O Lord my God…
Say to my soul,
I am your Salvation.
Say it so that I can hear it.
My heart is listening, Lord;
Open the ears of my heart
And say to my soul,
I am your salvation.
Let me run toward this voice
And seize hold to you.
—Saint Augustine
Man, God’s divine breath
Man is a scientific and biological marvel. His body is composed more than 30 trillion cells with 11 unique systems that keep it functioning. He belongs to class Mammalia, phylum Chordata, the highest rank in the animal kingdom.
Although he does not belong to any of the categories of angels, man possesses an immortal soul like them.
With a divine breath on clay, God fashioned man—body and soul. His body is corruptible but his soul is not, for it will live forever. He can look at himself from morning till night repeatedly in his lifetime, but never have a glimpse of his soul.
When God breathed into man’s face the breath of life, man became a living soul.
Fr. John Laus in Origin of Human Soul, Chief Truths of the Faith emphasized that “the soul of man is not formed of any kind of matter, but created directly by God as a spiritual substance and united with his body.”
It is a sacred body because it is animated by a spiritual soul and it is the entire person that is intended to become in the body of Christ, a temple of the Holy Spirit (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 364).
Although man can never confirm he has a soul, faith can instill a spiritual attestation, he indeed has one.
In Christian literature, the soul is distinguished from the spirit, which does not mean a duality of the soul. To the Thessalonians, Saint Peter advice the need for vigilance: “May the God of peace make you perfectly holy, spirit, soul and body (1 Thesalonians 5:23).
Sharing God’s life
In baptism man is freed from spiritual death caused by the disobedience of Adam and Eve, man’s first parents. In the sacrament of baptism, God unites the soul to Himself—and the Holy Spirit elevates the soul to a divine life. It is a supernatural life, “a sharing in God’s own life, called sanctifying grace.”
The only instance man is separated from God is when in full consciousness he wilfully disobeys God in very serious matters, called mortal sin. Man commits sin not only by doing what God has forbidden (sin of commission), but also by failing to do what God has commanded (sin of omission). Man’s friendship with God can be restored through the sacrament of confession.
Take care of your soul
The soul lives on after death. And all will be judged at the end of the world. Christ will render to each man his destiny forever—heaven or hell.
However, immediately after death, a departed person is subjected to a “particular judgment,” according to theologians. The soul is internally illuminated as to its own guilt or innocence and of its own initiation takes its course—hell purgatory or heaven (Summa Theologica Supplement, 69.2, 88.2).
Saint Augustine reminds men: “Take care of your body as if it were to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you are going to die tomorrow.”
Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.