The Spiritual Man
- Faith versus Self-Esteem -
8/11/2008
Foreword
In an epoch in which materialism
is predominant, to talk about spiritual things is of little consequence.
Modern man lives surrounded by a myriad of doubtful and expensive gadgets
which do more harm than good: microwave ovens, television sets, mobile
phones, air-conditioners, and headsets, among many other things.
Although our five senses
of touch, taste, smell,
hearing and sight are constantly active, the aptitude to hear and to see,
in the last few decades, has taken a more prominent and
sophisticated
role, this thanks to the audiovisual media technology, such as radio,
cinema, television, computers, etc.
Corporal and intellectual functions
While
the human five senses differ in their function and importance, those of
touch, taste and smell pertain more to the body, whereas hearing and sight
pertain more to the intellect.
In
other words, we are functioning, primarily, by touch, taste, and smell;
secondarily, by hearing and vision. These
first three abilities, or functions, if you prefer, are bodily, or
corporal, attributes, whereas hearing and sight are functions affined
more to the intellect.
As a matter of fact, a child’s
development of the five senses from his conception comes in two stages:
first to touch, to taste and to smell; then to hearing and sight only
later.
Introduction
"People only see what they are prepared to see."
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
It seems, nowadays, that the
ability to hear and to see prevail over to touch, to taste and to smell.
For example, there are people who go without food [anorexics], but not
without television. Spectacles and hearing-aids are other examples which
illustrate what I am saying by ‘predominate functions’ today. In my
knowledge, there are no touching-aids, tasting-aids or smelling-aids on
the market, or am I wrong?
Therefore, one can see [no
pun intended] how it is even more important to be able to hear and to see,
than to touch, taste and smell.
The Gospels
Now looking at the Gospels, what
kinds of healings did Jesus administer during his three years
public ministry? Were those cures and healings related, predominately, to
the human senses of touch, taste and smell, or rather to hearing and
sight? Let us now search the Gospels to find out.
The healings of the
deaf and dumb [deaf-mute], and blind.
1 Mark
7:32:
And
they bring to him one deaf and dumb;
and they besought him that he would lay his hand upon him.
From those above search, we have
17 results on deaf and dumb.
“Blind”
1 Matthew 9:27:
As Jesus passed from thence, there followed him
two blind men crying out and saying,
Have mercy on us, O Son of David.
28 John 9:1:
Jesus passing by, saw a
man, who was blind
from his birth.
On the above search we find 46
occurrences of “blind.”
Let us now compare the words
to hear, and to see, with the other words,
to touch, to taste and to smell, and
see how many occurrences we have in the New Testament.
“To hear”
1 Matthew 11:15:
He that hath ears to
hear, let him hear.
There are 76 results on
“to hear.”
“To see”
Matthew 11:7:
And when they went their
way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: What went you
out into the desert to see?
a reed shaken with the wind?
Altogether, there are 131
results on “to see.”
“To touch”
1 Mark 3:10:
For he healed many, so that they pressed upon
him for to touch him,
as many as had evils.
8 Matthew 9:21:
For she said within
herself: If I shall touch
only his garment, I shall be healed.
There are only 16 results for
“to touch”.
“To taste”
Matthew 16:28:
Amen I say to you, there
are some of them that stand here, that shall not taste
death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
There are 8 results on
“taste.”
“To smell”
For the words, “to smell,”
or even just “smell,” we do not find a single occurrence in the New
Testament. Thus we see that the words, to hear and to
see appear, over and over again, in New Testament.
Part 1
Noting that touching,
tasting and smelling are the three primal human
senses, and that hearing and seeing are a later development
in any individual, we notice that this pattern has developed even further
today. Society is totally immersed in sound of many types, to the point
that currently there is no such thing as noise-free-zone, any more than
there is unpolluted air in any part of the planet.
For the modern individual,
whether by choice or by constraint, the use of his/her intellectual
functions [to hear and to see] has become almost a full time occupation.
And based on this observable fact, an entire entertainment and
advertising industry has been created to sustain and promote this pattern
even further.
For example, sport – or
what we call sport today - is not popular so much because people want to
exercise their own ‘muscles,’ but rather because those who sponsor it have
much to profit from it through advertising their products, or more so, to
make sure that people are well entertained. In other words, distraction
is the main goal; keep people away from real and hard facts of life, lest
they discover what the government is doing behind their backs and
governments have a revolution on their hands. Remember “The bread
and circuses” in the Roman Empire’s times?
The same principle applies also
to the media, movies and ‘modern music.’ In the last
three decades, the ears and the eyes of people have been exercised by this
fracas as never before. For the modern man, there is no
escape from this nefarious entertainment industry; unless of course one
would segregate himself completely, by going into the desert or the
forest. But is there any volunteer? I doubt it.
Is that what Jesus meant when He
said: “He that
hath ears to hear, let him hear”?
Spiritual man & faith
versus self-esteem
The spiritual man is not affected
by the “noises of the world,” because his eyes focus on spiritual
reality that the sensual man cannot see.
If we read the New Testament we
may be surprised - and learn - about faith and the proper spiritual aspect
of mankind.
There were two sisters, Martha
and Mary; but only Mary had ears and eyes for Jesus alone, since
Martha was too busy doing many other things.
Seeing her sister at the feet of Jesus, and listening to His every word,
Martha was not too happy and remonstrated with Him.
We know well the rest of story
though, for Jesus, seeing she was doing all the work while Mary was in
contemplation ... and probably enchanted by His personality, didn’t show
much “compassion” or consideration in her regard.
Coming down to society as a
whole, one sees how much we differ from Jesus. Martha’s views were not
Jesus’ views. By the same token, society’s views are totally different
from God’s views:
He said to them, `You are the very ones who
pass yourselves off as upright in people's sight, but God knows your
hearts. For what is highly esteemed in human eyes is loathsome in the
sight of God.
We read a second episode in the
Gospels, where many people were touching Jesus, but only a woman
was cured
by Him, since everybody else were too busy, or distracted by their
own thoughts; or chatting between themselves. Most of them, I think, did
not even know why they were there.
Once the woman was discovered by Jesus, she no longer cared but confessed
publicly why she was there and what had happened to her. And we notice in
this passage that there is no “self-esteem” in her - if there was any
before.
Another woman, a pagan
from the land of Canaan, because of her persistence and pestering Jesus
[and His disciples], had her daughter cured by Jesus.
It looks as if Jesus did not care about this woman and her personal
problems. But because of her perseverance and faith [i.e., seeing
things with different eyes] she obtained what she asked for, namely, the
cure of her daughter who was possessed by the devil.
What about the woman, a
prostitute, who anointed Jesus with an alabaster box of ointment.
She did not care what people thought about her, since her ears and eyes
were all for the Lord. No matter what the cost of this very treasured
liniment, she loved Jesus more than anything else, even more than her
self.
Zacheus
Another
one who did not care about his ‘self-esteem’ was Zacheus. The evangelist
Luke
tells us the story:
And behold, there was a man
named Zacheus, who was the chief of the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus
who he was, and he could not for the crowd, because he was low of stature.
And running before, he climbed up into a sycamore tree, that he
might see him; for he was to pass that way.
And when Jesus was come to the place, looking up, he saw him, and said to
him: Zacheus, make haste and come down; for this day I must abide in thy
house.
Not only was Zacheus happy to see
Jesus now, but also glad to dispossess himself of his many belongings, in
order to put things right before God. He even made a public confession of
his thieving; because, for now on, he started to see everything in a new
light, i.e., with faith in Jesus Christ.
Bartimeus
The blind man Bartimeus is another typical example of
a person who didn’t care what people thought of him. Here is what the
evangelist Mark says:
And
they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho, with his disciples,
and a very great multitude, Bartimeus
the blind man,
the son of Timeus, sat by the wayside begging. Who when he had heard,
that it was Jesus of
Nazareth, began to cry out,
and to say: Jesus son of David, have mercy on me. And many rebuked him,
that he might hold his peace; but he cried a great deal the more: Son of
David, have mercy on me. And Jesus, standing still, commanded him to be
called. And they call the blind man,
saying to him: Be of better comfort: arise, he calleth thee. Who
casting off his garment leaped up, and came to
him.
And
Jesus answering, said to him: What wilt thou that I should do to thee? And
the
blind man said to him: Rabboni, that I
may see. And Jesus saith to him: Go thy way,
thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw,
and followed him in the way.
Another interesting part of this
story is that in “casting off his garment” Bartimeus cast off his
“self-esteem” too. We have to know that when we read in the Bible that
Jesus [or any other biblical personage] ‘puts on and takes off his
garments’,
symbolically it means ministering his own life to us - “giving and taking”
it - as He chooses. Biblically speaking, “garments” are the symbol for
life, individual life, Jesus’ life.
Bartimeus, rushing to meet Jesus cast off his garment as if to signify he
left behind his old self, in order to ‘see a new life’ who was Jesus
Christ his Lord.
The man born blind
By seeing for the first time, the
man born blind had the courage [contrary to his parents who feared the
Pharisees] to challenge the Pharisee establishment.
They said then to him: What did he to thee?
How did he open thy eyes?
He answered them: I have told you already,
and you have heard: why would you hear it again? Will you also become his
disciples?
Then after that:
They reviled him therefore, and said: Be thou
his disciple; but we are the disciples of Moses. We know that God spoke
to Moses: but as to this man, we know not from whence he is.
The man answered, and said to them: Why, herein
is a wonderful thing, that you know not from whence he is, and he hath
opened my eyes. Now we know that God
doth not hear sinners: but if a man be a server of God, and doth his will,
him he heareth. From the beginning of the world it hath not been heard,
that any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind. Unless this man were
of God, he could not do any thing.
They answered,
and said to him: Thou wast wholly born in sins, and dost thou teach us?
And they cast him out.
Jesus heard
that they had cast him out: and when he had found him, he said to him:
Dost thou believe in the Son of God?
He answered,
and said: Who is he, Lord that I may believe in him?
And Jesus said
to him: Thou hast both seen him; and it is he that talketh with thee.
And he said: I
believe, Lord. And falling down, he adored him.
And Jesus
said: For judgment I am come
into this world; that they who see not, may see; and they who see, may
become blind.
And some of
the Pharisees, who were with him, heard: and they said unto him: Are we
also blind?
Jesus said to
them: If you were blind, you should not have sin: but now you say: We see.
Your sin remaineth.
Thus, according to what Jesus has stated, he who has
eyes now is blind and who is blind sees, for he continues:
The blind see, the lame walk,
the lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, to the poor
the gospel is preached:
And blessed is he whosoever shall not be scandalized in me.
Part 2
Who
had his dwelling in the tombs
The spiritual man is a man who has been freed by Jesus
from the chains of the devil,
from a life of misery to the new one: he was naked but clothed now. This
man’s nakedness symbolize that he never possessed anything in his life,
but misery. Now he is sitting at Jesus’ feet, clothed [that is covered by
the grace of God] and in his right mind.
Isn’t it amazing to see in the Gospels how Jesus
overturned human standards? According to the Gospels, people who are rich
in this life are poor in God’s eyes; and the poor and miserable become
rich, once delivered from their chains that the devil kept them in.
The man wanted to follow Jesus, but Jesus had other
plans for him – to become a living sign of God’s mercy among his own
country men.
Dimas
the thief
The spiritual man is a man who is cognizant of right
and wrong, even if it has to be in his last moment of his life. While his
companion, Gestas, shared the same dreadful fate, Dimas’ eyes were all for
the Jesus crucified. For
“the other (Dimas)
answering, rebuked him (Gestas),
saying: Neither dost thou fear God, seeing thou art condemned under the
same condemnation?
And we indeed
justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done
no evil. And he said to Jesus: Lord, remember me when thou shalt come
into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said
to him:
Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise.
Nothing that anyone has done in
his life is considered by Jesus as unforgivable. Once one sets his eyes
on Jesus and asks Him for eternal life, undoubtedly, he will get it.
Stephen
What about Stephen who, not long
after he was chosen as one of the seven deacons, was stoned to death? He
was a man who did not mince his words, or care much about his
self-esteem. He loved his Lord Jesus too much to care about anything but
the truth. He had eyes only for Jesus, his Lord:
... but
he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw
the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he
said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the
right hand of God.
And they
crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and with one accord ran
violently upon him. And casting him forth without the city, they stoned
him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young
man, whose name was Saul.
And they
stoned Stephen, invoking, and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And
falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord, lay not
this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the
Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death.
Saul/Paul
Here
we have the very man who approved the death of Stephen changed completely
in his outlook in life; that is from a murderer he was to become a man of
faith. In other words, he became a man with a new vision. This man is
Saul
of Tarsus. His name later became Paul, as we read in the Acts of Apostles.
Paul, the great apostle to the Gentiles, was stricken by an intense light
from heaven, and became blind by it, only to recover his sight three days
later [i.e., he was a newborn spiritually]. Saul’s blindness was
changed into Paul’s new vision
– a new man who found a new faith in Jesus Christ. But what was his new
mission now that his eyes were opened again? Here is what Paul reporting
what Jesus said to him:
... But rise up, and stand upon thy feet: for
to this end have I appeared to thee, that I may make thee a minister, and
a witness of those things which thou hast seen, and of those things
wherein I will appear to thee, Delivering thee from the people, and from
the nations, unto which now I send thee: To open their eyes, that they may
be converted from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and a lot among the saints, by
the faith that is in me.
“To open their eyes that they may be converted
from darkness to light.” That is the pivot of the whole story. The
spiritual man is a man with a new vision who, once he sets his eyes on
Jesus, leaves behind his old
self [with all its worldly things and the myriad charms and deceptions]
and follows the vital realities that are always in front of him.
Thus to have ears and to perceive
the never-ending voice of Christ, belongs to the spiritual realm that only
the spiritual man is apt for; because Truth is his first, and
ultimately his only, quest in life.
Summary
“And he said to them:
How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be about my
father's business? And they understood not the word that he spoke unto
them.”
In summary the spiritual man is
one who says to the world: “I do what I do, because my business is God’s
business; in the same manner Jesus said to his parents:
How is it that you sought me?
Did you not know that I must be about my father's business?
Those same words are akin to what
Jesus said regarding the first two commandments:
Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul,
and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.
And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.
Thus, while love is the
object of the spiritual man’s actions in his long journey here on earth,
when the road ends, faith shows him the way.
Maranathà
[20]
Cf. Mark 2:22; Matt 22:11; John 13: 4.12; 2 Cor. 5:4;
Galatians 3:27;
Ephesians 4:24; Roman 13:14; Col 3:10; Rev 19:13.
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