This month of August has become in some ways the month of the body. It has offered us lessons about the dignity of the human body that we need to recognize in order to fully understand ourselves.

Many have spent time this month watching the Summer Olympic Games that have been so widely covered. These Olympic athletes have honed their bodies to accomplish the task and carry out the special physical gift they have received. The result is not an erotic image of the body so filled with sexual connotations common to our society. Rather, one is struck by the created beauty of the body as was so often the subject of classic art and sculpture.

Of course to achieve such a physical condition, those young athletes have made great sacrifices. Often, those sacrifices began with the use of their will with self-denial, rising early to run instead of sleeping in, spending hours in the gym, and consuming food that fuels them for the task at hand. We are reminded of the words of St. Paul, “Every athlete exercises discipline in every way. They do it to win a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.” (1 Cor 9:25).

But the deeper value and the beauty of our body is not confined to the time of youth or good physical conditioning. Many in fact never achieve that standard. I was reminded of this reality during the past week when Msgr. William Clausen passed away after a lengthy illness. Many throughout the Diocese of Rockford knew Msgr. Clausen. He served the faithful for 54 years as a priest in a wide number of assignments and parishes, with service also in education and work in the chancery.

For some time now, Msgr. Clausen had been confined to a wheel chair. His ailments made his speech at times difficult to understand. He required frequent medical care and he was regularly assisted with sacrifice and love by members of his family and especially by Father Paul White.

By an earthly standard, Msgr. Clausen’s body had lost its beauty and its ability to assist his life and ministry. But to have met him, time and again, was to encounter his faith and joy.

Despite his sufferings, he continued to get out to be with family, priests and friends. In doing so he, like Pope St. John Paul II, witnessed to the goodness of the whole person and the body, even in advancing age and infirmity. Many have witnessed something similar while assisting aging or dying friends or relatives.

After Easter, he asked me to visit him in the nursing home. He told me that because of his health he had not been able to come to the cathedral during Holy Week to participate in the annual renewal of priestly promises. He asked to do so with me privately. He showed that he would find a way to carry on even with his weakened body.

This August was confirmed as the month of the body by our celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary on Aug. 15. The solemnity reminded us that Mary has already been taken body and soul to heaven. She followed her Son in his Ascension, and her earthly body was not touched by corruption but now resides in glory. If we are faithful, we are offered that same glory for all eternity. That is to be with God both in soul and in the glorified body.

The world and especially our own society needs our witness of faith to the goodness and beauty of the body as God has given it to us in creation. The body of each one of us is sacred. Because we receive it as a gift, it merits great respect.

Often today, the human person is thought to be simply our spirit, our mind. We are thought to be trapped in this body that can be manipulated at will. This leads to mistaken conclusions as, for example, that our genders can be chosen or changed, that we can manipulate or modify our bodies without need, and most of all that our values as persons is predicated upon our ability to use our bodies to work or contribute in this world. On this basis the growing movement for assisted suicide presumes our right to separate ourselves actively from our bodies.

But this is not so. God created us as human persons with a body and a soul. Both must be treated with great love and respect, as they have been gifted to us by our Creator in whose image and likeness we have been made. This is why the incarnation is so remarkable — God took on human flesh, a human body. This is also why the Ascension of Jesus and the Assumption of Mary give us such hope. The fullness of who we are as persons — body and soul — is intended for heaven.