Daily Reflections

October 21, 2011
Our Soul — a Battlefield


When I read today’s first reading, I decided to write my reflection not about today’s Gospel but to invite the reader to have a look at St. Paul. We all know Paul. Many are afraid of him because of his strong personality, his strictness and uncompromising demands. But when you read today’s excerpt from his Letter to the Romans, you surely can identify with him. Here he bares his very soul and admits his weakness: He wants to do what is good but discovers that he does the opposite. “What a wretched man I am!” he exclaims. And who among us does not feel the same? We want to do good, we promise during every confession “not to sin again” — but soon we are kneeling again before a priest and have to confess the same sins we have committed so many times already.

Four hundred years before Paul, the Greek poet Euripides wrote, “We know the good, we apprehend it clearly, but we cannot bring it toachievement.”

The well-educated Paul surely knew what some decades ago the Roman poet Ovid had written, “I see the better things, and approve them, but I follow the worse.”

These quotations make us aware that Paul’s experience is a common human experience. We should, therefore, not be surprised and not get discouraged when we feel a clash between good and evil raging in our hearts, often the evil defeating the good. “Ah, two souls I feel there in my breast,” Faust exclaims in Goethe’s most famous drama. Yes, whoever reflects on one’s life comes to the same conclusion: My soul is a battlefield; good and evil fight for victory in me. How can a weak person survive this clash of titans?

In his Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul gives us an answer to this crucial question when he writes, “I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” It is in our total submission to the power of God that we can help the good in us win over evil. The Lord gave us especially the sacraments to gain this strength. So don’t despair, cling to the Lord! Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

Reflection Question:

Am I aware of the battle between good and evil in my heart? What do I do about it?


Lord, thank You for the honesty of St. Paul who, after all, experienced the same weakness that bothers me. Help me to put all my trust in You and so receive the strength to help the good in me win over evil.

St. Viator, pray for us.