If I had to single out one idea in Eugene Kennedy’s book “Would You Like to Be a Catholic) (St. Anthony Messenger Press) that has caused me to be so enthusiastic about the book, it would be his holistic view of the human person. Kennedy sees any vision of the human person which would divide the person into various warring elements as false and harmful to personal growth and also harmful to a deep appreciation of the sacraments. My philosophical training leads me to agree completely with him. My experience of myself as a person convinces me that Kennedy’s emphasis is correct.

For much of my life, I thought of my body and soul as being at war with one another. All my difficulties, I mistakenly thought, were caused by my body. In fact, I wondered why God stuck us with a body. I thought of the soul as being trapped inside a body. The body, in my previous view of the human person, was the reason why we were lazy, lustful, ignorant and sinful. It is amazing to me now as I recall my previous view of the human body but there was a time when I longed for a totally spiritual world, a personal existence in which there was no matter at all.

There was a time when I could not appreciate the value of our personal resurrection. My attitude was basically that all that was important was that my soul got to heaven, the resurrection of the body was a kind of addendum but not really significant.

I no longer think of the human person as two realities, a body and a soul, but as one mysterious being who is an incarnate spirit, neither an angel nor an animal. The human person does not have a body that is in some way distinct from the person but rather the person is a bodily being. Kennedy writes the following:

“The sacraments are, therefore, understandable only if we understand human personality. We cannot really grasp anything about them if we have a corrupted or inaccurate notion of the human person. One of the most damaging distortions of the person is found in the divided model that is a corruption of the traditional Catholic appreciation of the wholeness of personality. Such a division makes sacrilege of the sacramental by splitting the person into warring elements of the body and soul, intellect and emotion, spirit and flesh, setting people against themselves, making them feel guilty, for example, for being human and experiencing healthy sexual feelings

“These tyrannizing distortions interfere with our understanding ourselves, our world, each other and the Mystery in which our lives are led. Distortions of the human damage our sacramental sense…”

I think that Kennedy’s insights into the nature of person are profound and have very important implications. If we are frequently feeling guilty about what is quite normal then that will lead to a distorted view of God. It is also true that if we have a distorted view of God, then we frequently may feel guilty about what is quite normal.
What we are trying to do throughout our life is attain a unity, an integrated self, a level of self-understanding and self-control that frees us to interact with both God and neighbor fruitfully. A distorted view of self makes this very difficult. In philosophy classes at St. John’s University when the students and I explore the mystery of personal existence, I suggest to them that what we are trying to do is discover the deepest meaning of self, that everything we are reflecting on is to answer the question “Who am I?” or “Who are we?” I also suggest that, since we are dealing with a mystery, we probably will continue to ask the question throughout our lives. We hope we will see more deeply into the truth about ourselves. I suggest to the students that, though I may be wrong, I think that I understand Robert Lauder better than I have ever understood myself previously.

In trying to convey how I think I have reached this self-awareness, I mention that rejecting the distorted view of the self as composed of warring elements such as body and soul, intellect and emotions, spirit and flesh has been a great help. Also friends have been an enormous help.

Close friends are like messages from God. They can be special graces in our lives, special revelations of the meaning and mystery of God. They can be channels of God’s love to us. They can be like sacraments to us in that God enters more deeply into our lives through their presence in our lives. They can help us to become whole and even help us to become holy.