This is the final installment in my Meditations on Rousseau series. 

''The mind has its needs as does the body.  The needs of the body are the foundation of society, those of the mind make it pleasant.''

At first glance, it is seems correct that the mind and the body serve different functions, for what the body does is done because of the thoughts that proceed it.  The body needs food and protection, and this is rightly the basis of society, for why do we have government other than to make sure we can sustain ourselves and be protected from enemies (and each other).  Defense and dinner are the purpose of government, generally speaking.

That the mind makes necessity pleasant appears to be correct as well.  The body needs food, the mind makes sure that we enjoy food and the art of cooking.  The body requires bread and water, but the mind is adventurous and wants chicken mole with pico de gallo, soft tacos, and flan for dessert. 

For the Church the body is the very foundation, not only our worshiping bodies, but paramount is the resurrected body of Christ. The mind can add layers of meaning and elaborate proofs about the Eucharist, but in the end what is foundational, what is truly meaningful is not the pleasantness of the mind, the nostalgia of remembrance and Eucharists past, but the body itself, the foundation which spans the Church past, present, and future.

The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and in us Christ and the Spirit dwell, erecting a new foundation, a foundation not fixed on the selfish interpretation of our desire, but instead on the renewing of our mind---Christ's body is our model of living sacrifice, and in our own sacrifice we remove our foundation from society, from the world, and plant it firmly in Christ.  And when our mind is renewed what is pleasant is no longer the delight of this world but the delight of the kingdom. 

The delight of the kingdom is sacrilege and spittle to the world (but did not Christ heal with spittle?).  The delight of the kingdom, the pleasantness of the kingdom-shaped mind, is in the orphan and the widow, the worship of the community, the prayers of the saints, the suffering of the martyrs, the cries of the poor and downtrodden.  And what makes these truly pleasant is that our body, Christ, the Church, is the only thing that can bring eternal delight, the eternal water of Christ, to them, that though they may cry in hunger they are full in spirit.

Let this be so.