He is the Invincible Sword that was used to slay the ferocious dragon. He is the Dike that was fed into the river to divert the raging water of pains and sufferings caused by sin into constructive use. Paul cried out both in anguish and relief, 'Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!'Ĭhrist, then, is the answer. But where can we find a person of wisdom and prudence who is a slave to vices? And how can we subdue and tame that monster within us?Īfter admitting the conflict between god and evil within him, St. Whatever good we might acquire can only be lasting when wisely managed and prudently maintained. The rise and fall of nations and civilizations, when closely analyzed, often reveal the hidden causes of their fall to the unbridled greed among the leaders, leading to massive grafts and corruptions.
Unless we slay the monster that lurks within us-that is: the root cause of sin and vices-and harness it, we can never hope to attain some lasting good. But insights and innovations can only bear good fruit if guided by wisdom-and wisdom cannot exist apart from God. We only need to be insightful and innovative. In our beautiful and orderly world, which is often messed up and tarnished by man's incompetence and the pull of his baser nature, we discover countless opportunities for extracting blessings out of the challenges, difficulties and problems that constantly crop up. Artists, inventors, business entrepreneurs and many others had reaped fortunes by filling up what was needed, or by discovering the solutions to problems. Very often behind a problem, an obstacle or an apparent evil, is hidden a potential good. It would be helpful for us to ask ourselves: What is that monster that lurks within me? Could it be an uncontrolled passion of anger which often erupts violently beyond the bounds of reason? Could it be an addiction to gambling which often tempts me to risk even the family fortunes? Could it be some overwhelming lust for money, sex, or for domination? What could that monster or monsters be that often caused havoc in my life? For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members.' Paul continued, 'So I find it to be the law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin dwells within me.
For I do not do the good that I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. So it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. For I do not want what I want but I do everything I hate. He said, 'I do not understand my own actions. Paul expressed it in a way that resonates with our common experience (cf. We all have a monster lurking within, often causing devastation, and how we wish we could tame that monster, harness it and put it into good use! Like the great, raging Yellow River which holds tremendous power, that monster within us can also be a potential power either of destruction or of healings and life. They satisfy some deep, undiscovered yearnings in the human soul. Or again, it might be the story of a knight speeding to rescue a lovely maiden from the clutches of a dragon, and the dragon, once slain, turned out to be the guardian of a cave where immense treasure is kept. Now and again we come across stories like that of David and Goliath, how the weak and inexperienced David defeated the mighty and towering Goliath and thereupon took the giant's own sword to chop off his head. What once was a cause of death and destruction now contributes to the good and progress of the people. An incredible feat of engineering was devised: a floating dike which was made of bamboo was fed into the river and re-routed the raging water into small tributary to irrigate the farms of the villagers.
Then came a very clever emperor who decided to grapple with the problem. In China, the Yellow River was once a devastating monster that caused the ruins of crops and houses and claimed the lives of thousands whenever it swelled and overflowed into the villages.
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