SPIRITUAL BEINGS

Homily for 1 September 2020, Tuesday of the 22nd Week in OT, Luke 4:31-37

The late Marilou Diaz Abaya, a well-known film director became close to us when she volunteered to direct our weekly talk show on the Sunday Gospel, Men of Light, which is regularly posted on FB. I remember a converation that we had about “spirits”. She said her religion teacher in grade school had asked them this question, “Class, can you give me examples of spiritual beings?”

One of her classmates raised her hand and answered, “God, Ma’am?” She got a very good for it. Another one answered, “Angels and devils, Ma’am?” She also got very good. Still another one raised her hand and said, “Saints in heaven, ma’am?” Very good too. Yet another said “Souls in purgatory, ma’am?” and also got very good.

And then she raised her hand and said with a tone of hesitation, “What about us human beings on earth, ma’am?” Apparently, the teacher was caught off guard and said, “Hmm, I’ll think about it and I’ll give you my answer tomorrow.”

The following day, she opened the class with Marilou’s question. She proceeded to explain that she had read a book that seemed to affirm the correctness of Marilou’s answer. Apparently after reading the book she concluded to herself “You are right, Marilou, we are also spiritual beings. We may be physical beings but we are also capable of having a spiritual experience.“

Marilou was not satisfied. She repeated to herself what the teacher had said, “Physical beings having a spiritual experience…” Then she retorted, “Ma’am, what if it’s the opposite? That we’re spiritual beings having a physical experience in this world?” She never got an answer to that one.

And so, many years later, she posed the question to me. In answer, I said to her, “Yes, you’re right. Human beings are spiritual even in their physicality. “ For example, Animals eat to ease up their physical hunger. But for us humans, eating is more than just about putting food in our stomachs. It is a whole ritual meant to nourish not just the body but the spirit as well.

The conversation, the fellowship, the relationship, the friendship is as essential as the food we eat. The preparation that goes with the whole ritual of coming together for a meal, including the preparation of the table, the table cloths, the utensils, sometimes we even put candles and flowers on the table. The way we prepare the food, the way we cook it, serve it, put it on proper containers, bless it before we partake of it and thank God after finishing it. Only humans do that.

Even sexuality for humans is not just about physical contact. Perhaps that is why when people engage in it only for physical pleasure, it can become a demeaning experience. Because it is meant precisely to be spiritual, an encounter of two spirits. The touching, the whispers, the expressions of love and commitment—even the term used in English for human sexual encounters has the broader meaning of intimacy and communication. Perhaps people have to be reminded that what we call sexual can also be called a “spiritual intercourse”. Its purpose is not to demean but to raise the dignity of the human person by giving a physical expression to the spiritual experience of love.

In our first reading today, St Paul speaks of the Spirit that is within us as what is most essential about us. And so he says, “Who knows what pertains to the man except his spirit that is within?“ He alludes to the SPIRIT, in Hebrew the RUAH, the breath that God breathed into Adam when he created him out of clay. Paul says, we have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit that is from God, which is the reason why we understand the “the things that are from God.”

But then of course, it can happen that our physical reality sometimes rejects the spirit of God, when we allow ourselves to be possessed or influenced by evil spirits. When we don’t accept the spirit of God, we find it hard to judge rightly, to discern between good and bad, to know the mind and the will of God. And then Paul proceeds to his good news, “If we have the Spirit of God in us, we have the mind of Christ,” he says.

Our Gospel today is about a man “possessed by an unclean spirit”. It presupposes that, as spiritual beings, we interact with other spiritual beings, and these can have a positive or negative spiritual impact on us. We interact with embodied spirits, just as we also interact with disembodied spirits whether good or bad. We are expected to be discerning of the spirits we come into contact with because they can influence our thoughts, our feelings, our actions.

In another Gospel, he warns us that it is not enough to get rid of evil spirits. In Matthew 12:45, he says, An unclean spirit can be driven out. But it can just as well come back and “bring with itself seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they move in and dwell there, putting the person in a worse situation than his earlier condition. It will be like this,” Jesus says, “with this evil generation.”The human spirit remains vulnerable to the evil one, for as long as it does not welcome the Holy Spirit.

The opposite of “spiritual possession” is “spiritual indwelling”. The Holy Spirit never possesses by force; he comes and dwells when we respond freely to his call, his invitation, his gift of anointing. Only the Holy Spirit has authority over the unclean spirits. Only the presence of the Holy Spirit in us can make us immune and enable us to resist the spiritual viruses of the Evil One.