23/09.2023

"The life that I now live  is not mine but the life of Christ who lives in me". There is a lot to be pondered in this sentence alone but St Paul continues "The life I now live in this body I live in Faith." St Paul is the perfected Jew of the Old Testament. Jesus is the the total fulfilment of the "Law" to which Paul is now dead. Paul and we are live in the Resurrection, Jesus Son of God. 

The influence of theologians who have tried to abandon the concept of soul as being an accretion from Hellenism and not found in the Old Testament  is seen in the translation used for this morning's Gospel. The Douay version "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul" tells us yet again that  God's world, the Kingdom of God, is not the here and now of the material universe. There is a definite difference between our present temporal life and the eternal life to come. Why then does the Church refuse to recognise this difference by calling a soul a soul?

St Paul a "SuperJew", a product of Gamliel's famous school, has a clear concept of "soul" although that "word" has not been used in this translation. He is an "I" as we all are and thus is an individual. He has a body which is not his "life" . He has given up his old life to live with the life of Christ but he still has his  own body and the "I" who "knows" all that he experiences.

So he is thus a person, a body and a life. I know that I too am also this. A person, a unit of being, a body, a decrepit old thing, and a soul which I have to guard for it is the spark of the eternal love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit and my responsibility to return to the Master without stain of sin. 

Dear Lord may I clear my mind of all that does not add to my openness to your grace. May my body continue to plod along and may my Soul find the true peace that comes from you. May Mary for whom there is no time, lead  St Pius and all the Saints in the praise and pleadings for the forgiveness that you never refuse to the truly penitent especially the Holy Souls who still linger in time working out their deserved punishment.