What are the sins of the flesh?

May 19, 2024

If the dramatic story of tongues of fire coming down on the disciples is kept aside, then the story of Pentecost is mainly about the disciples receiving the gifts of the Spirit. And these gifts or works or fruits of the spirit is often contrasted with those of the flesh, as is done in today’s second reading.  Unfortunately, most of us understand these two words in the sense that flesh stands for the materialistic parts of our self, and the spirit refers to the non-materialistic parts.

But, according to the vast majority of Scripture scholars, this is a complete misunderstanding of what Paul is talking about.  The use of the word flesh as the translation of the original Greek word ‘sarx’ that Paul uses, is quite unfortunate because while for us the flesh is identified with the body, for Paul “sarx” is the un-redeemed self.

Who is the redeemed self?  One of the basic  motivations of human beings, right from the time we are conceived, is the desire to survive at all costs, leading to the oft-quoted evolutionary principle, survival of the fittest.  A person who is motivated by this principle above all else, is quite different from a person who is willing to die for another.  And isn’t the latter a completely ‘different’ kind of person? There is the true story of Fr. Maximilian Kolbe, a Polish priest who was incarcerated at Auschwitz. A man from Kolbe’s bunker escaped in July 1941, and so, as per the camp practice, 10 randomly selected men were chosen to be killed as a warning to everybody else not to try and escape. As Franciszek Gajowniczek, one of those chosen prisoners, cried in anguish, Kolbe stepped forward to the commandant and said, “I am a Catholic priest. Let me take his place. I am old. He has a wife and children.” The commandant accepted his request, and the priest took Gajowniczek’s place. This is the opposite of ‘survival of the fittest’.  While this is an extreme example, aren’t we all very touched by those who do gratuitous acts of kindness to others, or by those who help another even at great cost to themselves? In other words, the redeemed ones are those who follow Jesus’ example of loving others more than oneself.

So, the works of the ‘flesh’ are not just about sexual immorality, which we seem to place a huge amount of emphasis on, but also about enmities, jealousy, anger and envy.  Could we then translate the words of Paul into language that makes it more understandable to us? One author suggests that instead of the word ‘flesh’ being used, we could use the word ‘ego’ and so we could say that what Paul lists out as the fruits of ‘sarx’ are the fruits of the ‘ego’, the ‘trapped self, the small self’ - or as I would suggest, the self that makes itself the centre of the universe. And because nothing else matters but satisfying this small self, it is clear to Paul what the works/fruits of such a self-centred self are.

This struggle between the self-centred self and my alternate self which would want to be other-centred, is constant.  Paul writes about this in his letter to the Romans: “Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me” (Romans 7:21-23). 

So what then does it mean to receive the gift of the Spirit? In many groups receiving the Spirit or being ‘born again in the Spirit, has been equated with what is known as the sudden dramatic ‘slaying by the Spirit’, where initiates are touched on their foreheads (often on a stage) and suddenly collapse, allegedly because they have been ‘slain by the Spirit’.  Alternatively, they are allegedly given  the gift of ‘speaking in tongues’, i.e. in languages unknown to them.  I remember being part of such a Catholic Pentecostal group in the early 70’s and allegedly received this gift of tongues, and I was then asked to exercise it by speaking whatever came to my mind/mouth.  And even though I tried hard to make myself believe it, the whole experience made absolutely no sense to me, because I knew that I was just spouting gibberish, but was being told to believe that I had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and I was speaking in tongues.  It was completely ridiculous. Because when later I read about the original experience of this gift of tongues as it was experienced in the early Church, I realised it was quite different from mouthing gibberish. Today’s first reading explains that the gift of the tongues meant not just that the apostles could speak out without fear, but more importantly that the crowd could understand them, each in their native tongue, even though the Apostles spoke in their own dialect. This theme of language being used to reflect understanding, is a theme that has been used before in the story of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) where the opposite happens and nobody can understand anybody else because everyone speaks a different language.

So maybe it is not too much of a stretch to say that the ability to speak in a manner that can speak to 'others' hearts, in a way that others can truly understand, irrespective of differences in language, creed, race, caste, gender, colour, or ideology, is the gift of tongues that the Holy Spirit offers us today. In an earlier blog I had spoken of Dag Hammerskjold who, I believe, embodied this ability to ‘speak in tongues’ so that all in the United Nations, coming as they did from warring nations, nations with different political ideologies and needs, could hear and understand. And he could do this because he was convinced that he was called to see in every human being what he called “their infinite possibilities”.   In other words, the ones who have received the spirit are the ones who have received the gift of being able to see the other as part of oneself, to see all of creation as part of oneself - and so can speak in tongues that truly reach the ‘other’.

Therefore, the gift of the Holy Spirit that we celebrate on this day is a gift that helps us understand deep in our hearts what it means to move from a ‘small’ self-centred self to a ‘larger’ other-centred Jesus-like self. Since this movement is itself a journey of transformation, we can say that the Sacrament of Confirmation, which is the sacrament that celebrates the annointing of the Spirit, is only the first step we take to choose to be a follower of Jesus. And like the disciples of Jesus, it may take us years to really be transformed. The disciples didn’t manage it in the 3 years they spent with Jesus, and then, as we are told in today’s readings, they suddenly experienced it on Pentecost Sunday.  When will we experience it? 

First Reading: Acts 2: 1-11 (same as last year)

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

Second Reading:  Galatians 5: 16-25

Alternative second reading: First Corinthians 12: 3b-7, 12-13 ( was used last year) 

Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

 

Gospel: John 15: 26-27; 16: 12-15

Alternative Gospel reading: John 20: 19-23 (was used last year)

 

When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with me from the beginning. I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is  mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.