Page 244 - spiritual_accompaniment_montreal_archdiocese

PASTORAL LETTERS

Eternity, as the fullness of eternal life, as the existence of God, as an encounter
with God. This might sound very abstract, yet there is nothing more concrete. We know
from experience that neglecting God leads to neglecting human beings, neglecting the
dignity of the human person whose very life has inherent value, from conception to
natural death.

God, who is Spirit, establishes our mode of being by giving coherency and meaning
to our existence and life. When we no longer know what it is to be a human being, man
and woman, it is a sign that we no longer know God. When human beings are nothing
more than the result of chance that eventually dissolves like a shadow in the night of
death, paradoxically, this becomes the sign that God exists. When there is no longer a
sense of journeying through life, there is no longer meaning in life. But human beings
resist the absence of meaning. They know in the depths of their soul, at the bottom of
their hearts, in the pinnacles of their minds that they thirst for a continuous source of
water, for water that remains, eternal life. They thirst for God. Their thirst, which is
impervious to all neglect, indifference and evasion, is a sign that this thirst exists in the
world but is not of this world (cf. Saint John Paul II).

If only matter, plants, animals and biological bodies existed, there would not be a
thirst for the absolute, there would not be a deep aspiration to get the most out of life,
love and happiness. If human beings were only bodies, only limited desires would exist.
Human beings forget their sense of humanity the more they forget that which God
desires, present within them (cf. Henri de Lubac).

Isn’t it time to reclaim the soul, essentially the spirit dimension that is open to
God, which knows and acts through the body? It is not for the soul to neglect or repress
the body, as it is not for the body to neglect the soul. Human beings exist body and soul.
“I am body and soul.” The human body is an established entity, but it exists with the soul.

(cont’d)

Collection of texts by the Most Rev. Christian Lépine 244