Tuesday, February 13, 2024
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Fat Tuesday before Ash Wednesday
The season of Lent begins tomorrow. Exclamation mark! As for today, eat drink and be merry, for tomorrow we … fast.
Blessed is he who perseveres in temptation.
At the grocery store I bought salmon, milk, broccoli, tangerines, pears and apples. I walked past muffins, donuts, ice cream, ripe bananas, grapes and bags of Mounds bars. My body clapped me on the back and congratulated me. The gauntlet of temptation claps me on the back as well, but not so much these days as before. It’s scary, going to the emergency room.
During the Super Bowl I ate half a frozen pizza, but threw away the second half. I ate half a large Snickers bar but threw away the second half. I ate half a giant red grapefruit from Mission, Texas but saved the second half for tomorrow morning.  Margaret said eating foods in moderation is the only way a diet, diabetic or otherwise, ever works for long. So I’ll continue to examine the borders of all the foods I love, tasting the edges, defining moderation each day as it comes.
Each person is tempted when lured and enticed by his desire.
What is changing my old established habits? In fact, I felt awful, went to the ER where I was rehydrated, and felt better. I have lost ten pounds and am shedding a few clothes that no longer fit. My will power is multiplied a hundredfold by these negative and positive events. But still, when I think of praying for my body and its health, I get a little fuzzy and am not sure what to pray.
Here’s what I know, though. I am a psychosomatic being. This is not an illness but the normal way of things. My mind runs through me like blood in my veins, and my body pushes my mind around, side to side, front to back, day and night. When my mind is at rest, my body rests. When my body wrestles with hypertension or hyper anything, my mind spins and will not stop.
Spirit is not so simple. Merton and others write about la pointe vierge, a place within my mind and body where God “resides,” which my ego cannot enter, and therefore which I cannot abuse or reject. Could this also be called “spirit?” My spirit does not grow in the same way the rest of me grows through childhood and so on. My spirit does not change when the rest of me is at rest or in crisis. And I imagine it does not die when the rest of me dies.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers and sisters: every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth.
After Jesus’ fed the five thousand, suddenly the disciples forgot to bring bread. This sounds funny to me, but their bodies didn’t laugh. They were hungry. Jesus made this a teaching point, that we are more than just our bodies (and our minds). Apparently they needed to be reminded. Apparently we all do. Of course. Hunger is powerful!
But Jesus would have me “know” my spirit better than I know the rest of me. This is how we were made, what makes our lives worth living. What gives me joy when I take a bite of bread.
Blessed the man whom you instruct, O Lord, whom by your law you teach, giving him rest from evil days.
(James 1, Psalm 94, John 14, Mark 8)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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