(Please read the passage cited above first.)
My sisters and brothers,
“We walk by faith, not by sight.”
God made us to have a body. We are creatures that need a body. Through our body, we can communicate with others, we can enjoy our family and the good things of the earth, and we can do things, good and bad. Because we have a body we can die. Through our body we can learn about God and God’s love for us even though we walk by faith and not by sight.
Since the body is an essential part of our life, we are going to have our body after we die when we shall see God face to face.
We want to see God face to face even now, but in this life we can only know God through signs we perceive through the body. Only after death, in heaven, will we be able to see God face to face through our body, now glorified.
While we live in the body, even though we want to see God face to face, we seem to be in exile, far from the place where God dwells. On the other hand, although we are here, God is near us. In this earthly life God is near us even though we do not see God: we walk by faith, not by sight. In the glory of God, our body, transformed into a heavenly body for us, will be able to see God face to face.
We can enjoy God in this life even if we seem to be in exile and we shall enjoy God likewise in heaven.
In the writings of St Paul, the body is good and we shall have this same body, although glorified, in the homeland of heaven. We have to respect the body, honor it, and keep it safe so that our body can help us be of service for the greater glory of God. Our body is destined for the glory of God for ever.
We need the body to communicate with God and the world. God has no body, but God communicates with us through our body through signs that we can understand. This is the work of the Holy Spirit and of the Son of God, to translate, as it were, the word of God into human language so that we can understand God’s messages. When God wants to speak to us, God uses the sacramental principle so that we can understand God. The sacramental principle is that God uses human signs that we can understand.
The Bible holds the words of God written in human language. The sacraments hold the actions of God with us through human signs, such as water, oil, bread, wine, and the love of spouses.
Through our body we can perceive the words of God, do the work we do, praise God and enjoy the glory of God for ever. Our body is good. “We walk by faith, not by sight.”