Taking care of one’s own bodily health is a moral issue involving a proper love of self. But it’s also a moral issue involving others. We can overlook the fact that caring for one’s own body ultimately touches upon all our relationships since we relate to others through our bodies.
For those closest to us, like our friends and family, it easily becomes a way in which we show them love. But the same can be said even regarding our brothers and sisters in a larger, communitarian sense.
In this latter way especially, it can become a matter of justice.
However, we must keep in mind that we are only speaking of those things within our ability to choose.
Things outside that ability — like illness, accidents or other health conditions — don’t fall into the same moral category since they are not freely chosen, and thus, do not pertain to morality proper. Moral consideration requires a basic freedom. Hence we’re only considering those choices we make which affect our health.
It makes sense. The healthier I’m able to keep myself, the more my body can do the things that God made it to do. It follows, therefore, that a stronger, healthier, more able version of my body can better carry out the legitimate responsibilities I have. I can be more responsive to the needs of my family and friends.
Since it is so often through our bodies that we can give of ourselves, the better care I take of it, the more I can use it to carry out the loving things that my vocation calls me to.
If my vocation is to marriage, my caring for my own body means that I make myself into a more excellent gift to my spouse. Why simply be an acceptable gift to one’s spouse if one has the ability to be a far better gift? Making choices to be my best for him or her is in some way an act of love. Caring for myself becomes a vehicle through which I express care for my spouse.
Regarding my children, I become not only a better example so that, hopefully, they likewise choose to care for themselves as they grow. But I am also better able to respond to the physical demands that parenthood places upon me.
Similar things can be said not only of the vocation to marriage, but of any vocation. If my vocation is to Holy Orders, I am better able to fulfill my duties the healthier I keep myself. I can spend myself more fully in service to others and the Church, while the limitations that unhealthy choices will ultimately bring about can be avoided. I become a better servant of the Body of Christ if I make proper choices regarding the body that Christ gave me.
Choices we make in this regard also bear upon our relationships in a broader sense. Justice, our faith reminds us, is at its most basic level a matter of giving others their due — whether that is one other person or others in general.
It becomes a responsibility we each have as a part of our contribution to the common good of society. The better I care for myself, the more able I become to contribute to that common good. I will likely require less care from others and less of a share in the precious resources provided by our health care providers — thus making those same resources available to others who may, through no fault of their own, require them more. This would include even the providers’ time spent in the care of those they serve.
Seen this way, it becomes perhaps clearer how the care I show myself becomes an investment in the common good of society. My choices can make it possible for me to give more and require less, thus they become a way I positively affect others and society itself.