Anatomy

My favorite course in High School was Physiology. I acquired a great deal of knowledge about the human body and its functioning as a result of the expertise of my instructor. His influence has left me with a residual interest in human biology and things medical. Thus, it was a great boon for me to befriend a nurse and her family last year while on assignment in my own diocese. It seemed that whenever I visited the home there was a book of anatomy, a model of the human arm, a replica of the human skull, a new thermometer, an improved blood pressure cuff, or literature that had made its way home from the clinic. I was fascinated by it all, and this nurse found great pleasure in describing to me various conditions and maladies of the human body that she had encountered in her nursing experience.

One day, while visiting a local bookstore, I came upon a giant book of human anatomy, and I nearly purchased it before good sense set in, and I replaced in on the rack from which I had taken it. I commented to the nurse that I had seen this book, and she immediately made plans to purchase one for her children (she homeschools them).

Today, I went to check my mail and discovered that I had received a giant package. Enclosed was my very own copy of the giant anatomy book - a Christmas gift. Inside are detailed pictures of the interior of the human body with great descriptions of what all the parts do. I am fascinated with it.

This might seem an odd preoccupation for one in the seminary, but for me, the functioning of the human body is just one more way that I see God present and at work in the world. How carefully it was designed! How amazing that it works! How beautiful to have a body through which we can offer worship to the one who created it! What an appropriate gift to celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation.