Third Sunday after Easter AD 2024

St. Peter says in today's Epistle that we are “strangers and pilgrims”, admonishing us to “abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul”. It is important to know that the Christian faith does not oppose man’s body and soul, and does not think that man is only a soul imprisoned in a body, as some Eastern religions believe. Man is a whole of body and soul, and an integral part of our creed is the belief in the resurrection of the body. Eternal life is not only for the soul but also for the body.

When God sent His only-begotten Son to redeem mankind, it was not so that the divine soul took up its abode in a human body, but St. John at the beginning of his gospel clearly says that “God became flesh”, that is, Jesus is the very God and very man both in body and soul. When Jesus died and was buried, He died and was buried a true man and a true God, and His soul, which went to the realm of death to proclaim freedom to the souls of the righteous, was the soul of a true God and a true man.

So how should we understand St. Peter’s apparent opposition between the body (or flesh) and the soul? “Soul” here denotes the whole human person  as God has created and redeemed him in Christ, and “flesh” denotes man’s fallen, sinful, godless nature, which wants, at the instigation of the devil, to throw the whole man – both his body and soul – into hell.

This is a serious and acute threat – especially since we are ’’strangers and pilgrims’’ and our time in this world is limited. This is the time we are given to prepare to meet God – at the moment in which our eternal destiny will be decided. Now is the time to make a choice: God wants us to choose life instead of death, blessing or curse. Today’s Epistle shows us that this is not really difficult at all: we just have to live an honest life, loving our neighbours and  honouring God, our Creator.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, has redeemed us and wants our hearts to rejoice, so that no man could take our joy from us.