Given our ongoing concern for unity within the Church, in this month’s column I invite your attention to the subject of personal or “embodied” unity. While unity is normally thought of in relational terms, the unity of the ‘‘self’’ is also a concern of theology and the ministry of the Church.
What do we mean by personal or embodied unity? It is unfortunate that we have been bequeathed a tripartite understanding of the self. We tend to think of ourselves as a combination of body, psyche and spirit. Much of our everyday language reflects this understanding.
For example, we talk about having a body as a possession or wanting to work on our “spiritual life”, or referring to ourselves with psychological labels and language that would suggest our psyche has little to do with our body or with our spirit. We further note that each of these realms of our humanity is a separate subject specialty, or discipline for study and carries with it its own peculiar jargon and understanding of the human condition.
Many times the medical doctor, psychologist and religious leader frame human experience with different concepts and vocabulary, failing to see the continuity and connectedness of all human experience.
A more ancient view of who we are as human beings comes from the Hebraic understanding of humanity, which is wholistic. Much of Native American spirituality suggests a similar harmony and wholeness of self, not only a wholeness of self within, but a oneness of the person with earth and environment.
Undivided life
Within recent years there has been a growing awareness of a more wholistic and unified understanding of the self as seen in psychosomatic medicine and wholistic health and healing.
There also seems to be a growing awareness that our bodies, souls and spirit are not possessions, but aspects of who, what and how we are as human beings. It is not so much that we “have a body”, but more accurately we “are our bodies”.
The same holds true in viewing our soul or spirit as possessions. Human beings, in fact, are embodied spirit and embodied soul. This growing recognition is important because it calls us to responsibility and stewardship for our individual selves.
There is a relationship between holiness, psychological wholeness and bodily wellness. Holiness is not some separate category of human experience that is distinct from our psychological or bodily existence.
Holiness, as a goal of human existence, finally refers to union with God. Such union includes a deep recognition that God abides in and through us as we live our lives daily. We desperately need to renew a sense of incarnational piety and spiritual discipline.
Holiness and peace
The quest for holiness means hard work. It involves developing a spiritual discipline or rule of life, including prayer, work, reflection, and recreation.
Holy men and women are characterized by a “peace which passes human understanding”, a peace born of a deep unity within, a recognition of limit, acceptance of finitude.
Holiness suggests an understanding of identity given at baptism rather than something that happens later in life or needs to be earned. It is the awareness that we only find ourselves when we recognize that we have already been found by God.
Living a particular vocation or ministry is the outward manifestation of holiness: a holiness that recognizes that identity is a gift and calling.
Holiness and wholeness
Holiness cannot be separated from psychological wholeness. Sigmund Freud described psychological wholeness in its most basic form as the ability to love and have meaningful work.
In many different schools of personality theory, psychological wholeness refers to moving beyond simply “coping” to some form of fulfillment. Clearly we see similarities between psychological wholeness and the invitation to a “devout and holy life’’.
If it is true, as some say, that the modern day priest or shaman of our society is the psychological counselor, it is because religion has lost its soul. Harsher critics would say that it has not only lost its soul, but it has turned over the responsibility of values, feelings, cognitive and moral development to those who call themselves behavioral scientists.
Our responsibility
A similar situation has existed between the division of the self into body and soul or body and spirit. Only a few centuries ago, if one was experiencing illness one would first go to a priest to discern the spiritual and psychological meaning of the illness or disease before consulting a doctor. In our age of rapid medical and technological advances we see a reversal of this. Rather than attempting to discern the meaning of illness, too often we quickly turn over our responsibility to those in the medical profession.
Fortunately, there is a growing recognition within the medical, psychological and religious communities that each person has a responsibility for wellness. Preventive medicine, wholistic health and the current concern for diet, exercise and learning to cope with stress are indicative of a growing awareness that responsibility for wellness rests primarily with the individual.
Chemical dependence, gluttony and any and all forms of addiction are not only diseases but also represent sinful ways that human beings participate in a division of the self within.
In referring to bodily, psychological and spiritual abuse, I am defining sin not as a series of acts, but in its most basic form as a separation, a pulling apart or a dividing, as or posed to the word salvation, which derives from the world salus, which has to do with wholeness, reconciliation and healing. The basis for such salvation is a unity of the self which means a unity of spirit, soul and body.
Clergy wellness
Last month our diocesan clergy conference in Rapid City had as its theme “Wellness”. As a part of that conference, we had excellent addresses from committed Episcopalians in the Diocese, who shared aspects of our responsibility for our holiness, wholeness and wellness.
Marty Beaumont from the West River Community Health Center taught members of the clergy how to identify and cope with stress.
Dr. Robert Westaby (St. Andrews, RC) shared with us the importance of diet and its relationship to diabetes.
Dr. Streeter Shining (Emmanuel, RC) informed us about heart disease and called for a sensible balance of exercise and diet in taking responsibility for a healthy heart.
Blood pressure, cholesterol and other tests were available to clergy and their spouses at the conference.
Sickness is alarming
My reason for choosing “wellness” as our clergy conference theme is a growing alarm with the unhealthy state of our clergy in the Diocese, In the past several years our clergy have experienced an unusual incidence of heart disease. In our diocese burnout is an ongoing problem, because of isolation, shortage of clergy, and stress that is produced by exercising a crisis ministry.
As a part of my time with the clergy, I called upon them to be the embodiment of holiness, wholeness and wellness.
Go easy on the goodies
I ask you to help your clergy by ensuring that they take adequate time off for self and family recreation. Also, avoid “killing them with kindness”: potluck dishes and desserts that are high in sugar and cholesterol.
As we pray and work toward unity in the Church, let us remember that such unity also must exist within ourselves. Holiness and health are two ways of talking about the same reality, salvation. We are called to be whole and holy. Let us pray and work for such personal unity.