Spiritus Contra Spiritum

 Spiritus Contra Spiritum

“Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.  But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away.  When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.” Matthew 13:24‭-‬26 NLT

In the gospel of Matthew, the parable of the Sower is followed by the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. The parable of the Sower is to teach us the need to change our hearts from being the path, the stony ground and thorny ground to a fertile ground. Changing my heart to a fertile ground is not something I can achieve - it is the heart transplant that God does when I turn to Him in repentance and receive the gospel. But I was led to read what I had journaled in 1986 from a Upper Room devotional which drew my attention to God’s mysterious ways:

“God often works outside the plans and preparations we make. God does not depend upon the seeds we plant. And God does not send beauty only in those places where it is expected.”

The parable of the Wheat and the Weeds brought to mind a truth that Carl Jung had espoused: “Spiritus contra spiritum.” In Latin, spiritus means both alcoholic beverages, i.e. spirits, and the highest religious experience. With this simple phrase, Carl Jung helped Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholic Anonymous to understand how the A.A. program which involves spiritual development and a spiritual awakening works as a treatment for addiction.

The Twelve Steps program of the Alcoholic Anonymous has been aptly described as “The Spirituality of Imperfection.” In the A.A. meetings, stories of the miracle of the surrender to a higher power are shared by the alcoholics in recovery. And as those who are seeking healing from their addiction listened to these stories, they are encouraged to turn to a power higher themselves as they hit rock bottom in their lives.

Spiritual awakening and spiritual development is God’s cure for our sinful hearts just as it is for alcoholic addiction. The good news is that God’s  power is greatest when we are weak. We are not to boast about our wisdom, power or riches but about our relationship with God:

“This is what the Lord says: “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom, or the powerful boast in their power, or the rich boast in their riches. But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the Lord who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the Lord , have spoken!” Jeremiah 9:23‭-‬24 NLT

To be a faithful follower of Christ is not to be perfect but to be aware of our infinite need for God’s grace for we will always be imperfectly perfect in our mortal flesh -  in our strengths and successes lies our weaknesses and our failures. In 2020, the Catholic world was rocked by the sex scandal of Jean Vanier and in 2021 the faith of Protestants was shattered by the revelation of the  sexual misconduct of Ravi Zacharias. Their failings are but a grim revelation that there is a dark side in the souls of each and every human being. Through the children’s stories I can see the Peter Pan as well as a Captain Hook, the Luke Skywalker as well as a Darth Vader in me. Likewise, the stories in the bible reveals the Cain and an Abel,  the Judas and a Peter that are deep within my soul.

Even Abraham, a hero of  faith in the Jewish, Muslim and Christian traditions, had his fair share of our human failures and weakness. He obeyed God’s call to go to the Promised Land but found himself facing famine instead. So he decided to go to Egypt and lied to Pharaoh that his wife Sarah was his sister to save his own skin. God had promised to make him a father of many nations and he tried to fulfill God’s promise to him through Hagar when he found that Sarah was infertile. Abraham’s story teaches us that faith is not about proving our faithfulness but to live out the faithfulness of God in the storms of life.

To follow Christ is not trying to be perfect through the  imitation of Christ but through the identification with Christ by dying on the cross with him so that we can experience the truth - “it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me (Galatians 2:20).

To follow Christ is to become a wounded healer and not a self righteous do-gooder. The church is a hospital for sinners and not a museum of saints. The church is the fertile soil for the seed of God’s love to grow. The reality is that there will be the weeds of false teachings and false prophets that distort the gospel of victory over suffering and death into the prosperity gospel of health and wealth. In the parable of the wheat and weeds, the farmer advised his workers not to pull out the weeds:

“‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do.  Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’” Matthew 13:29‭-‬30 NLT

And so at the end of each day, I can let the Holy Spirit sort out the weeds and the wheat by spending time in contemplative prayer - to open my heart and mind to the Holy Spirit. In this season of Lent, I am challenged, not to imitate Christ, but to identify with Christ so that I can accept God’s gracious invitation to come before His throne of grace:

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:16 NLT

Lent is a time to come to our senses like the prodigal son and to embark on the spiritual adventure to journey home to our Heavenly Father where a heavenly banquet is awaiting us.

SDG