Homily
for the
14th
Sunday of Ordinary Time
July 5, 2020
Rom 8: 9, 11-13
St. Theresa, Bronx, N.Y.
“You are
not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of
God dwells in you” (Rom 8: 9).
The Letter to the Romans is probably St. Paul’s
most important writing, abounding in the theology of sin and grace. We started reading from it 2 weeks ago, and
we’ll be hearing selections from it for a total of 13 weeks—fully 25% of a year.
Last week Paul urged us to live after the example
of Jesus Christ since we have been raised up with him to eternal life thru the
grace of Baptism.
Today he teaches us that God’s Holy Spirit dwells
in us; this is also the Spirit of Christ.
Paul isn’t explicit in this passage about our having received this share
in God’s Spirit at our Baptism, but that is the case.
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| Image of the Holy Spirit part of the "Glory of Bernini" in St. Peter's Basilica |
So, Paul says, “You are in the Spirit.” We are spiritual men and women. We are to live according to the Spirit. He says also, “The Spirit of God dwells in
you.” When we belong to Christ, his Spirit
comes to us—as it did to the apostles on Pentecost—and takes possession of us
and enables us to live according to the ways of Christ.
As God the Father “raised Christ from the dead,”
his Spirit also “will give life to your mortal bodies” (8:11). When we let the Holy Spirit direct our lives
according to the ways of Jesus, we are preparing ourselves for resurrection.
But it’s no secret to you that it’s not easy to
live according to the ways of Jesus. It’s
certainly no secret to me. Paul
acknowledges the contest, the battle, that we’re all engaged in between the
flesh and the spirit. When he speaks of
the flesh, he means our earthly existence and its passions, subject to so many
sinful allurements, to the deadly sins of pride, envy, lust, greed, sloth,
anger, and gluttony. In the Collect, we
noted that God has “rescued us from slavery,” the slavery of our sins, from
enslavement to our passions.
In his Letter to the Galatians, Paul writes: “The works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness,
idolatry, sorcery [in our time we might interpret this as black magic and
witchcraft], hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, selfishness,
dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that
those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (5:19-21).
Christ came in the flesh—“The Word was made flesh
and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14)—but he overcame all those
temptations and allurements to enable us to rise above such earthly
considerations. Christ gives us his
Spirit, to forgive our sins, which lead to eternal death—“if you live according
to the flesh, you will die” (Rom 8:13)—and to empower us to live even now on a
higher plane so that we’re no longer “debtors to the flesh” (8:12) and can,
instead, “put to death the deeds of the body” (8:13).
In contrast to the works of the flesh, to the ways
that unredeemed people act, according to Galatians the Spirit of God empowers
us to practice “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control” (5:22-23).
Paul calls these virtues the “fruit of the Spirit” (5:22).
These virtues give us life, and thru us give life
to everyone around us: our families, co-workers,
fellow parishioners, people we meet in the supermarket or on our walks thru the
neighborhood. “The Spirit of the one who
raised Jesus from the dead … will give life to your mortal bodies also” (Rom
8:11) on Judgment Day. Those virtues are
life-affirming now—and affirm our calling to live with Christ Jesus in the
kingdom of God.
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