Reflection on October 31, 1979

http://www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2tb7.htm

When reading this, I think I may have misinterpreted the body and soul from dust analysis. It appears the body comes from dust (although scripture says man) and the soul comes from the breath of God (although scripture says life). I was trying to get my head around this and thinking about what happens at the death of a person. God breathes life into a person, and when that breath is taken back, the person physically dies, hence from dust we were made and to dust we shall return. But this talks about the body and life, where does the soul fit in. Our soul and body are united at our conception and then separated at our death, our body into the ground, our soul to the beyond. I suppose that when God takes back the breath of life, our soul departs with it, which would point to the soul coming with the breath of life and not the dust.

Whatever the “fundamental meaning of the body” is, seems to be a very important premise that needs to be fully understood before moving forward, so, in brief, here is what I come up with. Man has come to understand the meaning of his body through the experience of naming the animals and tilling the soil. The meaning he has is that he is unique and separate from all other creatures and has dominion over them. I was wondering what “genuinely human activities” meant. Man has learned all this through experience and activities and sees what his body can do and what it is made for. But we have to think about what this type of activity is. Tilling the soil comes to mind because it is mentioned as part of the solitude and meaning of man. Man is made so that he can till, no other animal has the ability to work the land. If you include the brain and intelligence with the body, man is made to reason and think, which other creatures cannot and so this becomes a genuine human activity.

I think it is very interesting to think about whether man understood what “die” meant when God gave this command. As stated above, everything man knows has so far come from his experience. He has not experienced death and so, it appears, would have a lack of understanding as to what he was risking or losing. Man, before the fall, has his solitude from all creatures, solitude from the angels, but appears to have a unique connection and covenant with God. They converse and man is immortal. Man does not appear to be in solitude away from God, although he is not God. Eating of the tree would bring a new solitude, a new separation, from God. This relationship, this connection with God, is important to reflect on because this lost connection is what Jesus came to restore. When Christ points back to “in the beginning, it points back to far more than just marriage but to the very union man once had and was made to have with God.

Words I looked up

Praxis - practice, as distinguished from theory; application or use, as of knowledge or skills.

Antithesis - the direct opposite

Eschatological - any system of doctrines concerning last, or final, matters, as death, the Judgment, the future state, etc.