One of my favorite writers is David Brooks, who writes a column for the New York Times. He normally writes about politics, government, and public affairs. I was surprised to find a column last month about faith. His title was “The Shock of Faith, It’s Nothing Like I Thought It Would Be.” It was published on December 19, 2024, and if you have access to the New York Times website, you can read it there.
David Brooks had always been an observant Jew, but not a faithful one. That is, he observed Jewish traditions and holidays, without feeling any connection with God. Then one day, while riding the subway at 8th avenue and 33rd street, he had a spiritual insight. It was as if the subway car was filled with a soft yellow light, and he suddenly could see all the people in that subway car illuminated as if they had souls. This was a shock. He had never considered that people had souls. He thought if everyone had a soul, there must be a soul giver in the universe. That set him on a spiritual quest that he called his “shock of faith.”
Many years ago, it was common to think of each person having a spirit, or soul. The medical term for breathing in is inspiration, the entering of the spirit into the body. The medical term for breathing out is expiration. But when we die, we are said to have expired. Our spirit has left our body.
There is even one US Government body that says we have souls. It is the Federal Aviation Agency. It reported on December 29 that a Jeju airlines plane crashed in the Muan, South Korea airport. Of the 181 souls aboard, the FAA said, 179 perished. They didn’t say people, they didn’t say men, women, and children, they said souls.
How might our lives change if we accepted that we are not just bodies and minds, but also souls, all of us?
People have always known that alcohol can damage our souls, and we humans have looked for ways to happily use alcohol without the soul destroying effects. In medieval times, it was believed that alcohol was inhabited by good spirits and evil spirits. The custom of clinking wine glasses at the wedding toast was meant to remind the evil spirits of church bells and chase them away. That would leave only the good and happy spirits for the couple. If you have ever attended a wedding reception where the drinking got out of hand, you know that it doesn’t work that way. In colonial America, beer was considered safe to drink, but rum was seen as troubled with evil spirits, hence the title “Demon Rum.”
Carl Jung, a psychiatrist who was an advisor to Bill W. and Dr. Bob, described the struggle to get sober as “Spiritus contra Spiritum” which means “The Spirit of God versus the Spirits in Alcohol.”
I believe that all of us have a soul shaped space within us, where we are meant to connect with God and with other people with love and service. Alcohol and addictive drugs fit that space really well, as spiritual counterfeits, saying “I love you, and I will take care of you. All you will ever need is me.”
Those spirits are fake. They do not restore our souls. They chip away at our souls until there is nothing left of us. Our souls leave our bodies, and we expire.
We have a choice. We can accept that we all have souls, drunk or sober, in turmoil or at peace.
AA comes to us and says:
“The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God’s universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves.” -----Big Book page 25.
In this New Year, my soul greets your soul.
