[Ordinary of
the Mass]
[English Text]
[Latin Text]
I am going to make the assumption this
morning, that everyone who hears this Gospel about the "Unjust
Steward" understands that our Lord is not advocating imitation of his
thievery! He is, however, advocating our imitation of his prudence-the idea of
taking what is at hand and using it in such a way as to guarantee our eternal
salvation. We are adopted sons and daughters-privileged to call God
"Abba," our Father. We have the opportunity to know Him intimately as
He reveals Himself through the Catholic Church. We have the ability to do the
good things He has commanded for those around us. We have the opportunity to
embrace and love Him in our prayers; to be quite literally with Him in the Most
Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, through Holy Mass.
The prudence that our Lord commends today is the prudence of those who make use
of this relationship with, taking advantage of each and every one of these
opportunities, as often as possible-each and every day of our lives.
But this morning I want to leave you with a few thought about what we hear from
Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Romans:
“If you
live according to the flesh you will die;
but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will
live.”
At first glance it seems that Saint Paul is falling
into the error of the Manicheans—opposing the body to the soul—making
the one bad and the other good. But upon closer examination we see that
Paul is doing nothing more than calling for the natural order of
things—telling us that our souls must control the passions of our
bodies—and, in turn, that the soul itself must be subject to the will of
God.
It is worthwhile to understand the relationship of
body and soul, in order to put Saint Paul's teaching into practice.
And, in thinking about this relationship—lest we get too clinical—we
should always keep in mind that man is his body and his soul. He is not
a body with a soul added on as an afterthought. We don't have a soul in
the sense of “owning” one, like one has a boat or owns a car—rather, our
soul is an integral part of our being. “My soul is me,” so to speak.
First of all, the human body was created by God to
glorify Him in His material creation. As God's creation, it is
intrinsically good. Any of the evils which we associate with the body
are misuses of it. This becomes painfully obvious when we examine or
experience the results of over-indulgence. The body revolts when it is
put to uses for which it is not intended.
The human body had a certain “divine dignity” in
that it is intended to be a temple of the Holy Ghost—of God dwelling
within us through sanctifying grace. It is further sanctified, in a
sense, by the fact that God Himself chose to take our human form—to take
flesh from the flesh of the Blessed Virgin Mary—and occupied a body like
ours.
The body has such a dignity also, from the fact
that it is intended to exist one day in the glory of happiness with God
in heaven. It is only the effects of original sin which turn us from
our heavenly orientation toward the base misuse of our physical being.
We should be more than a little skeptical about the
notion that the body just evolved, through no power other than random
chance. Clearly, it is a work of complex design, the fruit of great
guiding intelligence—not mere happenstance. Left to themselves things
become disordered, not more ordered. (Entropy increases, as we say in
thermodynamics’) Purposeful intervention is required to produce a more
organized state.
In addition to his physical body, man possesses a
spiritual soul. This soul is directly created by God at the time that a
new physical body is created. This is one of the reasons that the
Church is so concerned with the morality of the marital relationship.
In conceiving a child, a couple is doing something we might call
“sacramental”—just as the priest uttering a few words over the bread and
wine calls the Body and Blood of Christ down from heaven—the conception
of a child calls God down to bring a new spirit into existence. And,
just like the sacraments this can be done in great holiness—but can also
be the occasion of terrible sacrilege.
Man's soul is spiritual. It cannot be seen, or
weighed, or tasted, or measured.... But it is, none the less, real. It
is the seat of man's spiritual faculties; his intellect and will. It is
through the soul that we are able to assimilate and process the data
presented by our senses in order to know the world around us at present,
to remember the past, to speculate about the future, and even to know
God. It is through the soul that we are able to will what is good, and
to detest what is evil, to feel an attachment for friends and family, to
feel responsibility for our community and nation, and ultimately to love
God.
Man's soul is immortal. Remember that the body
disintegrates because it is made up of many material pieces. The soul
has no parts, it is not divisible; it is, as the philosophers say,
“simple.” The soul will survive the body, and we know from God's
revelation that it will be rewarded or punished for its deeds during
life.
Which brings us to the last point, that the soul is
free. Man can make choices. He can analyze situations with his
intellect, and then direct his will to properly order his actions. But
he may also use his free will to improperly order his actions. Even
knowing the true good, he may elect to choose the bad. But, if he does,
he should be aware that his immortal soul will pay the price.
We are creatures of body and soul. We are
responsible to take reasonable care of both. To eat right and to take
exercise in moderation, to observe reasonable medical precautions. To
avoid the occasion of sin, to make a regular sacramental Confession, to
pray and to frequent the Mass and Sacraments.
The human body is mortal; the soul is immortal.
One day we will die and be judged, and will be rewarded or punished
accordingly. And some day later still, at the General Judgement, we
will be reunited with a new physical body. Our soul and that body will
either reign in the glory of God Himself, or give everlasting testimony
in Hell that we violated God's justice.
“If you
live according to the flesh you will die;
but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will
live.”
Not really much of a choice to make is it?
