Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky: Glorifying God in your Body

Pfizer Warns Pregnant Women Not to Use Vaccine Because of Fertility Risks, Says Breastfeeding Problematic, by Micaiah Bilger
December 7, 2020
Archbishop Cordileone Discusses Religious Liberty, COVID Restrictions and Equal Treatment, by Lauretta Brown
December 7, 2020

*Image: Last Rites by Jakub Schikaneder, 1897 [Narodni Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic]

By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky, The Catholic Thing, Dec. 6, 2020

Father Jerry J. Pokorsky is a priest of the Diocese of Arlington. He is pastor of St. Catherine of Siena parish in Great Falls, Virginia.

 

Rev. Jerry J. PokorskyThe season of Advent is a season of spiritual preparation to meet Jesus. We will meet Him in the manger on Christmas Day; we will meet him in Holy Communion at Mass; we will meet Him when we enter eternity. We need to prepare ourselves spiritually, acknowledging our sins with a good Confession during these days. But caring for our bodies also binds in conscience: “You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Cor. 6:19)

The poetry of the Psalms occasionally has a disturbing realism. Psalm 90 admonishes us: “Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong; most of them are toil and sorrow; they pass quickly, and we are gone.” Life is inching away from us, and the latest in medical technology can only postpone the inevitable.

A wise doctor once said that people generally go to the doctor for healing before they reach the age of 50. After 50, the role of a doctor is to slow an inevitable decline. It’s a nugget of wisdom that is worth keeping in mind as we ask ourselves, “How do I properly care for – glorify – a body that will die someday?”  …