July 2: The Heart of St. Paul (4)
Today, many people are worried about identity theft. Someone can steal a Social Security or Credit Card number, set up a whole new life and leave the real person holding the bag. There is something evevn more important though, than our material identity, and that is our spiritual identity. Sin robs us of our spiritual identity becuase it robs us of Christ.
In order to deal with the temptations and seductions of the devil, we need the proper defenses. St. Paul speaks of these defenses in Ephesians 6. He reminds us that our battle is primarily a spiritual one, so we need the armor of God whih consists of the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
The girdle of truth helps us to recognize our need for God; the breastplate of righteousness is our right behavior, done with a humble and generous spirit; the shoes of the Gospel of peace help us go and be reconciled with those who have hurt us; the shield of faith protects us from the doubts and uncertainties with which the devil tries to tempt us; the helmet of salvation, which is the grace of recognizing the goodness of what God has done for us and, lastly, the sword of the Spirit, which exposes the lies of the world and the emptiness of the world’s message that seeks to banish God from human hearts and shows us the truth of God.
In the Sacrament of Baptism, we are given the identity of Christ. We share his life in a deeply personal way. It is an identity which we need to guard at all costs. Nothing ought to ever cause us to surrender that identity or have is stolen form us through sin. Paul teaches us that when we face daily battles over good or evil, we will prevail if we are interiorly and exteriorly clothed with these gifts, because it is Christ who is prevailing within us. This is from the heart of St. Paul.
