Episode 56: Year B – 3rd Sunday of Advent
In this episode of the Sunday Catholic Word, we focus on three details, two of which are found in the second reading, taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24. The third detail is in the Gospel reading, which is taken from John 1:6-8, 19-28. The apologetical topics that the two details in the second reading relate to are the good of the charismata (charisms of the Holy Spirit) and the nature of the human person. The main topic that the Gospel reading relates to is Jesus as the Messiah.
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Hey everyone,
Welcome to The Sunday Catholic Word, a podcast where we reflect on the upcoming Sunday Mass readings and pick out the details that are relevant for explaining and defending our Catholic faith.
I’m Karlo Broussard, staff apologist and speaker for Catholic Answers, and the host for this podcast.
In this episode, we’re going to focus three details, two of which are found in the second reading, taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24. The third detail is in the Gospel reading, which is taken from John 1:6-8, 19-28. The apologetical topics that the two details in the second reading relate to are the good of the charismata (charisms of the Holy Spirit) and the nature of the human person. The main topic that the Gospel reading relates to is Jesus as the Messiah.
Let’s get started with the second reading. Here it is in full:
16 Rejoice always. 17 Pray without ceasing. 18 In all circumstances give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophetic utterances. 21 Test everything; retain what is good. 22 Refrain from every kind of evil. 23 May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body, be preserved blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will also accomplish it
As I mentioned, there are two details here that I want to highlight. The first is Paul’s exhortation for the Thessalonians to not “despise prophetic utterances.” This refers to one of the many charismata (charisms of the Holy Spirit) that he speaks of in 1 Corinthians 12 and 14. Here, Paul affirms the good of the one particular gift: prophetic utterances.
The question becomes, however, “Does such a gift continue to this day?” Some Christians, known as cessationist, say no. For these Christians, such charismata ceased at the end of the apostolic age. Other Christians, labeled continuationist, believe that such gifts are continually given by the Spirit to this day. We Catholics fall into this camp. For example, the Catechism of the Catholic Church states,
[The Holy Spirit] works in many ways to build up the whole Body in charity: by God’s Word “which is able to build you up”;249 by Baptism, through which he forms Christ’s Body; by the sacraments, which give growth and healing to Christ’s members; by “the grace of the apostles, which holds first place among his gifts”;251 by the virtues, which make us act according to what is good; finally, by the many special graces (called “charisms”), by which he makes the faithful “fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and building up of the Church.” (798).
That the Catechism has in mind the extraordinary gifts like “prophetic utterances” is evidenced by its reference to the above passage from 1 Thessalonians 5 in paragraph 801.
Now, as to which position is correct—the cessationist or the continuationist—we ultimately must look to Sacred Tradition. But I do think an indirect case can be made from what Paul says about the gifts.
First, Paul never puts any sort of time limit on these gifts. So, if a Christian wants to say that these gifts ceased with the death of the apostles, then they’d be relying ultimately on a non-biblical tradition, which, of course, would conflict with the Sola Scriptura view of most cessationist.
Second, when Paul speaks of these extraordinary gifts in 1 Corinthians 12, it’s within the context of listing ministries and gifts within the body of Christ. Since Paul doesn’t think the reality of the body of Christ ceases with the death of the last apostles, it’s reasonable to conclude that Paul doesn’t think the different ministries within the body of Christ cease at such a time either.
For more details on the cessationist and continuationist views, see Trent Horn’s article, “Convert Your Protestant Friend with Miracles,” at catholic.com.
The second detail in our second reading is Paul’s intercessory prayer in verse 23, “May the God of peace himself make you perfectly holy and may you entirely, spirit, soul, and body.” Some Christians claim this is evidence for what is called the “tripartite” view of the human person in contrast to what is called the “bipartite” view.
The tripartite view holds that human beings are composed of three distinct components: body, spirit, and soul. The body, obviously, refers to the material dimension of us, the body. “Spirit” refers to the deepest and innermost part of the person in virtue of which we contact God. “Soul” refers to our personality with which we think, reason, consider, remember, and wonder.
The bipartitie view, in contrast, holds that the human person is a composite of two essential principles: body and soul. “Body” refers to the body and “soul” refers to the life animating principle, which for a human being is the seat of all his powers. Some powers, like seeing and hearing, are exercised only through a bodily organ; others, like reasoning and choosing, aren’t exercised through a bodily organ.
So, is Paul affirming the tripartite view of the human person?
Well, it’s hard to say from the Bible alone. In other places, he seems to teach a bipartite view. For example, in 1 Corinthians 7:34, he speaks of the unmarried woman or virgin being anxious about how to be holy in “body and spirit.” In 2 Corinthians 7:1, he exhorts the Corinthians to cleanse themselves “from every defilement of body and spirit.”
So, which is it—the tripartite view or the bipartite? It’s hard to tell from the Bible alone.
As Catholics, we must answer no since the Catholic Church teaches the bipartite view. After affirming that man is made of “body and soul,” the Catechism states,
The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the “form” of the body: i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature (365).
Well, if we can’t affirm the tripartite view as a Catholic, then what do we make of Paul’s use of “spirit, soul, and body”? Here’s where we can turn to St. Thomas Aquinas for some help.
He dealt with this very issue in his Commentary on 1 Thessalonians, indicating that some at his time were maintaining “that the spirit in man is one element and the soul another; thus positing two souls in man, that is, one which animates the body and another which carries on the function of reasoning.”
Aquinas goes on to confirm that the Church rejects such a teaching and then offers his interpretation of the text. Here it is in full:
[I]t should be realized that these two elements [which are really one] do not differ essentially, but only by reason of the powers present in them. There are certain powers in our soul which are linked to bodily organs, such as the powers of the sensitive part of the soul. And there are other powers which are not linked to bodily organs, but function apart from the body, insofar as they are the powers of the intellectual part of the soul. The latter powers are regarded as spiritual powers in that they are immaterial and separated in some manner from the body in that they are not functions of the body but are referred to as the mind. “Be renewed in the spirit of your minds” (Eph. 4:23). Yet it is called the soul insofar as it animates the body, for this is proper to it. Paul speaks here in a specific sense.
So, as Aquinas explains here, the use of “soul” and “spirit” is meant to signify the different powers within the one principle—the immaterial principle in virtue of which we are not only a living body but a human living body. “Soul” captures the fact that our immaterial principle animates our body, which is what a soul, properly speaking, does. “Spirit” captures the rational dimensions of our immaterial life animating principle.
Interestingly, Aquinas goes on to elucidate why Paul makes this distinction relative to the context of his prayer that God will make the Thessalonians holy. He writes,
[T]here are three elements involved in sin: reason, the sensitive appetite, and the actual actions of the body. Paul is anxious that all three of these areas be free of sin. Since he wants reason to be free of sin, he says: may your spirit, that is, your mind, be kept sound. For in every sin, reason is corrupted in the sense that every bad person is in some way ignorant. There should be no sin in the sensitive appetite either, and Paul refers to this when he says: and soul. Nor should there be sin in the body, and so Paul adds: and body. This, however, is achieved when the body is preserved immune from sin.
So, Paul doesn’t want there to be any sin interiorly, whether in our sensitive appetites or mind, or exteriorly, in our actions.
Given that we have a plausible explanation of Paul’s “spirit, soul, and body” that jibes with the bipartite view, and given that we don’t any reason to believe that Paul rejects the bipartite view, we ought to read it along the lines of the bipartite view.
For a more detailed treatment of this issue, see Tim Staples’s article, “Is Man Tripartite or Bipartite?” at catholic.com.
We can now turn to the Gospel reading, which again, is taken from John 1:6-8, 19-28. Here’s what we read,
A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
And this is the testimony of John.
When the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests
and Levites to him
to ask him, “Who are you?”
He admitted and did not deny it,
but admitted, “I am not the Christ.”
So they asked him,
“What are you then? Are you Elijah?”
And he said, “I am not.”
“Are you the Prophet?”
He answered, “No.”
So they said to him,
“Who are you, so we can give an answer to those who sent us?
What do you have to say for yourself?”
He said:
“I am the voice of one crying out in the desert,
‘make straight the way of the Lord,’”
as Isaiah the prophet said.”
Some Pharisees were also sent.
They asked him,
“Why then do you baptize
if you are not the Christ or Elijah or the Prophet?”
John answered them,
“I baptize with water;
but there is one among you whom you do not recognize,
the one who is coming after me,
whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie.”
This happened in Bethany across the Jordan,
where John was baptizing.
Now, we could focus on the fact that the evangelist records John the Baptist identifying himself as the voice crying out in the desert, which reveals that the evangelist believed Jesus to be God. We’ve already gone through this line of reasoning with last week’s Gospel reading from Mark, and the second Sunday of Advent for Year A. So, I’m going to skip over this detail here.
The detail that I want to focus on is the whole theme of John the Baptist affirming that he is not the Messiah, the implication being that Jesus is the Messiah. The emphasis on John’s subordinate role to Jesus is a theme that runs throughout the Fourth Gospel. See, for example, John 3:25-30, 5:26 and 10:41.
Some scholars have suggested this was probably due to a remanent of John the Baptist’s disciples who remained unconvinced that Jesus was the Messiah. Their influence, apparently, was widespread. When Paul encountered new believers in Ephesus, according to Acts 19:1-7, he discovered they had been baptized into “John’s baptism.”
Given the presence of these John the Baptist sympathizers, the evangelist offers an apology/defense for Jesus’ Messiahship. And he does so by emphasizing John’s subordinate role to Jesus.
Well, my friends, that does it for this episode of the Sunday Catholic Word. The readings for this upcoming Third Sunday of Advent, Year B, equip us for at least three apologetical topics:
- the good of the charismata (charisms of the Holy Spirit),
- the nature of the human person as body and soul, and
- Jesus as the Messiah.
As always, I want to thank you for subscribing to the podcast. And please be sure to tell your friends about it and invite them to subscribe as well at sundaycatholicword.com. You might also want to check out the other great podcasts in our Catholic Answers podcast network: Cy Kellet’s Catholic Answers Focus, Trent Horn’s The Counsel of Trent, Joe Heschmeyer’s Shameless Popery, and Jimmy Akin’s A Daily Defense, all of which can be found at catholic.com.
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I hope you have a blessed Third Sunday of Advent. Until next time, God Bless!