Our Souls Need Food!

 Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God (Matt.4:4).

We are more than physical beings; we are composed of body, soul, and spirit.  I have heard this saying since grade school, but it was not until later in life that I began to wonder about the soul.  What exactly is the "soul"?  Scholars tell us that the soul is comprised of mind, heart/emotions, and will.  For now, I will not address how the soul differs from the spirit in mankind.

My daughter recently told me about a book called Healing Beyond Pills and Potions by Steve Bierman, M.D.  From his own experience of being healed of a painful condition, Dr. Bierman began to research the soul as a source of physical healing, although he never mentions or refers to the "soul" in his book.  Exploring among other things the mystery of healing that often occurs through placebos, he investigates what happens when there is some authority -- even a placebo -- in which people place their faith and thus begin the healing process.  He even cites a case wherein bald people began to grow hair when given a placebo during a controlled experiment!

I don't think we can discount the power of the mind, the emotions, and the will when it comes to what happens to our bodies.  And yet, from what I can see of our culture, we are consistently starving our minds, hearts, and wills  -- or at best, we are feeding these powers strictly junk food from television, social media, entertainment, etc.  What is it that sustains us in times of weakness, trouble, or worry?  Certainly not tik tok!

Padre Pio once said, "I shudder to think of the harm done to souls by a lack of spiritual reading!"  Our souls have no strength unless we sustain them with spiritual food.  And if our souls have no strength, our bodies too have no resources except pills and potions!

In the book of the Prophet Amos, God speaks through the prophet:  Yes, days are coming....when I shall send famine upon the land:  Not a famine of bread or that of water, but for hearing the word of the Lord.  They shall wander from sea to sea and rove from the north to the east in search of the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it (chapter 8).

I think those days have come upon us.  Our parish has an extensive library that is seldom used.  A wonderful treasury of books on every subject and level sits unused, and I am fairly sure that the Bibles in homes remain closed also.  Mary Sommes, the editor of my morning devotional, recently wrote: If you take the time -- even a few minutes a day -- to read Scripture slowly and prayerfully, you can and will come to know how deeply God loves you. And filled with that transformative knowledge -- that you are loved beyond measure --- you will become what you read.  You will know by heart the only recipe that can feed an entire world.

To feed our minds, it might be useful to begin at the first page of the Bible and read through -- but to feed our souls, it is better to let the Spirit of God guide us, to allow Him to show us the food we need for our daily sustenance. Then, as Scripture promises, we will be fed with the finest of wheat and the choicest wine!