So, what is it that we need? What is it that comes into our lives to help us? It is the Spirit. There is this element within us, not only body and soul, but another element that enters into our lives which helps us to see things a little more clearly. We might be able to recognize it as a principle of God’s love in our lives. We might want to enhance it by saying it is the power of the Holy Spirit.

Whatever we call it, there is another element that helps us to see that we are good. That God created us with this material body and also a spiritual element. We are not called to reject one or the other, but we are called to be who we are. We’re not angels and we’re not animals. We are human beings. We have both of these elements within us, and there’s never going to be a perfect balance. We’re never going to come to a place where our spirit, our soul, is perfectly balanced with our material side, the body.

There’s never going to be a time when the side that requires us to be self-serving is going to be in perfect equilibrium with the side that invites us to be slaves to others. There’s always going to be a tension there. There’s always going to be this teeter-totter where we’re working to keep it in balance.

But the fact is, we as human beings cannot do it on our own. That’s the problem! If we want to accomplish what God has created us to be, we need something else. We need the Spirit that comes into our spirit and gives us all that we need to work on this. Not that it’s ever perfect. It will never be perfect in this world, but it will always be a struggle to balance it. But the Spirit comes to give us the means by which we can come to understand what that balance is. Because if we do not have the balance, then we are in the realm of sin. If the Spirit is not there guiding us, is not there supporting us, then these tensions are continually going to draw us away from the center. We’re either going to give in to our fleshly self, our self-centered self, or we’re going to go off onto the other side and cut ourselves off from the world and pretend that we don’t need this world, and that we don’t need to know who we are. That is not what God made us to be. He did not make us as spirit and He did not create us as slave. He is not calling us to serve others at the expense of ourselves, and He hasn’t called us from our bodies.

When Jesus Christ came and walked this earth, He took on our human flesh, because our human flesh is not bad. When He rose from the dead, He didn’t rise as a spirit. He rose in His human body, because that is what we are—we are human beings. When we reign in glory, we’re not going to be angels. They are pure spirits. We are going to be glorified human beings. How that’s going to be, we don’t know. But we are not throwing away our bodies. Our bodies are who we are.

When the Holy Spirit comes into us, it is a power that helps us to live the life we are called to live. When we pray and ask for this power, this grace, this life, we receive that leadership, that strength, that guidance that we need. Then we can be the people we’re called to be. We can understand ourselves in the best way possible. We can recognize that we are called to love God as He wants us to love Him—by being a part of this world. And we can recognize that God continually calls us to more. It’s not easy.

That is the struggle. That is what it means to be moral—to continually work to try to find this balance, so we are doing what God wants us to do as human beings. It means that we learn to truly love our body as we love our spirit. It means that we learn to love ourselves as we learn to love others. In this way we truly love God, because we have used everything that God has given us in the way that He asks us to use it. God is not telling us that we are something that is inferior or bad, and we have to strive to become more or we have to learn to how to break from what we are.

There are many pagan religions that believe that the body is a trap for the soul, and that if you purify yourself enough, the soul will break free of the body. That is not what we believe. We believe that our body is part of who we are. That I’m not going to be me separated from this body. That’s why we don’t believe in reincarnation. We believe that we are unique creations by God and that soul and body make up who we are. We don’t believe that our souls can be transferred from one place to another in a different body and be somebody else. We are who we are because God created us as we are to become all that we can be.

If we don’t learn how to balance all of this, not only can we fall into sin, but we can be trapped by the evil one. Satan can play on every one of these areas. He can come in and say, “Yes, your life is useless. Your life is a waste of time. What does it matter what you do?” Why is there such an increase in rage? Because the devil has a playground. He can tell people to do whatever they want because it doesn’t mean anything in the long run. Because life is meaningless. So we can be immoral, amoral, unmoral, because it doesn’t mean anything. Why be moral?

I can go to the other extreme. I can mistreat my body. I can do all kinds of tortures to it so that I can escape and only worry about my spirit. I can absent myself from the world and say, “I don’t need to be a part of this world.” I can say, “The world is evil and so is my body.” And so I need to continually purify myself and break free. That’s not what we’re about. That’s wrong. It is said that St. Francis spent his later years in apology to God for the way he mistreated his body, because he recognized that he had gone overboard. He had misused his penances. We have to understand that God is not telling us to get out of our bodies.

Satan can teach us to be extremely selfish and self-centered. If we only look at our own self-esteem, if we say, “As long as I make it to the top, it doesn’t matter who I step on, who I crush. As long as I get what I want.” Or Satan can say to us, “You don’t mean anything.” “It doesn’t matter what people say to you or how they treat you, just as long as you take care of them. You’re trash anyway.” “Don’t worry about achieving anything or considering yourself worthwhile. Don’t think about your talents or your gifts. You’re just garbage.” “Be the martyr. Be the one who sacrifices their self for everyone.” That is not what God calls us to.

Next time: Part III: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit