2nd Sunday of Advent (B) – December 10, 2023

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11; Psalm 85:9-14; 2 Peter 3:8-14; Mark 1:1-8

A Battle Waged by the Flesh

January 1 is coming up—a.k.a., my least favorite day of the year! The gym is about to get flooded with a bunch of people who have decided: “This is the year!” And I get it. It’s great. But why is it that we can’t stick with our New Year’s resolutions to go to the gym, follow a diet, get more exercise? “The spirit is willing…but the flesh is weak.” Know who said that? Jesus. 

This happens all of the time: we know something is good for us, but we can’t do it; we know that we shouldn’t eat a steady diet of Yummy Yummy and Ben & Jerry’s…but sometimes we do. “The spirit is willing…but the flesh is weak.” We get it! This is us! This is the human experience.

But what do we do? What happens when we have two desires, which are mutually exclusive, both of which feel “authentic” and “true”? We want to get in shape, but we want to eat Yummy Yummy. We want to love our children and sacrifice for them, but we also want to close our door and not talk to them for a week. We want to be a generous person, but we also want to buy a bunch of stuff we don’t need. We want to experience God in prayer and in Scripture by getting up early and taking the time, but we also want to stay up late and watch the last two seasons of Yellowstone or whatever else is on.

This is our challenge! The challenge of “which desire do we follow”? The dictum in our culture says, “Hey, the heart wants what it wants.” And so, “Follow your heart! You do you! Be true to yourself!” And that’s nice. But which desire do we follow? Just the strongest one? Is the strongest desire we have the truest desire we have? Is that the best plan?

I’m pretty sure I’ve told you this story before, but I once had a woman come into my office, distraught, holding her young child, and she told me, “Father, my husband left me.” And I was like, “What? What happened?” And she said, “He fell in love with this other woman. And he left. And when he told me he was leaving, he was crying and upset. He kept saying he knew he shouldn’t leave but that he couldn’t help himself because he was in love. And he kissed our daughter goodbye, and then he left.” Now, when we hear that story, what do we think? “What a scumbag!” Exactly! But that is the path of “following our heart,” our strongest desire.

The problem is that our modern understanding of the human heart—it only has one category for the heart’s desires: you do you, follow whatever you feel. But the Christian/Catholic understanding of the human heart—there are two categories for desire, what Scripture calls, what Jesus calls the “Spirit” and the “Flesh.” “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” There is a battle being waged within us, a civil war of sorts.

We started talking last week about the three “fronts” of this battle, the three enemies that come after us: the Devil, the Flesh, and the World. Last week we talked about the Devil. Specifically, how the Devil wages war against us not by trying to possess us (like the movies would have you believe)—the Devil’s game is to deceive us, to feed us deceitful ideas that play on disordered desires. In other words, he’s not whispering in your ear, “Hey, Elvis is alive and hiding in Mexico,” no, not that kind of deceit. He plays on our wounded, aching heart. “Hey, I know alcohol was a problem for you in the past. But you’re passed that.” “Hey, I know that your church teaches you shouldn’t have sex before marriage—but everyone’s doing it. It’s not a big deal.” “Hey, gambling is a problem for other people. You? You’ve got this under control.”

The place that the Devil’s lies are most powerful—it’s our Flesh. And by Flesh, Jesus and Scripture and our tradition mean those base, primal, animalistic drives for self-gratification (like food, pleasure, wealth, power, and honor). Inside of us is a war: the desires of the “Flesh,” versus the desires of (what’s called) the “Spirit”; those animalistic urges for self-gratification, versus the deep, true desires for truth, beauty, goodness, love, justice, relationship, joy, happiness—PEACE.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

As we started talking last week though—these deepest, truest desires that we have… There is this ancient saying that goes, “Si vis pacem, para bellum.” If you want peace (if you want these, these deepest, truest desires of your heart)—prepare for war, para bellum. If we want that peace, it doesn’t come by magic. There is a war waged on our soul, on our heart, on us. And when it comes to the war waged by the “Flesh”—it boils down to the lie that our strongest desires must be our truest desires. And it’s not true. Yeah, desires for food, sex, pleasure, wealth, honor, sleep, Netflix—these are strong. But are they the most true?

I’ve told you before about that time I flew to Chicago—trying to talk to nobody! But this young, well-dressed man—probably about thirty-five years old—sits down next to me. (And I was just wearing normal clothes, so he didn’t know I was a priest.) He sits down and immediately starts talking. He was a news broadcaster, and he had just received a big promotion, new house, new car, huge raise, showed me his beautiful girlfriend. After he had shared his news, he asked me, “So, what do you do?” And I said, “I’m a Catholic priest.” And he said, “Huh…that seems like it would be tough. Are you happy?” And I said, “Yeah.” And a little confused he said, “Huh. Why?” And so quickly I turned it around on him. I asked, “Well, are you happy?” And he said, “Well, yeah!” And I asked, “Why?” And he said, “I have a beautiful girlfriend, I have a nice house, a nice car. I just got a great new job up in Chicago, and a huge raise.” And so I asked again, “So you’re happy, fulfilled?” And then, he just got really quiet, and tears started to well-up in his eyes. And for the next two hours he tells me about how he has everything he ever wanted…but he isn’t happy, he’s miserable, he isn’t at peace. And he doesn’t know why.

We have some incredibly strong desires in life—incredibly strong. But that does not mean they are the most true. Think about that Don Juan ditching his wife and child, this new broadcaster. Strongest doesn’t mean truest. “Strongest” doesn’t mean the “best-est” option—or even a “good” option! Like, does anyone want to stand up right now and admit they look at pornography? That you drink too much? That you scroll Facebook for more than info about your grandma? That you lost a bunch of money gambling? Anyone? Why not? Statistically plenty of us are struggling with it! Why not admit it? Because we know: strongest desire doesn’t mean truest, much less good. We even have a name for these when they get out of control: it’s called addiction.

What scripture is desperate to point out to us is that our deepest, truest desires…they are often sabotaged by the strong, surface-level, base desires of our “Flesh.” That is the war, the battle. And when these desires are out of control, they lead to ruin. I think of the #metoo movement—that’s what happens when the desires of lust, and power, and pleasure, and greed run wild. But it’s even right here! It’s those things that just release a ton of dopamine into our system: smoking, gambling, drinking, pornography—and yes, every single social media app out there. 

Christ desires more for us. Christ desires freedom for us. And not the modern idea of freedom as “do whatever I want” and “satisfy every strong desire I have.” No. True freedom. The freedom to not only desire the good, but to be able to do the good. It’s the example I’ve used of playing cello: if I handed you a cello, none of you could play one. Why? Because you’re not free to play it! You don’t have the freedom to play it. This is the point: if we’re honest with ourselves, many of us are not free. We are held bound by those base, primal desires—what we call the “Flesh.”

And you may be thinking, “Father, this is kinda over the top. I’m not a slave to my desires.” Really? Ok. Never over eat ever again. Never look at porn ever again. Never scroll endlessly and mindlessly on Facebook ever again. Never numb your problems with alcohol …ok. Or even just notice: does hearing about this topic make you uncomfortable? Why?

John the Baptist: Our Advent Hero

At the center of Advent is the figure of John the Baptist. Famously, we find him in the wilderness, the desert, “clothed in camel’s hair…feeding on locusts and honey.” Why? Well, he’s calling people to repentance, preparing people for the coming of the Messiah. But what is he doing? How is he doing this? Asceticism. That’s the key. John shows us the ancient, age-old tradition for combating the Flesh. Asceticism. Disciplining the Flesh. As we prepare for Jesus’ coming, we don’t prepare by satisfying every desire of the flesh (eating ever Christmas cookie we can find). We fight that battle with asceticism.

The solution is not willpower, and a Bible study, and to look at a list of sins, and try really, really hard to avoid those sins (because how’s that working for ya?) No, the solution is to habituate our heart into obedience to Christ through practices, spiritual disciplines that allow us to yield, to surrender all of our heart to God. The battle is not fought just by learning more (although learning is helpful). The solution: it’s called asceticism. Like Lent: we fast, say “no” to things.

One very concrete opportunity for the guys—guys, you can wake up now—one very concrete opportunity for this is going to begin on January 1^st. It’s a proposal of prayer, asceticism, and fraternity. It’s called Exodus 90. Exodus 90 is our own mini Exodus. Just like Moses led the people from slavery to Pharaoh in Egypt to freedom in the promise land by passing through the desert—Exodus 90 is a ninety-day journey to freedom from the modern day “Pharaohs” we face. “Pharaohs” like the overconsumption of social media, numbing your problems with alcohol, pornography, binge-watching TV—everything that robs us of freedom and peace.

And its intense! There is rigorous prayer. But importantly, real asceticism: no using your phone or computer except for work and necessary communication, no social media, no video games, no televised sports, no alcohol, no sweets, no snacks between meals, fasting on Fridays and Wednesday too. Like Moses and the people passing through the desert, like John the Baptist—asceticism, that’s the way we fight this battle, this is the path to freedom.

Now, be honest. How many of you heard that and thought, “Yeah. No thanks”? Probably 99% of you! Exactly. But that’s my point. We can’t even mentally conceive of doing something like that…much less actually say we would be willing to try…much less do it!And that’s the heart of it: we want to love and serve God—but we are not free. We want to be amazing husbands and fathers, love our wives, our kids—but we are not free. I wanted to play the cello, but I couldn’t just pick it up and go! It took years, hours a day, a teacher giving me lessons and rules all the time—and now I’m free. Same for our spiritual lives, for our real lives, for our marriages, for the Christian life: the Spirit is willing—but the problem is that we are not free to love, to serve, to do any of that—not like we think we are; the flesh is weak. So 100% serious: all guys. We’re going to begin on January 1^st. More info to come throughout this week and next weekend.

For all of us, thought, it’s the same. The tactics of this war are ancient. Our modern world is going to tell us that we’re crazy, that we’re past that, we’ve “progressed.” But that would be like an athlete saying, “Well, training is just old fashioned.” Ha! The good news is that there is freedom from the slavery to the Flesh we experience. There is! But it comes through fighting this battle with the weapons of this battle. Peace doesn’t come from satisfying and satiating all of the strong desires of the flesh we experience. Peace comes from getting everything else out of the way so that we can receive what the deepest desires of our heart are longing for: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, self-control—PEACE. So think, pray: “What is the battle of the flesh I am facing, how is it holding me bound, how it is robbing me of my deeper, truer desires? And what is the path forward?”

Jesus comes to free us, to give us joy, peace—will we fight the battle to receive all he desires for us?