THE HUMAN FACE OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD

 Quite ambitiously, we are moved to propagate the philosophy which holds that the human flesh is by nature evil. Probably because a good ratio of the temptations that threaten our flight to God besiege that constituent of our make up. Both ecclesial preachers and philosophical minds have held this view, in which they condemned the capacity of the flesh to achieve any good in itself due to its proneness to fall. Nevertheless, both from the point of healthy theological speculations, and sound philosophical ethics, this position has become moribund. In Jean Paul Sartre’s atheistic humanism, the flesh dethrones the mind, so that subsequently, he would replace the mind with a human existence that is actively engaged in the world, what he calls the existential subject. Sartre opens up for us certain true remarks of our humanism, but he also makes some conclusions that does not resolve our human dilemmas.

Beloved, the truth of the matter is that it is within the flesh we first encounter God. It is within the flesh we first encounter our fellow humans who bear God’s image within them. It is within the flesh we first encounter God in created realities. It is within the flesh we first experience Christ as the sacrament of the encounter with God as Edward Schillebeeckx rightly underscores. Sequel to the above truth, the Holy spirit is not the sole prerogative of any culture, he is not the private property of any race, he is not the family member of any nation or jurisdiction. If he were, the Gentiles would not have received the Spirit of God even before baptism. And the council of Jerusalem, wouldn’t have been resolved in the way it was settled.

In the flesh therefore, we must come to God as we are. What he needs from us is not packaging, what he demands of us is not some flamboyant version of who we are. The untrue drama we play in deceit of our fellow humans, is not within his areas of concern. If we must receive him at Pentecost, we must begin to understand what Christ said in Luke 4:45 namely: “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” It is not the flesh that is evil, given that it does not control the spirit. Rather, it is controlled by the spirit. And so, the blame game on the flesh should cease, and let us concentrate more, on how to allow the spirit of Jesus reign in our bodies by opening up ourselves to sincerity and genuine encounters with our fellow humans. For in truth, a man who lies to his brother, lies to himself also, and in such a one, the spirit of God, can never dwell, no matter the amount of vigils one attends or prayer mountains one ascends.

Let us conclude with these striking words of Edward Schillebeeckx in his Christ the Sacrament of the Encounter with God, he says; “we may go to church on Sunday and abstain from meat on Friday- well and good- but we are still a long way from having made holiness a reality in the midst of this world. And until we do, we are obscuring the sign that the church should be to all the world.”

PEACE AND GOODNESS

Friar Emmanuel Igboekwukusi OFM, Cap. 

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