Readings for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time: 
Zechariah 9:9-10 | Romans 8:9, 11-13 | Matthew 11:25-30

On Romans 8: 9-13

In light of the two-hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and continuing our reflections on St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, it is an opportune moment to explore St. Paul’s understanding of freedom.

Essential to understanding St. Paul’s notion of freedom is his understanding of flesh and spirit: “You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you” (Romans 8:9). We are not free when we live in the flesh. We are free only in the spirit. What do these terms – flesh and spirit – mean?

“Flesh” does not refer to the body but to egocentricity and attachments; “flesh” is life apart from God. Whereas “spirit” does not mean the Holy Spirit as much as the realm of life in God. Flesh is corruptible and mortal while spirit is incorruptible and immortal. Flesh as egocentricity implies life without God: “the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God” (Romans 8:7).

“Spirit” means living for God alone with God alone in mind, which is made possible by THE Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And when we are in the realm of spirit when we abide in the Spirit of God and discover the Spirit of God within us.

St. Paul poetically describes the the experience of living in the flesh in a famous passage: “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. Now if [I] do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand. For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, l but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body?” (Romans 7:15-24). This is the condition of those who are in the realm of grace yet still sin. They are trapped! Then, rapturously, St. Paul confesses, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25). We are freed from attachments/compulsion to sin by God when we surrender. Here lies real freedom.

In the flesh, we are not free. Brendan Byrne writes, “Almost every reader or hearer of the passage can identify with the struggle so vividly described here: the tension arising out of knowing what one ought to do, while sensing the lack of capacity to carry it into effect.” Without God, we are imprisoned in ourselves. We are stuck in autonomy: dominated by and enslaved to sin.

We can tell whether we are free, whether we are living in the flesh or in the spirit. If we do the deeds of the flesh, we are not free. If we are greedy, vain, racist, proud, sexist, thieving, fascist, we are not living in the narcissism of the flesh. “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

St. Paul’s critical point in Romans is his doctrine of justification. God justifies us by Christ, which means that God transfers us from the realm of flesh – sin and death – to the realm of Christ and grace (spirit). Then, we are free. We are free to enjoy the Spirit of God dwelling within us. To share in grace and live in the realm of spirit, though, we must consciously be present toi God in faith. “Spirit,” then, means living, breathing, and burning with the love of God. This is true freedom: freedom for love, freedom to be loved by God.

St. Paul understands freedom as the freedom of love: being loved and loving out of the divine love. His is the freedom of knowing we are held safe and cherished by God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Freedom has a triune quality so that we can enjoy the Trinity without the barrier of the flesh. So, freedom from the flesh comes first, that is, freedom from our compulsions and egos. Then freedom means the freedom to enjoy and live in the love of God. Freedom does not mean getting tio do whatever we want: autonomy, which means self is the law of life. Instead, freedom

means letting go of the self to live in God or theonomy. But a further explosion of freedom awaits those justified by God in Christ through the Spirit.