Healed ~ Whole ~ Holy

I have been sick this past week.  It's nothing major, just a bad summer chest cold, but it's been enough to keep me housebound all week.  It has caused me to ponder the mind-body-spirit connection and how tweaking one of those things - like a physical virus - can impact the other two.  My brain feels stuffed with cotton balls and I've been so consumed with being so angry at my body for betraying me, that I've found it difficult to connect with the Spirit other than in fleeting moments.  I have read that in the resurrection, all of this will be connected.  In the words of Robinson, "They will be inseparably united, welded together, and will speak with one voice - the voice of the unified self." (1)

Because I am currently mortal and living in a fallen world, I have come to expect these disconnects, the thorn in the flesh of mortal man.  But as I've struggled with my physical health, I've also come to look more closely at the disconnects I enable that are not necessary to the fallen state.  In short, I will never reach that perfection of connection in this life, but I don't have to go out of my way to widen the gulfs separating my spiritual life from my physical.  I think I've been doing that.  Mea Culpa. 

I remember hearing, many years ago, that our words heal, whole, and holy all come from the same original root word.  Since I love to research and deepen my knowledge of any given subject, I went online last night to look at the etimology of those three words.  My first hit brought me this:

“Savior” or “Christ” in [Old English] is “Hǽlend.” That literally is “Healer.” “Holy” is “halig” in Old English. “Healing” is “hǽling.” “Health” or “salvation” is “hǽlþ.” “To heal” is “hǽlan.” You say “Hello” by saying “May you be hale” or “Wes þu hal.” So “hale” or “whole” is “hal” in [Old English]. All this to say that the root for Savior, Christ, holy, healthy, salvation, healing, whole, hale, and . . .to make holy are all the same–”hal” or “hǽl,” which are really the same in Old English, just variants of the same root. So all of these words come from “hal,” for “whole,” “holy,” and “to heal.” So Savior, Christ, holy, healthy, salvation, healing, whole, hale, and . . . to make holy all mean pretty much the same thing, to an Anglo-Saxon. “Whole.” You think of “integrity.” Is that not absolutely awesome?! It’s like a poem, only it’s etymology. (2)

 

Wow.  I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind around these concepts.  It is broadening my concept of the word integrity. It is also deepening my understanding of Jesus Christ as Savior.  He told an ancient people: "O all ye that are spared because ye were more righteous than they, will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?" (3) 

I'm am confident that my mind will wrestle with these ideas for a long time, so I don't have any pat summaries for this post.  The closest thing I can think of is that while this virus is part of the physical, and thus fallen, world, I don't have to be at war with my body because of it.  I need to find that integrity between my body, mind, and spirit to be at peace in the moment with where I am. 

Footnotes:

(1) Believing Christ by Stephen E. Robinson p. 20
(2) Carmen Butcher @ www.CarmenButcher.com
(3) 3 Nephi 9:13 

Photo of Bimini from multiple sources on the web