Page 207 - spiritual_accompaniment_montreal_archdiocese

HOMILIES

It is also very important to rediscover our spiritual life. We recognize that our physical health
is important. And that is am excellent thing! At the start of the pandemic, we focused a great
deal on physical health, but a few weeks later, we started addressing psychological health,
mental health, personal health, and overall health. Thus, psychological health is very
important, too. It is also important to consider emotional health, mental health, and the
health of our relationships. But we must not forget our spiritual health, the quality of our
spiritual life, and in health, everything is connected. When we care for our physical health, it
helps our psychological health and vice versa. When we nurture our spiritual health, it helps
both our psychological health and our physical health. The human being is not a mechanism
comprised of different parts: “Ah, I have a gear here which is damaged. I will fix it and it will be
fine!” No! Every dimension of our being affects us as a whole! When our feet hurt, our whole
being can hurt! When we are weak in some areas, our whole person becomes weakened.

To rediscover our spiritual dimension is to rediscover that we exist before God, we exist to
pray, we exist in being called to eternal life. When we use “I”, we exist in the spiritual realm
and affirm our spiritual dimension. It is our center, our heart, our spirit. It is our soul
expressing itself through the body which exists as one with our spirit. But it all starts from
within a spiritual core. A spiritual core that has an impact on our emotional life, on our health,
and on our relationships. When we pray for each other, and with each other, it brings us closer
to one another, much like the spokes of a wheel that meet at the centre. When we pray, we
draw closer to God; and when we draw closer to God, we draw closer to one another, because
we are all God’s creatures, called to be God’s children, and loved by God. God never ceases to
look upon us as his beloved children! As his children, what then does this mean? This means
that we are all brothers and sisters to one another!

Spiritual life has a very huge impact on the personal, familial, social, and most certainly,
Church life. This pandemic presented an opportunity to rediscover these dimensions, the
different fundamental dimensions of life: on being human, on dignity, on the family, and the
spiritual life.

On this feast of St. John the Baptist, whose vocation was to prepare the way of the Lord, let
us pray to St. John the Baptist that the Lord may prepare the way for our hearts to welcome
Him, to welcome his presence, his work from within us and through us, so that we can all get
through this pandemic, having grown in spirit, i.e. becoming more rooted in God, in solidarity
with one another, in service to the most needy and the poor, in society and in the Church.



(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 207