Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - Twenty-ninth Wednesday in Ordinary Time
[Romans 6:12-18 and Luke 12:39-48]Sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness.
Anyone who lives with an addiction knows what it means to live as a slave to something in the body. Anyone who lives with severe compulsion of a psychological nature knows what it means to live as a slave to something within. St. Paul reminds those who have been baptized that they are free from the compelling force of an external law - the Mosaic Code - but this freedom is not a freedom to do whatever they want. They must live in accord with their new identity and not allow their appetites to rule them. It does not take a lot of effort to become a slave to appetite, even if it doesn't get to the point of an addiction like alcohol or gambling, or a compulsion like anorexia or bulimia, etc. In point of fact, our culture does not view with approval any form of slavery. St. Paul's use of the word to connote our relationship of obedience to Christ is difficult for us. Yet, the idea of completely belonging to another is not entirely foreign to us insofar as marriage is meant to achieve that kind of belonging. We may dislike the notion of ownership that is implied by "slavery" but like the idea of "belonging." The whole point is that once we "belong" to Christ, we must obey him and not our appetites or an external law that cannot take the place of the personal relationship with Christ. Even Paul struggled with this as we will see on Friday. Stay tuned! AMEN
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