By Catholic Editor, Faith. E. Addington
Many Catholic theologians have discussed treating the whole person: mind, body, and soul. While we spend most of our time discussing mental health in schools and spiritual health in churches, we commonly fall short and overlook the third part of this triunity: physical health. No aspect of this triunity can live independently without the others in a fully healthy person. Therefore, we must learn how to be physically fit.
Physical fitness– most popular during the weeks following New Year’s Day– is often seen as time consuming and unattainable. However, it doesn’t have to be. For most of us, if we were to look at the screen time on our phone, computers and television, it would be around four and a half hours per day. Over the course of a year, you would spend roughly 1,642.5 hours a year on a screen. Put into more imaginable numbers, that is 68.4 days. Think about all the goals you have ever had; maybe learning a new language, reading more books, establishing a routine workout. What could you have accomplished in these 68.4 days a year you spend on your cell phone? That is definitely enough time to have maintained a consistent workout routine.
Maintaining a consistent physical schedule is one of the best ways to implement the important faith virtues into your life. Physical fitness requires not only discipline, perseverance and dedication, but sacrifice. It teaches you to strengthen your will against influences telling you that you can’t do something. To put the strength of your mind over the compulsions of your body. By overpowering these basic human whims, we create a disciplined lifestyle that carries over into the spiritual life.
As Aquinas students, we are fortunate to have free access to a state-of-the-art athletic building with a fitness center and sports fields. If you are new to the gym, bringing a friend can make the experience much less frightening. If the gym is not your cup of tea, there are millions of home workout videos on YouTube that you can do in your dorm: from dancing to pilates to HIIT workouts or P90X.
The fitness journey – though difficult – is a journey to holiness. By offering our bodies to the Lord for glorification of His son through our suffering, we are acknowledging the spiritual truth of His creation. That our bodies are a gift from God, created in His image. That we are the temple of His Holy Spirit. By maintaining a healthy body, we will complete the triunity of the health of the whole person and be able to more fully serve the Lord.
The Saint 