Consolation in and of the Body?
I have only recently started running.
And I am still a beginner – I avoid hills and run, following
the alleged advice of Eamonn Coughlin “as slowly as I can, for as long as I can”.
But it feels great. There is something about ‘feeling’ life through my body as
my feet hit the ground and the cold air my face…I love it! I still need to push
myself into that first step of making time, changing clothes to face the cold…
but I love it. It is a physical –spiritual practice and place of discovery for
me.
And it makes me think – there is a sort of ‘consolation of
and in the body’, right? A sense, somehow, ‘without previous cause’ of God’s
presence in and through stretched muscles and flesh moving to a rhythm marked
from within and without. And it makes me wonder if there could not be a “discernment (also) through the body” as well
– that when we face important decisions (or daily ones), does God not also
allow us sense in how we feel about ourselves in-our-body-in-the-world, what could
be right? And I know discernment implies a lot of other elements and aspects,
but perhaps this one has been overlooked? The joy of the flesh that God really
wanted to come to visit… Cf. Jn 1:14.
