body language
"No more shall you offer the members of your body to sin as weapons for evil." —Romans 6:13
The parts of our bodies can be used as weapons either for evil or justice. For example, we can use our hair for evil or justice (see 1 Tm 2:9; 1 Pt 3:3; 1 Cor 11:14). We have many opportunities to use our minds as weapons. Our tongues and sexual organs are some of the most powerful weapons of all. Just think what our lips can do. They can be weapons of lust and deceit or of love and truth. We can use them to betray Christ as Judas did or proclaim Christ to the world. Look at our skin. It can be a weapon of lust, greed, or vanity, or one of healing and compassion. Eyes are the body's lamp. "When your eyesight is sound, your whole body is lighted up, but when your eyesight is bad, your body is in darkness" (Lk 11:34). Even our facial muscles can be used to communicate joy through a smile, compassion through a look of concern, or discipline through a frown. These same muscles can also be instruments of hate, violence, fear, and racism.
Ask the Holy Spirit to continue this teaching by showing you how to use each part of the temple of your body (see 1 Cor 6:19) as an instrument of the Lord's justice and love.
Prayer: Father, thank You for the gifts of all the parts of my body. I give them to serve You.
Promise: "When much has been given a man, much will be required of him. More will be asked of a man to whom more has been entrusted." —Lk 12:48
Praise: John has trained his eye through the Holy Spirit to divert from images that do not promote pure thoughts.
Reference: (For a related teaching, order our leaflet Be Holy, for I Am Holy.)
Rescript: †Reverend Joseph R. Binzer, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, June 3, 2009
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