I have a very hard time not getting annoyed at my physical body.
I feel a kinship with St. Francis, who called his body “brother ass”.
Injury, illness, hunger, fatigue; these are so inconvenient that my first reaction is irritation. Why is this body so demanding? I’m trying to get stuff done!
I suspect this is one of the attractions of Gnosticism. Let’s just call the body bad and try to escape from it.
But that isn’t right. Christianity offers a bold, difficult, but also comforting picture.
The body is imperfect. You must master it, but not reject it. It is useful and, in its pure state, an imager of God. It’s not in its pure state, but the answer is to allow God to redeem it and to participate in that process. It needn’t be worshipped or rejected.
I’m trying to switch my default reaction from annoyance to thanks when my body impedes my will.
Being both spiritual and material is a blessing. I certainly remember this when eating a good steak or smoking a cigar or enjoying other physical activities (wink wink). I should remember it in the suffering too.