirit that has to be discarded. That doesn't mean that you misuse it, but the body is actually not considered in the same way that the human being in Christianity and Judaism is understood.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We're talking about Christianity and Judaism here Absolutely, and I think that we all make the assumption that we are lent our bodies, but that means that we have to take care of our bodies. If it's not ours and we are lent something. If I lend you a book, I expect to get the book back in halfway decent shape. I expect it to be maintained and protected. I would like to get the book back in halfway decent shape. I expect it to be maintained and protected.
Speaker 4:I would like to use the word entrusted with our bodies, perfect Because I think it is a trust. It is you did not, you know. I always like to remind people that you did not create yourself. You weren't in the womb directing you know when your heart would be connected to your nerves and stuff like that. You are given you are entrusted with a self.
Speaker 3:Yes, this shows my age, but if I created my own body, I'd look like Clark Gable. Yep, clark Gable. Well, I couldn't think of somebody quicker, but that's the first person I can think of. Yeah, okay, I just saw something about him on Google or something Facebook.
Speaker 5:Yeah Right, I like the idea of being entrusted with because I think it's completely in line with Scripture. You know, being a Scripture scholar, that I am.
Speaker 5:Yes, you are I always think about these things. You know that, god, while we were yet in the womb. God is fashioning our bodies right. God is knitting our bodies together. It's not that we had anything to say about it. I didn't have a choice whether I was born in this country or another one. I didn't have the choice of who my parents would be. I didn't have the choice of what my skin color would be, I didn't have any of those choices. Those were-.
Speaker 3:How smart you would be, how gullible, how, all the things.
Speaker 5:All the things that make a person a person right? So yeah, these things are entrusted to us, and the question is what do we do with that? How do we safeguard that?
Speaker 3:in a sense got a couple minutes before the break. Rudy, I'd like to ask you a question. Do you work out?
Speaker 6:I do why?
Speaker 3:my, my real question is what's your motivation to work out?
Speaker 5:he's got a. He's got a beautiful new wife. That's why he's guest-worn.
Speaker 6:Go ahead. When I first started I think there was a bit of vanity, but nowadays I think when I think about working out, no, I do a lot more. Functional things Stretching I do lift heavy weights. Functional things stretching I do lift heavy weights and I find myself doing things that have shown there's a lot of studies that have shown that can help you prolong your life and give you a good quality of life. I've had some grandparents that have gotten to an older age, specifically my grandmother, for example, who I've seen just kind of be stuck in a wheelchair. She can't get up and you know, when people get a little bit older they kind of lose some bodily functions and you know she can't. She has to have kind of a nurse or a family member around her to help her. You know, use the restroom. So when I think about getting older and I think about, you know I don't want to be a burden to myself, not that older people are a burden.
Speaker 3:No, but we know what you mean. We're facing the same thing.
Speaker 6:Yeah, you know yeah, I mean you don't want to be somebody that your kids worry about. You know what's dad going to do, so I want to get to the to an age as much as I possibly can with you know, with with being able to drive around and being being able to do walk around normally and get up, I mean so just be independent, right being independent, being independent as long as possible.
Speaker 3:As long as possible. Yeah, but see, rudy, and I apologize to you for using you as a guinea pig and every one of us will react the same way. Why don't we say, or why, when we go to a gym, is there not a sign on the wall that says a gym? Is there not a sign on the wall that says uh, I have entrusted you with your body, take care of it. Signed god, why, why is it that our motivation isn't? I've been given a gift and it's up to me to maintain it and we never think of that we never think of that.
Speaker 3:That I know of that I've talked to people never think of that. We think in terms of and I don't think it's wrong, I really don't I want to look my best, I want to feel my best, I don't want to be a burden when I'm older. All the everything you said I think is real and legitimate and good reasons to, to to go to the gym, but it's not the only reason. All right, we got to go to a gym, but it's not the only reason. All right, we got to go to a break. This is a show of faith.
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Speaker 1:Johnny Angel, johnny Angel, johnny Angel. The answer, father Mario Johnny passes by. Every time he says hello, my heart begins to fly. Johnny Angel, how I want him. He's got something that I can't resist, but he doesn't even know that I exist. I'm in heaven. I get carried away. I dream of him and me and how it's gonna be. All the fellas call me up for a date, but I just sit and wait. I'd rather concentrate on Johnny Angel, cause I love him and I pray that someday he will love me, and together we will see how lovely heaven will be, how lovely heaven will be, and together we will see how lovely heaven will be Welcome back to a show of faith.
Speaker 5:On AM 1070 Answer we're talking about tonight, the human body and image of God.
Speaker 3:Right. So what does it mean to be in the image of God? Does it mean God has a big toe, an ankle? I don't think so god walks into the guard, walks in the garden of eden in the cool of the day, so he's, he's got a heel, ankle, calf knee. I mean that that's not how. I mean it's a fancy term. Anthropological, yeah. Imagery, yeah, but does that mean that that's a fancy term? Anthropological imagery, but does that mean that that's how?
Speaker 4:we imagine. No, it means it's called anthropomorphic.
Speaker 3:That's what I said. You weren't listening. So then, yeah, thou shalt not lie, all right, so at any rate, yeah.
Speaker 5:So, father Mario, what does that language sort of mean? Why do we speak that way about God? If God doesn't have a big toe, if he doesn't have an earlobe with which he helps to hear our prayers or eyelashes where he sees us and such we often speak in those ways. Why do we do that?
Speaker 4:We often speak in those ways. Why do we do that? Well, the important part is because we have no other way to speak about God. God is supra-natural, meaning that we can know him by our reason and by the signs that are left of him in nature. But also he is not bound by nature, and so we can speak to him now, speak of him using the images of human beings and how we are built, and because that's all we have. We cannot imagine what is unimaginable. God is infinitely greater.
Speaker 4:That's why the Catholic Church always reminds people that theology is both positive and negative, in the sense that negative doesn't mean bad. It just means that whenever we say that, for example, God is our Father God is our Father is true, but at the same time I can also say God is is our Father. God is our Father is true, but at the same time I can also say God is not our Father. Why? Because he's not subject to the limitations of our concept of Fatherhood. And so we have to. We use anthropomorphic language, but we always understand that that anthropomorphic language has its limits, limits, and it should not be carried to its ultimate conclusion of identifying God as having a big toe or stuff like that.
Speaker 4:Now in this situation though and I don't want to get into it too much, unless you guys want to follow that the whole issue of the Incarnation, because for us, you know in Christians, the central part of the incarnation, because for us, you know, in Christians we the central part of the Christian tradition is that the God of that, the God of Israel, became a human being, which, of course, that's a division between Jews and Christian right, and so so it's interesting, because and I'll say this and I'll shut up after this but if you guys remember, in the Christian Gospels, when you have the whole idea of the transfiguration, the two people that are seen with Jesus in the transfiguration, who are they? David?
Speaker 5:Moses and Elijah.
Speaker 4:Okay, and who are the what? Why are those two people the ones that are chosen?
Speaker 5:Well, a couple of things come to mind, but one of the things is that Moses represents the law and Elijah represents the prophets, the prophets, but it's interesting.
Speaker 4:I heard another interpretation which.
Speaker 4:I thought, was very interesting and that is that those are the two people in the Hebrew Scriptures that wanted to see the face of God and could not. They were not allowed to see the face of God. And the reason that they are there is that at this moment in Jesus' life, in the transfiguration, god now has a human face. And since God has a human face, they are allowed to see the face of God, whereas before you could not see it before, unless you were going to die. But Jesus has a human face.
Speaker 4:So the body for us in the Christian tradition is the beginning of the revelation of God in a human form. So in a sense God does have a big toe, but not in the sense of the God, the Father. It's in the incarnation we see the face of God and we see God become human. There's a part in the Catholic tradition in the Mass that it says when the priest is getting the wine and is ready for consecration, he pours a little bit of water in there and he says by mingling of this water and wine may we come to share in the humanity, in the divinity of Christ, in the divinity of Christ from the way he called himself to share in our humanity.
Speaker 5:So you know, for us that's the little caveat, yeah yeah, you know a lot of what we learn and I know we've got to go to break here in a second, but almost any time we take something that is unknown and we try to analyze it with an analogy. I analyze it with an analogy. For example, I remember the first time I had frog legs it had been years ago, frog legs have you ever had frog legs? No, okay, totally not kosher.
Speaker 5:Well, totally not kosher. Were they good? Were they good? All right, I got to vote here, miranda. Anyway, I had never had them before and I think I was in Georgia. Tastes like chicken. Well, that was the thing People said. I don't know what it tastes like. And they say to me well, since you don't know, it tastes like chicken, right. So I mean, you've heard that kind of joke all the time, but in a sense, that's how we learn things that are unknown. That's how we learn things.
Speaker 5:By comparing them by comparing them to things that we know. So I can speak about God hearing prayers and seeing us and God laughing and God's strength with his mighty right arm or something. I can use those analogies to speak about that, but we know that that's not the fullness of what God is, but it gives us language with which to approach and to approach it, and that means that there's something good. Going back to the incarnation, there's something really good about our bodies. Our bodies aren't bad. They're not nasty, they're not dirty, they're not this or that. Yeah, they are going to get old and they're going to decay and they're going to go away, but that's not means that this body is not itself fundamentally good, like creation was in the very beginning and we've got to go back.
Speaker 3:We've got to solve it. It was good. Yeah, this is a show of faith. We'll be right back.
Speaker 11:AM 1070, the Answer faith, we'll be right back. Am 10 70, the answer larry over here and I'm excited to tell you about my new movie called electric vehicles the good, the bad and the ugly. Now I love my gas powered car, but I also care about the planet, and so I pose the question are evs really better for the planet than gas powered vehicles?
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Speaker 1:The Answer 1170 and FM 103.3,. The Answer. The Answer. Take me by my little hand. And go like this. We are dancing round the bend.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to A Show of Faith on AM 1070. The Answer Debbie in Spring, happy birthday coming up in six days and she writes to ashowoffaith1070 at gmailcom. When the Reader's Digest was widely read, there was food for thought included at the end of some articles. One has stuck with me all these years. This is not a word-for-word quote, but thousands of laws on the books and all we really need are the Ten Commandments. Debbie in Spring, thank you for that.
Speaker 5:That was a response to our discussion a few weeks ago or a week ago that we mentioned the ten commandments yeah, and you know the ten commandments are still in the news. Uh, the law, I think this past week, yes, they kind of moved their way through the senate, texas state senate or or one of the committees right to move into schools.
Speaker 3:Put them in the school, which is what we talked about last week.
Speaker 5:Exactly, right, exactly so and you know there's a there's. There's a thing that I was going to read later on, if it seemed appropriate, from 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19,. Which is something that goes to the effect that there's a lot of things that are not legislated and some people, you know, it's not a law against it, basically. And so people say, well, if there's not a law against it, it must mean it's permitted. But Paul goes on to say, well, there's a lot of things that are lawful but they're not always helpful, and so we have to distinguish between what is lawful and then what is helpful to us.
Speaker 5:And not everything that we do, whether it's not a law, is going to lead us to glorify God in these bodies anymore, because ultimately that's what we're supposed to be doing. This body is supposed to be used to glorify God and not necessarily for myself to make me you know this or that, um, to to bring me physical pleasure or to do, uh, I don't know what, whatever our bodies aren't for that Our bodies are really made for God, by God to God, and so when our bodies are sort of elevated that way and they're point people toward God, then what we do with our bodies is going to be honoring to God.
Speaker 3:David, I don't care what meds you're on, I'm asking about supplements. Not meds, but supplements. Okay, do you take supplements? Yeah, absolutely why.
Speaker 5:You know I'm not a professional doctor. I go to doctors and I say to them you know, wait, but you're Dr Capes.
Speaker 3:I know, but I'm not the kind of doctor that helps anybody.
Speaker 5:really I'm not that kind of doctor. I didn't say that either.
Speaker 5:But I ask them, you know, given, you know they do blood work and they come back and say, hey, you're low on this vitamin D, you're low on sodium, you're low on this or you're low on that. So I use that as kind of a barometer to see where, where the body is supposed to be and I take those, those vitamins. You know, I go to a doctor. I've had issue with my eyes for years and she's recommended this particular kind of vitamin. I'm going to take that vitamin because all my eyes to be as good as long as they possibly can, and there's a history of retinal problems in my family.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I mean, I want the eyes to work. Therefore, I'm going to do what the doctor says. So it's a supplement, but I take it in concert with medical.
Speaker 3:I've been told by doctors that when you take supplements, all you are doing is making your urine more expensive. Ow.
Speaker 3:That it just flows out of you. It doesn't really do that much. And my point is, even if it's just one little itty-bitty little speck of something I need, that it's there for me when I need it. I don't care if it makes my more expensive. Make sure, right, yeah, but again, notice where we went with the question. We went with the question, which is normal and good and right, but what we didn't say is because I need to take care of the gift I've been given, which is my body.
Speaker 5:Well, I think that's implicit, though, isn't it? It should be. I mean because, again, I'm not the expert to be able to do the blood work and to come back and say this body needs more of this kind of you know. Well, neither am I Right, but I'm going to take a supplement, but I want to do that for longevity, to live well, to live long, so that in this body I can glorify God as long as possible.
Speaker 3:But it's that additional last part that's important.
Speaker 4:You know, guys, let me read you something. I sent it to you on WhatsApp and you can see it at the end there of the feed. Let me read this to you. This is written by a gentleman by the name of Wesley Smith. He says Unbalanced and unmoored from other goods, health can become a vessel for self-absorption and for decadence. It can cause us to abandon our commitment to our highest principles and to mortgage the future to avert any present pain. The future to avert any present pain.
Speaker 3:I can understand the first part. It can become a vessel for self-absorption and for decadence. Anything, anything, anything, anything can be overdone, can become an obsession, can be misused and abused, even working out of the gym or whatever. But I'm not clear, rudy on the second part of this. It can cause us to abandon our commitment to our highest principles and to mortgage the future to avert the present pain.
Speaker 4:I thought that Well, the last part after Ann, but listen to the just part. It can cause us to abandon our commitment to our highest principles. Stop there, because I can see where a person just is so concerned about their health that they don't do anything else for anybody else. They just take care of themselves, right?
Speaker 4:And they're giving an exaggerated amount of time and resources to their own health and to their own body and they're not taking care of their souls. They're not taking care of their spiritual health and to their own body and they're not taking care of their souls. They're not taking care of their spiritual health. And I think ultimately we have that tendency today is not to give our attention to our spiritual health and to give almost all of our attention to our physical health.
Speaker 5:That's a good point.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, but that's a good point.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But that's what we do. We take a look at mirrors. We don't see our soul. We take a look at a mirror. We don't see our mind, we only see the physical, and so that would be what we would, you know, first of all, that's what we're going to see the flaws in my big tummy, which is getting smaller. It is You've lost some weight. Yes, I have. Yeah, but that's what we see. That's therefore what we work on. We forget about the spiritual, we forget about the soul.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's interesting. It's interesting from the perspective of the life of Jesus. When the paralytic remember when they're lowering him down, and the paralytic wants his health restored, wants to walk. But what's the first thing that Jesus says to him your sins are forgiven. Notice that he is looking first to his spiritual health, and his physical health is a background to his spiritual health.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think that's a good interpretation of that text.
Speaker 3:For we who are Christian impaired, they were lowering him. What does that mean? Like lowering him from a second floor? Yeah, david.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I mean this is in Mark gospel chapter two. There's an episode where Jesus is in a house and there's probably 30, 40, 50 people there and there's no room. People were looking into the windows or looking at the doors and it was just jam packed. They had this man who was paralyzed, or four, four of them. We were carrying him and they could not get him through the door.
Speaker 5:So what they did is they went up on the roof which is very common in those days, flat roof and they actually, in Greek it says they unroofed the roof. They pulled the roof back, basically to the chagrin, I'm sure, of the owner of the house, but they lowered him down into the middle of this crowd, where Jesus was Right and and Jesus is impressed at how they went out of their way.
Speaker 5:And it says it's interesting. Another thing he says is that Jesus seeing their faith. He's not talking about the paralyzed man, he's looking at the faith of the men who brought him. And the way I sort of explain that to students and others is that sometimes our faith gets very, very thin and very small and what really sustains us is the faith of our friends. And it's important to have faithful friends to love you, to lift you up, to care for you, to help you when you cannot help yourself basically Part of the re-lig of religion.
Speaker 3:Yes, the reconnection is connecting with other people.
Speaker 5:Absolutely.
Speaker 5:And Jesus says to that man. He doesn't say it to everybody, but he says my son, your sins are forgiven. And obviously that caused all sorts of consternation, but he's privileging the life of the spiritual life before. If you and I had looked at that man, we would have said what's the main thing that he wants and he needs? He needs to walk again, he needs to rejoin the physical, he needs to rejoin his family, he needs to rejoin his. You know, whatever he was before he got hurt. He needs to rejoin that. And Jesus looked at the same man as to know what he really needs before. He needs the others to get the spiritual all together. Father Maury, is that right?
Speaker 4:Yes, I think he gives priority to the health of the spirit, to the body, and I think that that's the balance that we need to be able to have. Take care of your body, but make sure to you know what good does it do you to gain the whole world and lose your soul. If you give priority to your body and not to your soul, I think that's an abuse of spiritual responsibility, but it could be both.
Speaker 3:That's what I'm saying about. Why do we go to the gym? Why do we take supplements? You know, why do we go to the gym? Why do we take supplements? We can spiritualize the act of physical exercise by saying I am taking care of the body that God gave me.
Speaker 4:It's putting a spiritual edge or something. I agree. I agree, but it's a balance, because you have to take care of your spirit before you take care of yourself, and I think most people take care much more of their body than they do of themselves.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:I think if you spiritualize the physical activity.
Speaker 3:It might make them in other ways become more consciously aware of their spirit.
Speaker 5:I remember there was a fellow named Peter Lord who was pastor of a church We've got to cut it here in a minute Pastor of a church back in Titusville, florida, and he was known for spending hours and hours every day in prayer working on his spirit. But he said sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is take a nap, you know, because there's a connection between body and soul. Right, it's not. They're disconnected.
Speaker 3:That means since I retired.
Speaker 5:I'm a very spiritual person. Well, it doesn't sometimes the least, the least you can. Oh okay, all right, anyway, let's go to a break.
Speaker 3:This is a show of faith. On AM 1070, the Answer We'll be right back.
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Speaker 9:Memorial Day weekend might look a little different this year, but this weekend, no matter how you're able to celebrate the holiday, take a moment to reflect on the sacrifice of those in our military.
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Speaker 9:Thank you to those that have given their life for our freedom. Am 1070, the answer.
Speaker 1:To everything turn, turn, turn. There is a season to earn, turn, turn. And a time to every purpose under heaven, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to find.
Speaker 3:A time to take care of your body, a time to take care of your soul.
Speaker 1:A time to kill, a time to heal, a time to laugh, a time to weep.
Speaker 3:Welcome back to A Show of Faith on AM107. The Answer Rudy, you just sent us another quote. Let's talk about it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, so it's a quote from St Francis, st Francis de Sales, and it says Take reasonable care of your body for the sake of your soul. It says take reasonable care of your body for the sake of your soul, but do not become so attached to bodily health that you are disturbed when you lack it. Infirmities of the body are often profitable to the soul. Now, of course, I think a lot of that depends on your outlook of life, right, and how you view let's that. I know that in their last dying breaths they've acknowledged God and asked for a priest, or asked for some sort of forgiveness, right, some sort of atonement, let's call it.
Speaker 6:It's quite interesting, when we're feeling healthy and when we're feeling, you know, I don't know sort of immortal right, like nothing can kind of touch us or break us, how much we don't tend to be thankful or grateful for our simple things the ability to walk, the ability to close our hands, the ability I mean something as silly as when you get a cut in your hand and then you can't use your right hand and now you're only kind of able to use your left, and then you really it's just incredible how much we take for granted these things and when we consider certain infirmities and why they happen, and and I think a lot of people and a lot of people that I've talked to that are sort of struggling with faith, religion, god, they they ask themselves why do good things happen to, why do bad things happen to good people and why do good things happen to?
Speaker 6:Why do bad things happen to good people and why do good things happen to bad people? Right, it's this kind of question of evil that I think a lot of people really struggle with. Yeah, they take issue with right, and they're good questions, they're fair questions and we could probably do a whole show on it next week.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we could, but, rudy, that leads me to my next question, which is like? In the Bible, it's explicitly stated that things that happen to our body are punishments from God. I'm not quite sure I always see that in everything that happens to our bodies. I don't think it is. No, no.
Speaker 5:I mean, I don't think that's really what the scriptures teach, that every infirmity, every cancer every it is caused by sin or caused by a lack of faithfulness.
Speaker 3:You know what I mean? Yes, but how many people? The first thing they go to when something bad happens is I'm a horrible person, it's my fault.
Speaker 5:Well, I mean, I think that's part of the soul work that we need to do, and this Father Maher you might have might have you know, going back to the last thing in his statement here that sometimes infirmities of the body are profitable to the soul. And it's not just old people who have infirmities. I mean, there are people who are, who are injured, you know, in a, an accident or something, a car accident, and they spend the rest of their life dealing with some sort of infirmity, or somebody who's born with an infirmity, and they must live the next part of their life, you know, with that infirmity. Maybe it affects how they walk, or affects something.
Speaker 3:It's not my theology that God did it to them.
Speaker 5:No, no, no nor mine either Neither chance happens to us all, but a part of the soul work we have to do is, when these things do happen, to deal with them in some profitable, meaningful way.
Speaker 3:What do we?
Speaker 5:do with it. We're going to search for meaning one way or another, right, right, and I think that's part of it, father Mario.
Speaker 4:I agree. I think we have to put the whole thing in perspective. I'll never forget the one I did a homily one time when I asked the congregation to turn to each other and say what are they thankful for, and there was a little old man in the first row.
Speaker 4:He was kind of bent over and you could see his hands shaking because you could see he had Parkinson's and I didn't have anybody to share with, and so I walked down from the altar, from the sanctuary, and I went to him and I said what are you thankful for, sir?
Speaker 4:And he looked me straight in the eye, bent over and shaking as he was. He says Father, I'm thankful for my Parkinson's. And I almost fell over. And I said why are you thankful for that? And he said because, in having to deal with this illness, I have come to understand and to know God in such a more intimate way that I would never trade my health for what I have now. Wow.
Speaker 3:That's incredible. That is incredible. Yep, A loose translation. Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got until it's gone?
Speaker 4:It makes us value. He valued his insight as a part of what the experience of his Parkinson's as a mortal person yeah.
Speaker 5:Man. That would be so good if we could all adapt in certain ways. Like that I'm often concerned. I've seen a lot of people lately lose weight with the shot. They go in and take weight and it can be profitable, it can be beneficial, but it can also be the kind of thing Could there have been another way? I was thinking about at the same time. I was thinking about Karen Carpenter. Here was Karen Carpenter. We love her singing on the show weekly the song about Johnny Angel. She was deeply troubled about her physical health and she became anorexic and had these issues. Ultimately it took her life and sometimes that's the mental perspective on our lives. Are there other ways other than appealing to some sort of medical work in order to do what you need to do, the work of the body, the work of the soul, the work of the spirit? Are there other things? Spirit, mind, yeah.
Speaker 6:Dr Cates, I always recommend this book called Brain Wars and I know I've mentioned it here a couple times on the show. But the amount of supernatural recoveries, healings and not just religion but of having a positive mindset, of having there's a story of a guy and I'll send you guys a link if you want. But he got diagnosed with this, with this critical illness, and they told him he was going to die in a couple days.
Speaker 6:It was, it was and he pretty much locked himself in a in a room and spent the next two or three months watching comedies and drinking a lot of vitamin c completely healed wow and so what when you talk about you know, when we say these things about, um, having not just a proper health and taking care of your body, but it's also the spirit and the soul being even with that Parkinson's being grateful, right, and the whole aspect that we don't even get to think about is what Father Mario just said right now. Yes, so that man is closer to God, but the effect that it also has on the other people around us, when, when you see a member that has an ailment and they carry that ailment not, you know, I thought of blessed Carlos Acuti. I don't know if you guys are familiar with the young man.
Speaker 5:I'm not no he was.
Speaker 6:He died maybe ten years ago and he had a terrible illness and he's's on his way well, until Pope Francis passed away, he was on his way to sainthood, but he died very, very young and some of his last words are saying if I have to die young to convert or to bring people closer to God, then that's what I need to do, that's what needs to happen. So it's something about carrying let's call it your cross, your ailment, whatever it may be, so that you can also have a positive effect on others. I think there's fundamental layers to I don't want to just call it suffering, but pain and evil that can extract a good from it, that when we only think of things materially, I think we lose an entire dimension in this thing.
Speaker 3:And again I'm going to say that I think what exercises our spiritual muscle is to take things that are generally secular or physical and add to it a spiritual element. I think that it would help us become aware of our other than physical needs.
Speaker 5:I know we're just about out of time. Can you give an example of what you're talking?
Speaker 3:about Just what we've been saying about. You know, when we work out, why do we work out, why do we do what we do for our bodies? If we only say it's for my future, it's for whatever, and we were to add, because god gave me this gift and I need to take care of it, I think it would help that. Okay, all right, this is a show of faith. On am 10 70 answer week. Every week. We're here, minister, priest, rabbi and millennial. Keep us in your prayers, because you are certainly going to be in our prayers.