The Paradox of Human Nature
Summary of Headings
- The Paradox of Human Nature
- Overcoming the World of Flesh
- Historical Heresies and Misunderstandings
- Daily Choices Towards Sanctification
- Living as Children of God
The Paradox of Human Nature
I apologize, I was actually not expecting to give this sermon, Father Vernois is a no -show. He was supposed to preach at all the Masses, but that's okay. I think they partied him out this afternoon, he's not used to being down here. Still, it's a good opportunity to speak a little bit about the paradox that is human nature. Because as we all know, we are formed of body and soul. And so therefore, we are both material and spiritual. But that also means that even, but also because of original sin, we are split between this earth and the human realm. But then thanks to the grace of God, we are also dedicated to the higher realm of grace, which is heaven. This is what is a paradox. We're both. We're a bit of both.
Overcoming the World of Flesh
And one does not eliminate the other. At least not entirely. Because we are creatures of this world does not mean that we can't be creatures of the next. But in order to become creatures of the next world, we have to let the spirit dominate over our flesh. That is the essence of what it means. That is what the necessity is. The necessity of our nature is that we have to overcome the world of this flesh to be able to belong to the spirit. But then being creatures of the spirit does not mean that we stop having a body and belonging to this world as well. We are in this world, but not of it. We are supposed to be a part of this world. That does not mean that we pertain to it. So even though it sounds very similar, those are two very different things. But we are supposed to be a part of this world.
As we learn as we go, we learn from the fact that we are very distinct things. We belong in this world, but we do not belong to it. We are a part of it, but it is not a part of us in and of itself. We have to become more than what this world can possibly offer. Now that becomes a bit of an issue because this is how certain heresies have cropped up throughout history. Especially in regards to and to Manichaeism and the like, Jansenism, saying that anything from this world is evil, therefore we can have nothing to do with it. In order to become faithful children of God,
Historical Heresies and Misunderstandings
we must be creatures purely of spirit, or to reduce certain things to matter and certain things to spirit. The masculine is the material, the feminine is the spiritual, the things like that. Yes, there are heresies for everything, trust me. So they find all sorts of ways to try to use this paradox, but to misunderstand it and to form it into some sort of a dichotomy that does not exist. It's very simple if we actually stop to think about the nature that God created and the nature that God redeemed. If we just look at it from that perspective, as usual, God makes everything simpler because he is important to us. He is important to us because he is important to us.
God created us. He created us in grace. He created Adam and Eve in grace. He created us for himself, for heaven, to be eternally happy, first here on earth and then passing into heaven. That was what we were created for. It was ourselves, it was human nature that fell through original sin and let the human side of our souls, the human side of our being, the material world, and the material world, the material world, the material world, the material side of our being, overcome the supernatural. And as a result, we're always starting the same journey because God still creates us with the goal of us being eternally happy with him in heaven, but we're starting out the journey with one leg tied behind our back, as it were.
Now we have a lot more work to do to be able to get to that point. It's a lot harder. But just because we are now injured, crippled, trying to make the same thing, we're not able to do it. The same access, trying to make the same point, does not mean that we are now evil. It just means we are wounded. God redeems us. He buys us back. He elevates us. And therefore, we have a choice to make. We can take the easy route, which is the route of comfort, which is the route of just listening to the wound of original sin, accepting what original sin and its wounds tell us to do, following the inclinations towards evil, choosing that which is comforting and pleasing to our senses, choosing to go along with what is pleasurable, nothing else. Or we have the choice to strive for grace, knowing that it means sacrifice. It's necessary that we have to make that choice again and again.
It's not like many other heresies say that just simply you make that one choice. I accept. I'm going to be spiritual. I'm going to choose God. And therefore, everything is perfect. But even when we make that choice, we still are going to have to work every day while in this world, fighting against the enemies that exist with us right here and right now, day in and day out, for the purpose of being able to achieve sanctification. To choose the spiritual again, the supernatural again, to choose God again. That is the goal that we set before ourselves. But it is necessary for us to understand it.
Daily Choices Towards Sanctification
And we have to choose it from the beginning. And then we have to choose it again. And every crossroads and every choice and decision we have throughout our lives, that is the basic decision. What are we going to choose? Are we going to choose for the fact that we're not going to be the light to the world? God or are we going to choose our comfort or what's easy and comfortable for us? What's simpler? And this is what St. Paul refers to when he says, I speak a human thing because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now yield your members to serve justice unto sanctification.
Sanctification. We all start with this wound. We all start behind the eight ball, as it were. We all start at a disadvantage. But now we have a choice. And then we will have another choice. And we will have yet another choice. And every time we will have the ability to choose God or we will have the ability to choose ourselves. Because ultimately, when we boil it all down, those are the two choices. None other. And those choices, that choice, that reduction of the choice, changes the entire perspective of this life. When we choose ourselves, we deny God. And we become more and more creatures of this world. We fetter ourselves. We chain ourselves more thoroughly to this world. So the next time we want to choose God, it's a little bit harder yet again.
We let the world... wound win. But every time we choose God over ourselves, we're a little freer. We're a little purer. We belong more to God. We are more supernatural. We are less of this world. The things in this world are not bad or good in and of themselves. It's what we do with them. Whether we make them serve us for the... the... to help us get closer to God or whether we serve them. That is where the sin is. Or that is where virtue is. So the things of this world can be sanctified, can be baptized. What St. Albert the Great referred to as the process of baptism, for example, of the philosophy of Aristotle.
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every day. Every creature that we have belongs to us for that purpose, that we may be able to use them to discover God more thoroughly. And while we do that, they hold no power over us. While they do that, they actually help free ourselves from this world and bind ourselves more closely to God. But the more that we let them dominate us, the more that we just have to look at our phones and just have to see what the world is saying, just have to do this or have to do that, or I just can't go more than three hours without a snack, for example. Things like that, that is actually a problem. That is something that is chaining us more closely to this world as opposed to freeing us. So the creatures in and of themselves are not bad. It's our use of them or being used by them that makes them good or bad.
Our human , humanity is not bad in and of itself. It's not something to be conquered and destroyed. It's something to be built upon. It's something to construct grace upon. Grace builds on nature. God gave us humanity for the purpose of being the medium by which we could receive his life. So we have to respect it and love it, but we must use it according to what we know we are supposed to do. Not be slaves of it. Not be slaves of our comfort. Not be slaves of human respect, of human desire, of the comforts of this world, of the situation that we find ourselves in, of our reputations, of anything, any temptation or any desire. We are supposed to be beyond those.
Not that we are supposed to have destroyed them, but that we are supposed to have conquered them to the point that they no longer hold dominion over us and that we are able to choose and to select what it is we are going to do. Choose and select to follow God each and every time. Because by doing so, that is how we accomplish our goal. That is how we accomplish our end. That is how we actually become the servants and the children of God. This is how we actually live up to our vocation. He has made us his children. Now we have to live as his children. But it comes down to the daily choices that we make.
Every hour of every day, we make choices. Even more often, we make choices all the time. And sometimes they are the most minute things on earth. But we have a choice to make it for this purpose or the other purpose. To choose God with this thing or to choose this thing so that it enslaves us. Because we desire it even above God. That is not how we would think of it, but that is how we have to start thinking of it. Those are our choices each and every day. We need to start thinking of it. We need to start thinking of it. We need to start thinking about that because this is the path to heaven. This is the path to sanctity.
Our choices every day. To complain or not to complain. To accept what everybody says about us and the maligning efforts against us or not. To forgive or to hold on to rancor. To have a Pop -Tart for breakfast or to actually put in a little effort to have something to eat. To have some eggs. Believe it or not, even something that small makes a difference. The use of our time, etc., etc. I trivialize things a little bit to make it as concrete as possible for all of you. But the fact of the matter is every choice has an impact. And how we choose and why we choose is how we save our soul.
So we take this opportunity and we take this entire life to contemplate if we are going to choose God now and forever so that we may live eternally with Him or if we're going to reject Him preferring the things of this world so that we may live without Him. That is our choice. It's very simple when we think about it. Let's keep it that simple and let's not get distracted by all the other things around it so that we will be able to find our way clearly all the way to God and be eternally happy with Him in heaven.
Living as Children of God
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Summary
The homily begins by addressing the paradox of human nature, emphasizing that we are both material and spiritual beings. It highlights the necessity of allowing the spirit to dominate over the flesh to truly belong to the spiritual realm. The sermon discusses historical heresies such as Manichaeism and Jansenism, which have misunderstood this paradox and attempted to create a false dichotomy between the material and the spiritual. Ultimately, the homily calls us to make daily choices that align with God's will, emphasizing that our decisions shape our journey towards sanctification and eternal happiness with God.