Today, we  formally return to ordinary time on Sundays, the past four weeks we have celebrated solemnities every Sunday, even though we were in ordinary time during the week. So we begin with St. Paul’s letter to the Romans. Here we have an understanding of who we are as Christians.

The key point he brings up here is that we are in the spirit and not in the flesh. What does that mean?

What Paul is talking about is that when we are baptized and we subsequently embrace Christ, we develop a way of looking at ourselves and others spiritually. We recognize that we have a spiritual journey in Christ and that journey leads us to eternal life in Heaven and transforms us daily.

This means that all our decisions need to be made with this understanding. So we need a whole new understanding of our world who we are in it. Where the world sees things only from a physical reality, we see things from a physical and spiritual reality. Where the world sees that only this world exists, we believe in eternal life and in that we orient our whole in serving Christ on our journey to Heaven.

What does that mean for us?

Let us look at what it does not mean. Please do not some up your Catholic faith in the simple terms of good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell. That is an inaccurate and simplistic understanding of our Catholic faith.So inaccurate and simplistic it really needs to be thrown away. What this idea creates is a false spirituality based on morality. What Christ calls us to in the words of St. Paul is a spirituality based on a whole new understanding of what it means to be human and alive. Remember this is the same man who called us to experience a renewal of our minds and reminds us that we are now new in Christ. He  lived those words by being a hopeful man while in a Roman prison. This is more than just being a good person, it means having a whole new way of seeing yourself.

The literal description is to be Christ’s to each other. That means to live in such a way that we see ourselves as God’s agents on earth and we treat others  in the same way. Everything we experience that happens to us is seen through the eyes of our life in Christ. This is what it means to live spiritually.

This does not mean that we stop at every moment and say, “Oh look an apple, let us now thank God for this apple. Oh look a worm, let us thank God for  this worm.” No what it means is to see the world so spiritually that we can act in a way that is powerful and transforms our way acting.

Where does this manifest itself best? In our response to trouble. When we bring Christ into our life, and things go wrong and they will more so because we bring Christ in our life. We have a different way of looking at it. Paul calls us to praise God when these things go wrong.

If you are in the flesh this means that you have little spiritual understanding, or if you do, then it is geared to ensuring that your life is the earthly life you want. When you don’t get what you want, or things go wrong that are out of your control, then you go into a panic, or suffer anger or anxiety or take measures that put you first have little care of what it does to others. However, when you are in the spirit, you can see all as still orienting you to Christ. Your greatest difficulty is brought to prayer and even your greatest sins are brought to confession and you see all within the concept of a relationship with Christ.

You also see that you are a body and a soul, redeemed by Christ that is on pilgrimage to eternal life in Heaven and you orient your life that way. Again, no matter how things may go wrong, if they help us to experience eternal life, then so be it.

We become people of prayer, and hopefully families of prayer which also re-orient our whole being to union with Christ and focus us on being in relationship with Christ as we seek to do his will in our own life and in the life of others. We embrace the sacraments and we see our greatest hope not in what this world can give us, but what they next one does.

The Christian sits amidst all that goes wrong and says, “Somehow God will get me through this and this will bring me closer to him.” The worldly person sees this and has no such focus or hope.

Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor of Holy Trinity Quincy, MA and is the editor of this blog. He is the author of several books, blogs and hundreds of videos all of which you may find at his website. He also has a regular radio program on WebRadio Canção Nova. Which he podcasts on Mixcloud and here on Catholicismanew.
You can follow him on twitter as @frbobcarr. Thoughts, comments on the homily? Let us know at Facebook