Not angels, but angelic

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

WE, of course, are not angels who are pure spirits and who have already made their definitive choice to be with God completely for all eternity. We are, of course, with a body that has a soul that is not only a vegetative or animal soul, but rather a spiritual one that has to be properly animated by the spirit of God in whose image and likeness we have been created.

That is why we have to see to it that the bodily and material dimension of our being should be properly enlivened by the spirit of God. As a unity of body and soul, with the soul that is the principle of life, we need to have our soul vivified by the spirit of God. Our soul should go beyond the vegetative and animal levels of the spirit. That is what is meant to be angelic.

In other words, we should aspire to be spiritual rather than remaining in the carnal level of our life. That is the ideal that we should aim at. It’s not a matter of suppressing our sensual, material and earthly condition, but rather of going beyond that level. That’s where the road to the fullness of our humanity can be found. That’s where we are freed from the constricting world of our senses, emotions and passions.

St. Paul said something to this effect. “Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph 4,22-24)

In another instance, St. Paul talked about talking or preaching in a spiritual way and not just according to human and worldly wisdom. “My message and my preaching,” he said, “were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” (1 Cor 2,4-5)

More clearly, he said: “We speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.” (1 Cor 2,13)

This is a big challenge for us all. We have to learn to think, speak and act in a spiritual way, and not just mainly conditioned by our sensual, material and worldly aspects.

Nowadays, properly spiritualizing the bodily dimension of our life is a big challenge. We are now witnessing a lot of confusion, if not outright error, in this area. There are those who do not know anymore whether they are male or female. And in some official forms, there is now the distinction between “gender at birth” and “current gender,” as if genders can change.

And this confusion can affect those who can be least suspected. Just the other day, someone mentioned to me that he saw someone with “abs” (a muscular man who regularly goes to the gym) holding hands and kissing another one with “abs.”

Same-sex attraction, of course, is a fact of life. It’s part of our wounded condition in life. And this can take place early in life, as when one is still in grade school and high school.

There should be a way of how to handle this delicate issue as early as possible. That is why apart from clarifying the issue in a formal way, there should be a way of tackling this issue in a more personal way in the context of the family, schools, parishes, etc.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com