Bible
Study: Romans 8, 1 to 11. And Luke 13, 1 to 9.
Have you
ever been asked where Christ is right now? What was your response? Probably,
you would simply say Christ is in heaven, isn’t it? After all, even in our Credo,
we often sing, “He ascended into heaven, where he is seated at God’s right hand…”
But honestly, that is not all. Looking through the scriptures, we hear Christ
say to his disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I AM WITH YOU
ALWAYS, to the close of the age.” Matthew 28, 19 to 20.
Was Christ
simply speaking in symbolic language here? Impossible. He meant every single
word he said. He is literally with us always. Christ is always with us. Even right
inside our weak flesh, Christ is there. And we cannot flee from his presence.
As the Psalmist confesses: “Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I
ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I make my bed in Sheol, thou art there! If
I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even
there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say,
"Let only darkness cover me, and the light about me be night," even
the darkness is not dark to thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness
is as light with thee. For thou didst form my inward parts, thou didst knit me
together in my mother's womb.” Psalm 139, 7 to 13.
In the
battle against sin, we often tend to FORGET that we are not alone! Or put in
another way, even when we remember that Christ is with us, we pretend as if we
do not know he is there or we ask him to excuse us. Or again, we listen too
much to Satan in the course of the temptation and start believing his lie that
Christ is not there. He says: “Look, no one is watching!” How can no one be
watching when as we have just read in Psalm 139 that “even if I take the wings
of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea… your right hand
shall hold me.”?
After almost
dashing off our hopes of ever winning the battle against sin yesterday, St.
Paul presents to us some beautiful lines in our first reading today. He says: “…You
are in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does
not have the Spirit of Christ, does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you,
although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of
righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in
you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies
also through his Spirit which dwells in you.” Romans 8, 9 to 11.
Yes, it is
true that our flesh is weak. Yes, it is true that “all have sinned and fallen
short of God’s glory.” Yes, it is true that the flesh is like a ferocious beast
often demanding from us the very things we do not want to do. But we are not alone and we are not hopeless.
Yes, in our desire to overcome sin, we are like people engaged in a war. But in
this battle, we have superior weapons, in this battle, we have a strong ally
fighting beside us who is stronger than anything we can ever think of, we have
a strong ally who once fought on the cross against Satan himself and beat him
hands down. And this strong ally is Christ Jesus. How does he fight with us, HE
COMES TO PUMP ENERGY INTO OUR WEAK FLESH. As St. Paul rightly affirms, even
though the flesh is dead because it has become so used to sin, Christ comes in
to give life to this mortal body so that we are strengthened to overcome sin.
Some
people believe that the flesh is totally useless and that as long as we live in
the flesh, we cannot overcome sin. They believe that the battle over sin can
only be won when they are out of the flesh. This wrong belief even led to a
serious heretical doctrine in the past where some persons treated their flesh
very badly, refused to wash it or feed it all in the name of trying to be holy.
Some people even started wondering how Christ managed to save the world while
inside human flesh, that led to another heretical teaching that Christ never
took flesh, that he was pure spirit throughout such that he was only pretending
to be crying while carrying the cross. Can you imagine the extent of their flawed
thinking?
No matter
how bad or weak the flesh is, it is still with the same flesh that we are
called to overcome sin. Yes, the battle over sin can only be won right inside
the flesh but first, the flesh must first be EMPOWERED, ENERGISED, ENLIGHTENED,
and ENLIVENED by Christ himself. We must create room for Christ, spend time in
prayer, welcome him by allowing 90% of our thoughts everyday to dwell on
Christ. This is how he comes to give life to our mortal bodies.
Yes,
Christ knows that we can win the battle over sin right inside our flesh. That was
why he demanded repentance from us. If Christ wasn’t sure we would ever succeed
in stamping out sin, he would have said: “You all need to kill yourself so that
you will sin no more.” But he did not say so. In fact, in today’s Gospel
passage, Christ uses very graphic imagery to describe the extent of damage that
becomes of us when we allow our flesh lead us into sin. And he says, there is nothing
like bigger punishment for bigger sin, all sin deserve the same punishment and
that punishment is not smaller than having a whole story building collapsing on
top of a person.
Some
people told him about how Pilate killed some Galileans and mixed their blood with
the sacrifices. Hear how Jesus responded: “Do you think that these Galileans
were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered thus? I
tell you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those
eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that
they were worse offenders than all the others who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell
you, No; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Luke 13, 1 to 5.
Let us
Pray:
Lord
Jesus, I know you are in me always, help me to always be conscious of your
presence especially in moments of temptation that I may never give up or surrender
in the battle against sin. Amen.
Good morning.
Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you.
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