Redemption in the Sensuousness of the Moment

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Sex is slimy from a certain point of view, but only a spirit delighting in disembodiment would not appreciate the mushy, wet, sensuous body we are and the muddy, naturally decaying world we inhabit.

. . . The bodiless spirituality that many find comforting I don't trust. I don't trust its preference for white light and its assumption that the spirit resides in the sky or in the brilliant stars.

. . . D. H. Lawrence frequently spoke strongly for a sensual way of life, which he distinguishes from thinking about and merely esteeming sensuality. He was also, in his paganism, one of the most religious of modern poets. We seem not to have learned this lesson that the slimy body close at hand is holier than the dry, distant mind, because we still pray to abstract gods and look beyond the sensuousness of the moment for redemption. Perhaps we don't grasp the mystery found in many religious teachings, according to which the spiritual life begins when God becomes incarnate.

– Thomas Moore
Excerpted from "Our Spiritual Fire Needs a Base in the Muddy Earth"
in Original Self: Living with Paradox and Originality
pp. 81-83

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Human Sex: Weird and Silly, Messy and Sublime
• Real Holiness
• No Altar More Sacred
• Joan Timmerman on the “Wisdom of the Body”
• Daniel Helminiak on the “Non-Negotiables of Human Sex”
• A "Truly Queer Theory" on Sex
• The Inherent Sensuality of Roman Catholicism
• Sons of the Church: The Witnessing of Gay Catholic Men: A Discussion Guide
• “Make Us Lovers, God of Love”
• Sometimes I Wonder . . .
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Diarmuid Ó Murchú
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Toby Johnson
• Daniel Helminiak on the Vatican's Natural Law Mistake
• Beyond the Hierarchy: The Blossoming of Liberating Catholic Insights on Sexuality
• Sex as Mystery, Sex as Light (Part 1)
• Sex as Mystery, Sex as Light (Part 2)

Image: "True Love" by Thomas Synnamon.