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February 5

The Joy of Wholeness

Well-being is never simply determined by health strategies alone. It also has to do with what I believe and what sustains me inwardly. Exercise brings well-being. But so does prayer.

There is a great emphasis in our contemporary world regarding the quest for wellness. This is partly due to the fact that in our world of economic rationalism and consumerism we are living toxic lives. Our driven and self-preoccupied lifestyle is barely sustainable and so we look for ways to cope.

That this search for well-being requires more than good eating and recreational habits is rather obvious. Well-being also has to do with our inner being. Wholeness is never merely circumstantial; it is also inward and spiritual.

St. Augustine understood well the ultimate source of wellness: “[It] is that I may serve and worship thee to the end that I may have my well-being from thee, from whom comes my capacity for well-being.”36 This church father saw wellness as a gift of grace from the God of life.

God as the source for my well-being is not the demanding and

judgmental God of our own making, but the God of love and companionship and nurture in Christ. This is not the far away God, but the God who through the Spirit lives within me. This God is the One who upholds me and showers the gifts of love and peace upon me. This God calls me beloved and nurtures me in the paths and ways of life. This God is the healing and sustaining God.

Reflection

With the Creator carefully and artfully reshaping my inner being with love, the core of who I am is nurtured.