12-28-2010, 12:00 AM
"Substance" here means what something is in itself. A hat's shape is not the hat itself, nor is its colour, size, softness, to the touch, no anything else about it perceptible to the senses. The hat itself ( the "substance") has the shape, the colour, the size, the softness and the appearance, but is distinct form them. While the appearance, which are referred to by the philosophical term accidents, are perceptible to the senses, the substance is not.
Consider the classic example of the human body. All the separate chemical compounds, minerals and water which when piled together constitute the sum total of the actual physical matter of the human body- are not of themselves a human body, however much they may be physically compounded and mixed and rearranged in the laboratory, since they are still only a pile of organic chemicals, minerals and water in a particular complex configuration. If this has never been alive it is not a human body. If they are participant in the integral physical expression of a living human being who has absorbed and metabolized them, or if they are now the physical remains of a once- living human being, the substance of what they actually are is human, hence, a human body. The substantial reality of what is before us is human. The substance ( substantial reality) of what is seen is not solely that of a complex organization of organic chemical compounds, but is ( or has been) someone. The chemical elements of the food a person eats become in a few hours part of the person's human body and are no longer food but have been turned into the human flesh and blood and bone of that person, yet the physical chemical elements of what was once food remain the same ( calcium, copper, salt, protein, sugars, fats, water, etc.). The substance of any matter that has become an integral part of any human being has ceased to be the substance or reality of food and has become incorporated as an integral part of the physical manifestation or expression of that human person. To touch that matter now is not to touch a batch of chemical compounds or food but to touch that person.
And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind
Consider the classic example of the human body. All the separate chemical compounds, minerals and water which when piled together constitute the sum total of the actual physical matter of the human body- are not of themselves a human body, however much they may be physically compounded and mixed and rearranged in the laboratory, since they are still only a pile of organic chemicals, minerals and water in a particular complex configuration. If this has never been alive it is not a human body. If they are participant in the integral physical expression of a living human being who has absorbed and metabolized them, or if they are now the physical remains of a once- living human being, the substance of what they actually are is human, hence, a human body. The substantial reality of what is before us is human. The substance ( substantial reality) of what is seen is not solely that of a complex organization of organic chemical compounds, but is ( or has been) someone. The chemical elements of the food a person eats become in a few hours part of the person's human body and are no longer food but have been turned into the human flesh and blood and bone of that person, yet the physical chemical elements of what was once food remain the same ( calcium, copper, salt, protein, sugars, fats, water, etc.). The substance of any matter that has become an integral part of any human being has ceased to be the substance or reality of food and has become incorporated as an integral part of the physical manifestation or expression of that human person. To touch that matter now is not to touch a batch of chemical compounds or food but to touch that person.
And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
And you want to travel with him
And you want to travel blind
And you think maybe you'll trust him
For he's touched your perfect body with his mind