In sports, balance is everything. You must maintain your balance for all of the mechanical things of the body to come together at once. In martial arts, it is always about taking your opponents balance away from them. In those first steps as a baby, balance is the goal. The child’s legs can do the motions needed, but until there is balance, well there is a lot of falling down.
As I appreciate it, this absolutely true in the spiritual life, in all of life. Spiritually, we know what to do, but until we achieve balance in our physical and spiritual lives, well we fall down a lot. We are both spirit and body. We have an interior life and an exterior life. It is only when both are balanced that we are one with ourselves and with God.
If you read the Psalms, it is there over and over again, the revelation of God in all of creation and the desire to have heart and soul be aligned and at peace with that creation. We, as wonderfully made creations of God, are only at peace with creation when we realize we are part of that creation in both interior life and exterior life and that it must be in balance.
The Eucharist is this very idea. Christ’s body is represented in the bread. Christ’s blood is represented in the wine. His body was/is an example of the physical life we are capable of living. His blood, the very life force of all, was/is an example of the interior life we are called to live. The Eucharist is only complete when both elements are present. The balance of the spiritual life, interior and exterior life together, representing God’s presence on earth.
We are out of balance when we are too rational about things, about scripture, about taking things literally. We are out of balance when we are too emotional about things. Too much in our head and we miss the mystical, joyous world all around us. Too much in our mystical selves and we do not see the process of faith. It must be both/and (to quote the Franciscan, Richard Rohr). Today, let’s seek balance….do what you know you should do but enjoy the mystery of it all.
TMM