The Wars of Good vs Evil
The image accompanying this blog is a picture of the cover of the book, Science at the Doorstep to God by Father Spitzer. It is appropriate because much of the knowledge presented in the blogs on the Soul comes from the information developed in this book. And it is particularly appropriate for this blog because it presents new knowledge which I use to correct an earlier blog on the soul and supports my position that we should never say the science (or information) is complete otherwise we may miss the next big thing. So let us begin.
In the blog, the Seen and Unseen, I asked the question how does the inseparable body and soul act while still in the world to gain access to Heaven? I said one way was to follow the commands, Love God and Love your Neighbor. But I added that it tells us nothing about the difference between the spirit and the body. Nor does it tell us about how we should follow those commands. Recall we stated in an earlier blog that if the decisions were aligned with God’s will, then it becomes the path to getting to Heaven. But how difficult is it to make the right decisions? The book, Science at the Doorstep of God gives us what appears to be the answer and also addresses the mystery one of the most difficult passages in the Bible, Roman’s 7: 15-25.
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is one of the more difficult letters to understand and Roman’s 7:15-25 may be the most difficult passage in that letter and it is reproduced below:
“I cannot even understand my own actions. I do not do what I want to do but what I hate. When I acted against my own will, by that very fact I agree that the law is good. This indicates that it is not I who do it but sin which resides in me. I know that no good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; the desire to do right is there but not the power. What happens is that I do, not the good I will to do, but the evil I do not intend. But if I do what is against my will, it is not I who do it, but sin which dwells in me. This means that even though I want to do what is right, a law that leads to wrongdoing is always ready at hand. My inner self agrees with the law of God, but I see in my body’s members another law a war with the law of my mind, this makes me the prisoner of the law of sin in my members. What a wretched man I am! Who can free me from this body under the power of death? All praise to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, with my mind I serve the law of God but with my flesh the law of sin.”
Saint Pal recognizes two levels of freedom in these words. Freedom to choose and will a course of action and freedom to act successfully upon the willed choice when it is opposed to strong sensual and egotistical desires.
What does this mean? Well, it is not as simple as I indicated in an earlier blog when I said since the body and soul were inseparable that the decision was made jointly (body and soul). This turns out not to be the case. Spitzer points out that the soul and the body (brain) have individual powers and they are often in opposition to each other. Spitzer has a whole section on the Powers of the Soul and a companion section on the Powers of the Body. Remember that the soul represents the spiritual and the body represents the world we live in. The soul is the most important and is dominant and records and retains everything even when it leaves when the body dies. The power of the body represents the flesh and can be a powerful counter force.
The Powers of the Soul
The Powers of the Soul are provided by Spitzer and I will just list most of the powers by type and only comment on a few of the powers. They are Self-consciousness, Conceptual-abstract intelligence, The Will (The desire to know and actualize “the good” is the will), Self-reflective intentional love (the recognition of goodness, transcendence, and lovability require a soul because these qualities are non-physical,) The aesthetic sense, and the presence of the Divine within. Spitzer gives much more information on each power which I will leave up to the reader to research on his/her own.
The Powers of the Body
We are much more familiar with the Powers of the Body because that is what we experience on earth. The Powers of the Body include some capability of sensation, memory, imagination, perceptual and conceptual ideas and self-consciousness. But we are most familiar with bodily desire and instincts such as hunger, thirst, and sexual/procreation drives, as well as avoidance of pain and attraction to pleasure which are mostly genetic and biological. When body desires are uncontrolled by any mechanism, they can become addictive or compulsive, impeding freedom. The powers of the soul can generally control the body’s selfish desires for pleasure. But the sins of the flesh can be powerful when the sexual drive becomes selfish and is seeking only pleasure. This is exactly the struggle Paul is describing in the above passage, and while he says he wants to follow the law of God, his bodily desires (sins of the flesh) often overwhelm him and he does what he hates rather than what he wants to do. Without an understanding of the mini wars of the body and soul introduced by Spitzer I would never have been able to understand Roman’s 7: 15-25. I did not understand that the soul battles constantly with the pull of the sins of the flesh. I believe Saint Paul’s struggle is one that most of us can identify with.
This struggle also addresses the conclusion of the Seen and Unseen blog which states that the spiritual (unseen) is more important than the earthly (seen) and why we need to emphasis the importance of spiritual exercises that strengthen the capacity of the soul (spiritual) such as spending time in the Presence of Jesus. When the soul is strong it can better resist the sins of the flesh. The importance of the spirit was noted in the previous blog including the biblical reference of Martha and Mary in which Jesus himself tells Martha that the worldly tasks are not as important as what Mary was doing (living in the Presence of Jesus). These exercises have the added benefit of insuring that the soul is better prepared to help us win mini wars against the desires of the flesh.
Truly the soul is a magnificent creation and is worthy of our attention and admiration. I hope you have enjoyed these blogs on the soul.
Peace be with You
Will Lannes