In different parts of the New Testament, we see a dichotomy delineated between the spirit and the flesh. We have to be careful as to how we interpret these passages. We could easily assume that the "spirit" here is synonymous with the spiritual, and the "flesh" with the material. But the meaning is a bit more complex. Flesh, in this context, refers to anything that takes us away from God; whereas spirit refers to anything that takes us toward God. Some material things, depending on what they are and how we approach them, can take us toward God. Some spiritual things, again depending on what they are and how we approach them, can take us away from God.
Christianity does not consider the material world to be evil. We believe that the material world is good in its nature, but fallen and marred by sin. Human nature too is fallen due to sin, and as a result, we have concupiscence, that is to say, a tendency toward sin. Due to concupiscence, our desires are disordered, and we are continually tempted to use the material world in an unwholesome way, harmful both to ourselves and to the world around us.
In reaction to this struggle, some erroneous movements in history rejected all things material. They even denounced married life as wrong, because of its physical component and were against bringing children into the world. The Catholic Church has condemned such ideas. We believe that Christ's grace can help us establish a proper relationship with the material world and thereby help us use material things in a life-giving way. What is more, when Christ returns and refashions creation, he will restore the material world to its original state of grace, before the world was marred by human sin. The New Heaven and New Earth described in the Book of Revelations will not be just a spiritual place but a physical world as well, made completely wholesome and glorious by Christ.
In fact, at the heart of our Catholic faith is belief in the resurrection. Just as Christ rose from the dead, we too will rise as well. When we die at the end of this life, our body and soul are separated. Our body disintegrates but our soul lives on for all eternity. The eternal state of our soul will depend on the choices we made in this life. If we cut ourselves off from God's love completely, our state will be Hell. If we embraced God's love completely, our state will be Heaven. If we embraced God's love only partially, we will have to pass through Purgatory, a period of purification that will eventually lead us to Heaven.
Then, at the Second Coming of Christ, when he returns to judge the whole world, all of humanity will be resurrected. We will all receive back our physical body, which will be reunited with our soul, thereby completing our human condition. But the body we will receive will no longer be subject to fallen nature, but will be perfect. Our new bodies will never age, get sick, or even tire, and they will never die again. All those who are saved will live body and soul eternally in the new, refashioned creation that Christ will bring about at the end of the ages.
The idea of that Heavenly blessedness is such a beautiful vision. Having said that, we might dread the many more years of suffering and hardship that we must endure in the world we live in now. But in the Gospel Reading for today Jesus tells us: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light." (Matthew 11:28-30)
Sooner or later all of our lives will be visited by some profound suffering, which we cannot escape or even alleviate. The more we struggle against this suffering, the more angry, hurt, and dispirited we will be. But if we embrace the Cross of our suffering, just as Jesus embraced his, everything will be transformed. If we embrace our Cross and unite our suffering with the suffering of Christ, we will find peace and even joy in the midst of our suffering. That is not to say that the suffering will go away, because we will still feel the pain. But now the pain will be bearable and even meaningful. We will feel joy and a profound sense of peace even as we suffer.
What is more, the peace that we experience in this life is just a limited foreshadowing of the perfect peace we will be given in eternity. In the First Reading for this Sunday, we see an intimation of that peace. The passage is a prophetic anticipation of the Second Coming of Christ, when he will restore the order of the world. All the nations will be subject to him and his peace will rule the human race.
As we await the coming of Christ, let us not forget that his reign will not just be starting at that time. The reign of Christ has already begun. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. After the Second Coming, his reign will reach its fullness, but he reigns already. The Catholic Church professes the social kingship of Christ, that Christ is the king of our society already today, not just in the future. Thus, our goal should be not just to make Christ the king of our individual lives but to make Christ the king of our society as a whole, so that all aspects of our society, whether education, politics, or entertainment, are subject to Christ here and now. By doing so, we help the world experience the infinite love of Christ, and we prepare others and ourselves for the inexpressibly beautiful realty of the New Jerusalem that Christ will bring into being in the fullness of time.
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The readings for Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A are:
Zechariah 9:9-10
Psalm 145:1-2, 8-9, 10-11, 13-14
Romans 8:9, 11-13
Matthew 11:25-30
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Image Credit: Icon of the Resurrection of Jesus - Resurrection Gate, from Wikimedia Commons.
