For our souls

We have been talking so far about the needs of our bodies, and they are very important.  But the most important is our soul, the real you and the real I.  The time will come when our bodies will grow old and die, and that will be the end of them.  But our soul, that part of us which thinks and knows and decides to do this or that, our soul will go on living for ever.  That is why, when we pray for our daily bread, we also include all the things which our souls need to keep them healthy and well.

There are many people who go out of their way to see that their bodies are all right, but do not give a thought to their souls.  You wouldn’t think that anyone could be so stupid.  Of all the living creatures in this world, we human beings alone have been given the power to know our Maker and to love him and to choose to be his here and hereafter.  And yet there are many people who just eat and drink and work and play, and do not bother whether their souls are healthy and strong or weak and diseased.  They probably never wonder what state their souls are in, but God knows because he sees the soul of every single person.  The souls of the saints are pure and clean.  The souls of evil people are stunted and horrible (Revelation 7:13,14; Matthew 6:22,23).  And in between the two are the souls of ordinary people, sinful and weak.

Food of the soul

Now, just as the body needs, among other things, regular food if it is to grow strong and healthy, so also does the soul.  And the food of the soul is God himself.  As the soul is spirit, so it needs the Holy Spirit of God to make it grow and keep it well.  We receive the Spirit of God in two main ways: when we pray and when we receive the Sacraments of his Church, such as Confirmation and Confession.  But the special and most necessary food of the soul is the Blessed Sacrament, which we receive when we make our Communion.  For the Blessed Sacrament, the Living Bread from Heaven as Jesus calls it, hides Jesus himself in his risen and ascended Body; the same Body which was born in Bethlehem and was nailed to the Cross but which is now a spiritual and heavenly Body.  So Jesus has told us, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (NRSV, John 6:51).

But remember, our Communion will not do us any good at all unless our souls are prepared as well as possible to receive Jesus.  We need to love God and be truly sorry for the sins we have committed by thought, word and deed.  That is why we must always carefully prepare ourselves, before we make our Communion, by thinking out our sins, telling God we are sorry for them, and giving ourselves to him in trustfulness and love to be his for always.