A film on my top ten list is Constantine starring Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz, based on the DC Comics Hellblazer comic book. It was both entertaining and gave some food for thought, as long as you don't judge it by it's theological accuracy.
Occult detective John Constantine is called in by Father Hennessy to exorcise a girl possessed by a demon trying to break through to Earth, which should not be possible under the rules of a standing wager between God and Lucifer for mankind's souls. Constantine later meets with the half-angel being Gabriel. He asks Gabriel for a reprieve from his impending death from lung cancer caused by prolonged smoking. Gabriel declines, telling Constantine that he exorcises demons for selfish reasons and cannot buy his way into Heaven, because of the life he took. Constantine explains to Angela (Weisz) that he can see the true nature of the half-breeds. He committed suicide to escape his visions as a teenager and his soul was sent to Hell, but he was revived by paramedics two minutes later; for the sin of taking his own life, his soul is still condemned to go to Hell once he dies.
"Why me, Gabriel?" Constantine laments. "It's personal, isn't? I didn't go to church enough, I didn't pray enough..."
"You're going to die young," Gabriel answers, "because you smoked 30 cigarettes a day since you were fifteen. And you're going to go to Hell, because of the life you took."
I think I missed this line when I first saw the film when it came out in 2005. For some reason, I thought Constantine was going to die and was consigned to Hell because he of his persistent smoking, which caused lung cancer--a kind of slow suicide when he knew the habit was killing him. I must have missed his suicide attempt early in life, which would make more sense. And yet, the idea that one could suffer the fate because of one's choices in life--in this case, smoking to the point of it killing you--stayed with me for years. Scared me, if you will.
Although it was his suicide attempt, and not his lifelong heavy smoking habit, that damned Constantine, it still made me reflect on this area of caring for one's health; especially since, for half my life, I was a smoker as well. After all, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Cor 6:19).
The Catechism does have something to say on the matter:
2288 Life and physical health are precious gifts entrusted to us by God. We must take reasonable care of them, taking into account the needs of others and the common good.
Concern for the health of its citizens requires that society help in the attainment of living-conditions that allow them to grow and reach maturity: food and clothing, housing, health care, basic education, employment, and social assistance.
2289 If morality requires respect for the life of the body, it does not make it an absolute value. It rejects a neo-pagan notion that tends to promote the cult of the body, to sacrifice everything for its sake, to idolize physical perfection and success at sports. By its selective preference of the strong over the weak, such a conception can lead to the perversion of human relationships.
2290 The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others' safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.
2291 The use of drugs inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law.
I finished an audiobook recently titled How Not To Die by Dr. Michael Greger about how diet can treat and even prevent and reverse some diseases of the body. He advocates a whole-food, plant based diet and injects study after study to show that this kind of diet is the best way to ensure a long and healthy life and prevent many common diseases like cancer and heart disease.
When the author would make certain claims like "such-and-such food has the potential to add two years to one's life," while making the claim that eating something like bacon or grilled meats has the inverse potential to rob you of those two years, I started to feel that same kind of nagging guilt when it came to my life-long habit of smoking. I LIKE bacon. I like cheese, and dairy. I don't especially love vegetables or soymilk or beans and legumes.
I always kind of attached to those stories of woman in France somewhere who smoked, drank wine, and ate bacon her whole life and lived to be ninety-nine years old and lived life to it's fullest. Conversely, I thought of the tragedy of one who would subject themselves to a lifetime of choking down kale smoothies every morning thinking they were extending their life and yet die of some kind of obscure cancer anyway at the age of 53. "Life's too short," I would think, "to suffer at the hands of such a vile weed every day." Better to follow the example of the madame and eat, drink, and be merry.
And so, most of my life, I did just that. I never gave much thought to my health or diet. As a Catholic, I aligned with the Catechism in rejecting a neo-pagan "cult of the body" that sought to prologue health and well being (the flesh over the spirit) as a primary goal. After all, "food for the stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them both" (1 Cor 6:13).
Now that I'm in my forties, though, I'm finding I'm being forced to consider it more. I try to eat oatmeal with fruit every morning, exercise when I can, and quit unhealthy habits like smoking, as a matter of duty, not because I like it. And if the science supports such healthy diets and avoidance of things detrimental to health, to what degree are we culpable when know but do not heed such advice from the medical community charged with the promotion of good health? If we learn that diet soda causes cancer, to what degree are we responsible for a diagnosis of cancer if received if we spent out life knowing this and drinking two cans a day anyway?
I always dreaded a diagnosis of lung cancer, because of my repeated refusal to quit a habit that would cause it. I would be culpable, I felt, and my premature illness and death would be my own fault--no one to blame but myself "We told you so," the medical community would say over me, "and you didn't listen." Would this require penance to avoid a longer sentence in purgatory? Would it have moral bearing at all? Why just smoking though--what about the person who drank diet coke their whole life? Ate artery-causing fried foods every day?
"More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh," our Lady told St. Lucia at Fatima. Like John Constantine in the movie, St. Lucia was able to see the reality of Hell by our Lady's good grace, and it terrifying nature was enough to compel her to spread Our Lady's message as as warning for the sake of the world. We cannot say we were not warned. We must care for our souls to avoid Hell, but it is only by our Lords' grace that we merit Heaven.
Will we redeem ourselves by eating tofu sandwiches and working out everyday? No, because the spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing" (Jn 6:63). We do not worship the cult of the body, and yet we must care for it responsibly because of the promise of our bodily resurrection in Christ. It doe not logically follow that one bite of a BLT would cause a heart attack, or merit some kind of share in coronary-suicide and subsequent damnation. And yet, as our Lord says, it would be better to cut off one's hand or gauge out one's eye and enter into Heaven maimed then spent an eternity in Hell (because of sin) (Mt 5:30). Because all it takes is one sin of the flesh to lose the grace of God and suffer for all eternity. "Food for the stomach and the stomach for food"--but God will destroy them both."
When it comes to our physical health, it is important but not primary; it takes a back seat to our spiritual health. Because, as St. Lucia saw the 'world behind the veil' we are in a battle for our souls, which do not live 60 or 70 years, but for all eternity without end either to burn in Hell or to enjoy the everlasting bliss of being with the Father in Heaven. We should live temperately and prudently, while not being tricked into thinking that kale and yoga will not save your soul or are some kind of virtue in their own right (unless, maybe, one regards eating kale every day as a kind of penance, perhaps). "My food is to do the will of the One who sent me." our Lord says (Jn 4:34).
As St. Augustine said, 'Do not believe yourself healthy. Immortality is health; this life is a long sickness.”
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