To be honest, I believe the topic of the unity of the person is a book-sized discussion. I have not-book-sized-space and not-book-sized-time, so therefore I hope this is not a disappointing reflection.
For what it's worth, consider metaphysics.
(Highly brief tutorial for those who haven't been taught certain terminology:)
Metaphysics - the branch of philosophy that considers the nature of being in the world.
Ontology - the study of being, of existence.
Cause - the principle or purpose of a thing.
Form - Aristotle's sense of animation that is given to matter to be a thing. Wood takes the form of a desk or the material of man takes the form of a person. More specifically, it is the form that is given and in-forms matter. In truth, Aristotle covers potentiality and actuality in this discussion, so that there is the potenial in the seed to become the tree, and the actuality is the taking up of that form or the form of the tree being revealed. There is much more to say but you'll need to read on your own.
Matter - The material that holds the potentiality that will be actualized by the form.
Substance - A combination of matter and form.
Esse - St. Thomas Aquinas explains esse as the existing of a thing, the being of a being. It is the to-be-ness. Essence is like the substance, the material, the creature itself, which is not animated or in existence until esse is given.
Essence - For St. Thomas Aquinas, this is the what-ness of a being, in a sense, the substance of a creature. Analogously, it would be similar to the material if analogously Esse is the form, though his way of understanding them is more complex and therefore these are only analogous and not the same.
Ens - The unity of esse and essence. The point that St. Thomas makes is that while essence is nothing without esse, likewise esse cannot make anything be without the essence. Therefore, both are a gift from God, and must happen together, as one great gift.
Tutorial ends here. If you are more confused than ever, that is what google is for. :)
The importance concerning the unity of the person is found in Aristotle and Aquinas' understanding of the interrelatedness between form and matter and essence and esse. Cognitively, we can separate the mind from the body. We can think of our bodies as functioning organic centers of nerve synapses and intercommunication taking place so that we are able to maintain proper homeostasis. We can likewise think of our consciousness or our spirits as not affected by the body or not affecting the body. Yet, simply because we can think of this separation does not mean that in any real sense the separation is experienced. At least not while living. In all honesty, when the soul leaves the body, or if these two were truly separable, you no longer have life present. Not to say that those who are unconscious for years are dead. Clearly they are not. Comatose does not mean that the two are separated, but that the manifestation of their relationship has changed. Death is the only real experience of separation of these two, and therefore, while living, our experience is of them in unity.
But what does this mean? What does it mean to say that there is a profound and specific unity of mind and body or body and soul that cannot be removed in the lived experience of being? What does this imply for us who live?
Primarily it must mean that what is interior will always inform and manifest in the exterior, and that what comes to the exterior will inform and affect the interior. This is, perhaps, more obvious than imagined. It is everyone's lived experience that when stressful situations occur, the body feels it. Knots in the back, loss of the voice, susceptibility to colds, nausea, nervousness, headaches... you name it. Whatever way you interiorize and exteriorize what goes on around you, there's certainly no denying that you feel it in both manners. Likewise, the opposite is also apparent. If you are relaxed, happy, enjoying yourself, free from certain burdens or responsibilities, on vacation or with those you love, you will be less tense, more prone to smile or laugh, more likely to be spontaneous, less agitated, more comfortable with plans changing or different circumstances, etc... Why? Because we one. We are not only a body or only a mind. No matter how dualistic of an upbringing our education may have been, life teaches us otherwise as we experience it everyday.
This unity should mean something very specific to the one who takes time to think. If you don't normally mull over things, consider it. Mull over the potential mulling over of life. Mull over what it might mean, what consequences might be anticipated, good and bad, from the total unity of the person. If you are so integrated, so united, so intrinsically bound, so inexorably one, how will this affect the way you live? Your decisions, your actions, your thoughts, your fears, your joys, your hopes, your injuries, your health, your relationships... all of these things will be directly impacted. Virtue, value, ethics or morals will all be a necessary component of considering this wholeness of being. One cannot exist as if things which are immoral or unethical or simply not good are ineffective. Nor can one live as if those things will not impact and affect him or her. In the same fashion, one cannot pretend that the good, beautiful, powerful, and true will not also affect them.
For example, the loss of a loved one. The sudden illness of a friend. The loss of a job by a family member. The gift of a new baby in a family. The success of a student who graduates with honors. The witness of grandparents who still love one another after fifty years of marriage. We are human and these things touch us. The proximity of the relationships and our own personal experiences change the power of the affects on us, but we do not live as rocks. Waves of life do not wash upon us and simply coat our harsh skin with some film. We do not have an outer shell, a bubble which allows our skin to tan or wrinkle or stretch or burn but not touch our souls. We are not souls trapped in bodily prisons and we are not mere animals who just happen to have rational souls. We are unique and beautiful precisely as creatures will intellect, reason, free will, a soul and a body. We are the unity and compilation of these, the whole and the totality. To say anything less to to lie to oneself and to sell our being short of its truth.
Therefore, I urge us all to meditate on this wholeness. Whether it is certain tendencies to some behavior that is not good for us, some evil or some sin or something that is simply making us ill (in mind, body or spirit), we need to reconsider our actions. Likewise, the habits of the mind, our tendencies to evaluate or judge or doubt or fear or be anxious...these too need to be dealt with. Sin, above all, is divisive. It will sink itself into the little cracks in your foundation, in your bedrock, until all it takes is one more tap on the head of the nail until the crack breaks the whole foundation apart. You will wonder how on earth you lost that close friend, or how your marriage is where it is, or why you suffer from guilt or why fear haunts you, or why you feel enslaved to something you know you should have power over... sin will convince you that it is trivial, a minor thing. Sin always wants to be hidden away, safe and sound. Sin wants you to be sure it is only a scratch on your arm, barely skin deep. Sin isn't a bruise welling up from deep in the muscle, it's just this little knick on the exterior. It won't really hurt you, or those you love. Yet this is the lie in its fullness, that you could be unmoved, unchanged, unhurt by what is evil. You cannot be. Just as those things which are beautiful and good, like prayer, service to those you love, charities, time at Mass or in adoration, reading the Scripture, laughter, activities that lighten the soul and bring thanks to your lips, also move you and change you and cannot go without affecting you.
Consider what it is to be a whole, an ens, to have received your essence and esse from God. Consider what it is to live in our world today as this unity as person.
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