RBWords

     I think most of us are familiar with the old expression, "The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak!" - especially when we are trying to resist something expensive or tasty!  However, for St Paul, this is a matter of life and death!  And his starting point is very different from the Greek distinction between "spirit" and "body."  Christianity borrowed that distinction and it is the way we Catholics are taught to think about the human person - i.e. in terms of "soul" and "body" as if the body is a container for the soul.  St. Paul, like all Jews (and the Old Testament) viewed the human person as a single reality.  So, when he speaks of "Spirit" and body as two things he means the complete orientation of the human person.  The difference is between the baptized person who has received the Holy Spirit and the unbaptized person who has not.  Those who have received the Spirit must live in the light of that gift.  He reminded Romans  and his other communities that they could no longer live the kinds of lifestyles that they once had! (cf Galatians 5:16-26).

     Because so many of us are baptized as infants, we lose the idea of baptism as a life-changing experience.  The challenge of teaching us how to live in the light of faith falls on our parents and godparents.  But the Spirit that we receive in baptism is the equivalent of our physical breathing.  If we breathe clean air, we live far better than if we breathe polluted air.  St. Paul reminds us to pay attention to the spiritual air that we breathe.  Baptism is like the spank that we received after birth that started us breathing (and squalling).  To remain alive, we have to continue to breathe properly.  Our Christian identity requires that we pay attention to the moral air around us and live in clean air.  That keeps the whole person alive and united with the Spirit.  AMEN