Month of the Holy Souls II (Day 20)
November 20, 2024
Day 20
A reading from the Letter of St. Paul to the Romans (7:4-6, 9-10, 13, 24b-25)
My friends, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
From his treatise On Nature and Grace by St. Augustine of Hippo
Let us now see whether Scripture says that the flesh is opposed to the baptized as well. Where and to whom did the Apostle speak these words? The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other so that you do not do those things which you will. He wrote them to the Galatians, I believe, the same people to whom he said, Did he who gave you the Spirit and worked miracles among you do this because of the works of the Law or because of the acceptance of the faith?. From these passages it is clear that he is speaking to Christians and to people to whom God has given the Spirit; he is speaking, then, to those who have been baptized.
See, we have discovered that the flesh is opposed even to the baptized and they do not have that ability which he says is inseparably implanted in nature. What has happened to his question, ‘How is it possible that the flesh is opposed to anyone who has been baptized?’ The term ‘flesh’ in this passage, in fact, refers not to the nature of the flesh, which is good, but to its defects. But no matter how he might understand ‘flesh’, notice that the flesh is, nonetheless, opposed even to the baptized. How is it opposed? So that they do not do what they will. See, the will is present in the human being; where is that ability of nature? Let us admit that grace is necessary; let us cry out, Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? And our answer is: The grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
After all, when one asks these people, as it is perfectly correct to do, ‘Why do you claim that apart from the help of God’s grace a human being can be without sin?’, the question does not have to do with the grace by which human beings were created, but with the grace by which they are saved through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Moreover, in prayer the faithful say, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. If they have the ability, why do they make this prayer? Or from what evil do they ask to be set free if not especially from the body of this death, from which they are set free only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. They do not ask to be set free from the substance of the flesh which is good, but from the defects of the flesh from which human beings are not set free without the grace of the Saviour, not even when they leave the body through the body's death. In order to make this point, what did the Apostle previously say? I see another law in my members that resists the law of my mind and holds me captive in the law of sin which lies in my members. See the injury which the will’s disobedience has inflicted upon human nature. Let him pray to be healed! Why does he expect so much from the ability of nature? It is wounded, injured, beaten, ruined; it is in need of a true confession, not of a false defence. Let it ask, then, for the grace of God, not that by which it is created, but that by which it is restored.
Musical Selection
When I can't hold on much longer
To a rope weathered and frayed
When I can't find hope and I'm losing faith
The Savior reaches in
To still the howling wind
To calm the storm within
To rescue me
To rescue me
When I think I might surrender
To the vengeance of the tide
When I'm lost in sin and I don't see light
The Savior reaches low
Under the torrid flow
To save my sinking soul
And rescue me
The Savior calls my name
When I feel most ashamed
He comes to take the blame
And rescue me
To rescue me
To rescue me
Prayer
Lord God,
here on earth your servants
were found worthy to be conformed to Christ;
free them from every bond of sin,
that in the glory of the resurrection
They may breathe life anew
and dwell among your saints for ever.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever. Amen.