Word to the Wise
Saturday, October 23, 2021 - Saturday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 8:1-11 and Luke 13:1-9]For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit....But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. [Romans]
One of the difficulties that arises when reading St. Paul's letters, especially Romans, is that most of us in the West are influenced by Greek philosophy which gave rise to an understanding of the human person as composed of body and soul. The Hebrew understanding considered the human person as one being. When St. Paul uses terms like flesh and spirit, he is talking about the complete orientation of an individual toward the good or the bad. Thus one might understand the notion, popularized by Luther, of the human person simul justus et peccator (being righteous and a sinner at the same time). In the Hebrew anthropology, we may struggle to live faithfully as an entire person, not as a composite of body and soul.
The church took on the Greek way of thinking and we still speak of the soul as something distinct from the body. But we cannot read this back into St. Paul without distorting his thought. His words about the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Corinthians 5 speak of a new reality in Christ for the whole person, and not just for the soul of a person.
The Pauline way suggests that we care for ourselves both physically and spiritually and emotionally as an integrated child of God struggling to live in accord with the faith we have received, confident that Christ's gift of new life is ours if we act in accord with the Spirit of life. AMEN