Our faith speaks of flesh as often as it speaks of spirit. The incarnation of God’s eternal Word sets the stage for all our doctrines. Christian faith is never an escape from the flesh but a source of the deepest respect for it. The Word was made flesh, and therefore flesh is holy. Jesus came to deliver us from sin, not to turn us into angels.

Why then is flesh associated with temptation to sin? Because it can be a source of temptation, of turning away from God in order to follow our own desires and reject God’s will for us. But human spirit is as much a source of temptation as is human flesh. Sins of pride, of arrogance, of hatred and envy are the work of a disordered spirit; sins of lust, the distractions of the flesh, are sins of weakness made more deadly when planned and deliberately willed. The first sin was one of disobedience to God, and all other sins are variations on it. It is our entire nature—flesh and spirit—that is touched by sin, not just our actions. Advent is a time to consider again the nature and depth of human sinfulness, because Jesus comes to save us from sin. Without recognizing what sin is, we cannot recognize who our savior is or appreciate what he has done for us.

One of the great sources of disrespect for human flesh and an increasingly prevalent source of temptation is pornography. Pornography separates flesh from spirit. It destroys the personal modesty that protects human intimacy and that allows men and women to grow in mutual respect. It frees lust from moral scruple and from the control of conscience, and it becomes easily addictive. It isolates those addicted to it. It subverts family life and personal integrity.

The production and sale of pornography is a highly profitable business. Mildly pornographic material can be found in newspapers and TV programs. Advertising often exploits the human body. Many songs and music videos are designed to arouse people sexually. Most recently, the Internet has begun to furnish a steady supply of pornographic images. The studies that are available show that the use of pornography tends eventually to lead to sexually aggressive action towards others. The sexual abuse of minors is often prepared by a predator’s showing a child pornographic films or pictures.

A great sadness pervades the life of someone addicted to pornography. By contrast, joy is the sign of God’s presence in our lives; and joy is the note most often sounded in Advent and the Christmas season. In Mary Immaculate, a woman totally given to God’s design for herself and the world, we see the image of our destiny as creatures whom God calls now to live with him in harmony, without the sadness of sin, and whom God assures that “in our flesh we shall see God.” (Job 19:26). This high destiny is destroyed when someone is given over to lust.

Decades ago, Dorothy Day, one of the founders of the Catholic Worker Movement, used to quote from and recommend a book called “The Reed of God.” It is an Advent book, in which the author, Caryll Houselander, compares the Virgin Mary to a reed: “That virginal quality which, for want of a better word, I call emptiness is... not a formless emptiness, a void without meaning. On the contrary, it has a shape, a form given to it by the purpose for which it is intended. It is emptiness like the hollow in a reed, the narrow, riftless emptiness which can have only one destiny: to receive the piper’s breath and to utter the song that is in his heart. Mary was a reed through which the Eternal Love was to be piped as a shepherd’s song.”

In Advent, we still our own voices to listen for the Good Shepherd’s song. At Christmas, we’ll sing that song with angels if we prepare our hearts and voices now. These Advent weeks are time for all earthly flesh to keep silence, time for us to remove whatever clutters our life and prevents our joining joyfully in the song God will sing through us when we see our savior. “Blessed are the pure of heart,” Christ taught, “for they shall see God.” (Mt. 5:8) May this Advent be for each of us a time when God’s grace so fills us that all that we are—flesh and spirit—is purified and transformed.