By Randall Smith

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And, now, for today's column...

I've never really understood this idea that you can follow the "spirit" but not the "letter" of a Biblical commandment or Church teaching.

Yes, St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:6 that "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life." But he says this in the context of a comparison between the written law of the Old Covenant, "carved in letters on stone," and the work of the Holy Spirit, "written not in ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets that are hearts of flesh." It's not the spirit rather than the letter of the law that gives life; it's the Holy Spirit that gives life - by spreading charity abroad in our hearts. The law is good, but when it is "written" only on our minds and not on our hearts, it only condemns. It does not transform.

But what some people seem to think when they claim they are following "not the letter, but the spirit" is that following the "spirit" of the law somehow justifies violating the letter of the law - and is even somehow superior because less "legalistic." This is what I don't get.

The commandment says, "Don't commit adultery." Now I can understand if someone says, "Following the spirit of that law means that I also shouldn't fornicate," or "The spirit of the law requires nurturing fidelity in marriage." That makes sense. What I don't understand is if someone claims, "Yes, I committed adultery, but I was following the spirit of the law, not the letter." How would you be following the "spirit" if you violate the clear intent of the law? Talking about the "spirit of the law" is often just something people say to get themselves off the hook.

Granted, the law itself, "Don't commit adultery" or "Don't fornicate," has only the power to condemn, not to transform. As St. Paul says, sin, "seizing an opportunity in the commandment" against coveting, "produced in me all kinds of covetousness." Many pious young Catholic men have found that you can say to yourself repeatedly, "Don't covet, don't covet," but it doesn't take the coveting away. It often makes it worse.

You need to concentrate on something else: things that will engage your heart and your love for others. What we need are the gifts of the Holy Spirit, not some twaddle about obeying the "spirit" rather than the "letter." And we need those gifts of the Spirit to animate and nurture the virtues that can strengthen our intellect and will and help us see the truth more clearly and discipline our passions and appetites.

I have a friend who, when he teaches a class on the Catholic view of the passions and appetites, shows movie clips of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers dancing together to suggest how the intellect and will are meant to cooperate in a beautiful, disciplined harmony with each other. That's the ideal. But then he shows them a picture of a sailor in a small sailboat fighting against a storm and warns them that this, too, is often our relationship with the passions and appetites.

Sometimes it's a dance; sometimes it's like beating against the wind in stormy seas. You can do amazing things if you learn the rules of dance, but you can't dance beautifully the way Astaire and Rogers did if you decide that the rule against stepping on your partner's foot is too "constraining." So, too, great sailors can do amazing things. But if you violate the basic principles of seamanship, you'll soon find yourself at the bottom of the sea.

People sometimes talk about a "spirit of forgivenes...