Right about now, many of us are finding great difficulty dealing with this pandemic. St. Francis de Sales was no Dr. Fauci, but he does have some health “medications” for us. One insight is from the Treatise on the Love of God.
“Charity places an obligation on us to love our bodies properly since they are necessary for good works. Indeed, a Christian must love and will share in our eternal happiness. Incarnate Savior, as having issued with Him from the same stock and consequently belonging to in parentage and blood. Above all, this holds after we have renewed that bond of kinship by the reception of the divine body of our Redeemer in the Eucharist and after we have dedicated and consecrated ourselves to His goodness by Baptism, Confirmation, and other sacraments” (Tr. Bk III, CH 8).
In one short paragraph, he gives us a very positive theology of the body. The body is the enshrinement of our total human-ness – our physical, mental, and spiritual selves. It is also something we share with Jesus. By his Incarnation, Jesus took on our humanity, and, as St. Paul tells us, we are children of God, our Father, his sons and daughters. Thus, we are Jesus’s brothers and sisters by that adoption. This kinship we have with Jesus is strengthened by our reception of the Eucharist. And, like Jesus, we will take our human bodies, magnificently transformed like that of Jesus with us to heaven. And, since this body has been the means by which we perform good works here on this earth, it should also share in those rewards in heaven!
He also leaves us with some practical spiritual or ascetical insights about our bodies, especially when we are dealing with sickness or illness. What can we do in the midst of this sickness and suffering? He asks us to do what Jesus himself did – offer it up to his Father. In the Introduction to the Devout Life, he writes:
“When you are sick, offer to our Lord all your aches, pains, and weakness, and ask Him to join them to the sufferings He endured for us. Obey your doctor, take your medicine, food, and other remedies for the love of God remembering the gall He drank for you. Do not refuse any suffering so that you might obey Him, yet desire to get well so as to be able to serve Him. If it should be God’s Will, prepare yourself for death so that you might praise Him and be happy with Him forever.
Remember that while bees are making honey, they live and feed on bitter food. Likewise, we can never perform acts of greater gentleness and patience, or create the honey of excellent virtues, better than when we eat the bread of bitterness and live amid afflictions. Just as the best honey is gathered from the blossom of thyme, a small but bitter herb, so also virtue practiced in the bitterness of the lowest and abject humiliations is the most excellent of all.” (Intro. III, 3).
I think my grandmother read and knew St. Francis de Sales quite well. When we were sick or in pain, she skipped the part about the honey and the bees and simply said “Offer it up!” I bet your grandmothers or mothers told you the same thing!
Fr. Neil Kilty, OSFS
Annecy Hall
Childs, Maryland
This reflection originally appeared in DeSales Weekly, the e-newsletter of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales.
To received DeSales Weekly, click Subscribe Here.
To see previous DeSales Weekly’s, click here.
For comments or suggestions about DeSales Weekly, contact the editor, Fr. Bill McCandless, OSFS
Father Bill McCandless, OSFS
Oblate Development
wmccandless@oblates.org
Office: 302-656-8529 ext.20
