RBWords

     The old expression, "The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak!" finds its roots in St. Paul's anguished self-analysis in this famous chapter of Romans.  Many early Christian preachers and teachers interpreted this in a way that made it seem as if the "spirit" was like a bird in a cage (the "body").  In order to "free" the spirit, one had to bring the body into complete submission, often by extreme penitential measures.  However, this very influential interpretation was not the way St. Paul actually thought.  His approach (or "anthropology") did not see the human person in terms of two opposed components: i.e. spirit v. flesh (the Greek philosophical approach), but as ONE single reality (the Hebrew anthropology of the Old Testament).Thus, the conflict in St. Paul is between the "old" self - unredeemed and undisciplined - and the "new" self - redeemed and called to a disciplined life.  

     Whichever of the two "interpretations" we adopt, we are still faced with the experience of inner turmoil.  It would be the rare person who has never known this inner conflict.  We feel as if we are two different persons at war within a single body!  Or we feel like we have been split within ourselves.  The human person is made in the "image and likeness of God" and as such, no part of the person - whether material or immaterial - is to be despised.  However, the "image and likeness of God" means that we are capable of choosing to ignore God and opting for other paths!   I have encountered this in counseling students who say, "I don't know why I did such and such, that's not like me at all!"  My response is to help them to realize that as good and as loving as they see themselves, they can still, in the right circumstances, choose to do something very wrong and destructive.  The best prevention for this is a consistent spiritual/physical discipline that treats neither the "mind" nor the "body" as an enemy but an integrated whole that requires, if you will, regular spiritual/physical "maintenance."  We speak of a person's "character" or "dispositions" in noting the decisions they make.  When this "character" is shaped according to the values that Christ has taught us, the "inner conflict" - while never entirely absent as long as we live on earth - is reduced and we become more focused on a true Christian life and less vulnerable to destructive choices.  It is this "redeemed" person that St. Paul aims for and it is why he considers Christ to be the answer to his inner turmoil.  So can we.  AMEN