Of course God is interested in the physical and our body is important to Him. Jesus took a horrible beating to procure our healing. Isaiah 53:5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds (stripes) we are healed.
We are to glorify God in our bodies....1 Corinthians 6:20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
One thing I have noticed over the last decades is a decrease in the recognition of the spiritual. We are spiritual beings who operate in both the physical and spiritual realms simultaneously. Believers are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) What happens spiritually affects the physical world and what we do physically has ramifications in the spiritual realm. But since what is seen is temporal and what is unseen is eternal, the spiritual realm is where the reality really occurs.
The problem with the idea that physical actions produce spiritual realities is that it precludes having the right heart.
For example, if the action of baptism is what saves, if it causes spiritual reality to occur, then is must do so always, without regard for the condition of the heart of the person being baptized. It must work because it does inherently.
If someone then says that it's the heart attitude that must also be right, then the action of baptism is does not really save, does not really cause the spiritual reality to take place.
That is why God drove Adam and Eve from the garden. The Tree of Life gives life by eating of it. If Adam and Eve had eaten of that fruit, they would have lived forever in a state of sin, forever beyond redemption. It was an act of mercy on the part of God to keep them from eating of the Tree of Life.
That's the problem with declaring that a physical action produces a spiritual reality. If it doesn't affect the spiritual realm PERMANENTLY, then it doesn't do it at all.
Yes. And as a Catholic, I can only agree. But "physical acts force spiritual changes to occur" is not what the Church teaches. A sacrament done merely for show is not a sacrament.
If kids were "playing baptism" in the swimming pool and baptized each other, it would not be a Baptism. If an actor --- even a priest-actor--- did it with all solemnity in a movie about a holy person, but it was just an "act," it's not a sacrament.
In the Sacrament of Matrimony, if one party or both demonstrably does not or did not mean it, the marriage would be annulled for reasons of fraud/deception, which would make their vows null and would not create a canonical marriage bond.
So the Church does not teach that physical actions in themselves cause spiritual reality to occur. That would be some kind of conjuring trick: or sorcery.