RBWords

     St. Paul was one very intense man!  Today's passage from his Letter to the Romans reflects that intensity!  He sees himself torn by conflicting forces for good and for evil.  To understand his position, we need to remember that although he spoke Greek, his spiritual background was not Greek.  He did not think in terms of the soul and body as separate realities but rather he thought in Hebrew terms of one single reality.  So, the "flesh" refers to his "old self" and his "spirit" to his "new" converted self.  His battle was pretty much the one that we all fight.  We are tempted to be unfaithful to the person we know we should be! 

 

     This is not a war between soul and body in St. Paul.  It is a conflict in maintaining a steady and faithful Christian identity.  The physical body is not warring against the spiritual soul.  This is all of Paul against all of Paul.  The same is true for us.  By virtue of our baptism we have been identified with Christ.  When we act against Christ's teachings we are being unfaithful not only to Christ but to ourselves!  We experience the tug of the secular way of looking at things all the time.  This can lead us to either forgetting who we are as Christians or to "privatizing" our faith so that it remains hidden.  At least we know we are in good company - St. Paul - but more than that, we know we have to keep up our own efforts to be faithful to the one whose body - the Church - we belong to!  AMEN