Reflection on January 7, 1981

https://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/jp2tb51.htm

My last reflection talked about whether there were “fruits” of evil, my conclusion that the “fruit” is basically concupiscence. Here we see that the fruit of evil has the cost of death, and not just a physical death, but a spiritual death or separation from God. I think that fits with my understanding that concupiscence is the “fruit” of evil. I was thinking about those different types of death, physical and spiritual, and about those that might disagree about a spiritual death. If you think they are only talking about physical death being the result of a life lived according to the flesh, then all men live that life because all men die. There must be another interpretation of what “death” means or what Paul is saying doesn’t make any sense. You might say the same about any talk about believers will never die. But we will and we do. Physical death is not the only kind of death there is.

All of this talk about works or fruit made me think of the “Faith Alone” theological claim. Whenever I hear that, it seems they rely almost entirely on St. Paul and his writings. But as we have seen, St. Paul seems to make a distinction between works and fruit and I wonder if that is why language that definitively defends a belief in faith and works is lacking. When Paul talks of works it is in a sense of looking back at Jewish traditions and the things that were done and how they are limited in the sense of salvation. Circumcision is a work done by the Jews but it has no affect on the soul. I discussed earlier about the physical change sex before marriage or the victim of rape would have, but the affect on their soul is not determined by physical change.

It is also hard for me to understand the theology of “faith alone” when having faith seems to me a work. May be not in the most natural understanding, but having faith takes an active response. Or maybe faith is the fruit that leads to the good works. Or may be faith is the overall Spiritual thing that leads to the fruits that St. Paul list. (Love, Joy, etc) Faithfulness is one of the fruits listed, so I don’t see a theology that seems to place it above all others. Faith, Hope and Love and the greatest of these is Love. Explain how faith in faith alone proves greater and not biblically contradictory.

Words I looked up.

Metonymical - Compare synecdoche the substitution of a word referring to an attribute for the thing that is meant, as for example the use of the crown to refer to a monarch. “However, Paul describes them all as works of the flesh. That is intended exclusively against the background of that wider meaning (in a way a metonymical one), which the term flesh assumes in the Pauline letters.”