Enter Into Joy

A Reflection on the Second Reading for July 9th, 2023:
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Romans 8
9, 11-13

Brothers and sisters: You are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

If the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to 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.

Do you remember the last time someone made a comment about your body? For me it was last week, as I was walking down the road and some people in a truck started catcalling me. I was annoyed, but not surprised or particularly upset; it’s too common of an occurrence for all of us, as women, for it to elicit any surprise. I could say a lot about cultural messages of beauty and our bodies, but I’ve no doubt you don’t need me to: you’ve all experienced this in your own ways, and we carry that legacy around in our bodies.

Listening to these messages, we begin to think that our bodies are meant to be used, shaped, forced into some kind of perfection or utility. Our entire culture reinforces a strange message that bodies are to be celebrated and enjoyed, but are also fundamentally bad unless we can get them to look and work in a particular way. This is doubly true of women’s bodies – we receive sexualized messages about our bodies from a young age, receiving a confusing mix of attraction and disgust at the ways our bodies develop. 

With that perspective, it is too easy to read this passage of Scripture and take away the message that our bodies are bad, that we should “put to death” the deeds and needs of our body in favour of some sort of spiritualized life that is led solely by the Spirit. This almost feels like a relief. Rather than struggling with how to understand this body that is both celebrated and reviled, I can just deny that my body has any good use or relevance whatsoever; it’s just the vehicle for my soul that I must put up with while on earth. Saint Francis and Saint Clare both struggled with this same question, back in the 13th century. They pushed their bodies too hard with penitential practices and admitted by the end of their lives that they had been wrong to do so. Francis, at the end of his life, describes his body as “Brother Donkey”, a patient and obedient servant that he is responsible for commanding and controlling, but also for nurturing and loving. 

Do we need to direct our bodies towards God’s designs and intentions? Yes, undoubtedly. But I think that we have heard many, many messages about controlling our bodies and commanding them to do as we say. We have not spent enough time, collectively, working on nurturing, protecting, and loving our bodies. Saint Paul also says here that God will “give life to your mortal bodies”. Maybe it’s time to focus on that side of the equation for a while and ask ourselves what it looks like to live with freedom and grace in the beautiful vessels that God has created for us to walk through life in.




Sr. Gemma

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