A NEW CREATION IN JESUS CHRIST


SATURDAY, TENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

2 Cor 5:14-21; Ps 103:1-4,9-12; Mt 5:33-37

We are New Creation in Jesus Christ

The Father gave birth to our spirits in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Since God is life, our spirits, which are instantiations of Jesus Christ within us, are also life. Our new birth was made possible by the death of the Son of Man in obedience to the Father. Jesus ransomed us by his death for God the Father, who brings us to birth through his Eternal Word. Thus, our new birth is at the instance of our profession of faith in the death and resurrection of the Son of Man. The Word of the Father is Life and Spirit. Hence, Jesus is our spiritual life guided and nourished by the Holy Spirit, who has made his home in us for that purpose. The principle by which we come to spiritual life is the same principle that nourishes and causes our growth and development in spiritual life. Since the Holy Spirit gave us life, he must also guide every aspect of the heavenly life. He is resident in us as our guide and guardian.

Added to our constant and consistent listening to the Holy Spirit, we must make a habit of feeding on the passion, death, and resurrection of the Son of Man. Our new and spiritual life commenced at our profession of faith in these mysteries; it will also grow and develop on these heavenly nourishments. Saint Paul affirms: “The love of Christ overwhelms us when we reflect that if one man has died for all, then all men should be dead; and the reason he died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised to life for them.” Paul offers the reason why our profession of faith in Jesus Christ leads to the death of what is mortal in us and the increase in immortal life in us. The spirit is the new creation in us, which is Jesus Christ within us. The institution of the Eucharistic banquet, in which we celebrate the paschal mysteries of the Lord, points to the necessity of feeding on these mysteries for our growth and development in the spirit of Jesus Christ. We receive his body and blood, not as men eating flesh and blood, but as spirits feeding on spiritual food. “Even if we did once know Christ in the flesh, that is not how we know him now. And for anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here.” The new man feeds on the paschal mysteries, which spell death to the physical but life to the spiritual. The new covenant of reconciliation in his blood is the model of our lives as Christians, which invites all to the table of reconciliation. 

Furthermore, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and his indwelling in us demonstrates the importance of obeying the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in coming to maturity in the life of Jesus Christ. Because the spiritual life, generated and guided by the Holy Spirit, excludes what is human and physical, we have no ground to swear or make another covenant. It is already a covenant with God watched over by the Holy Spirit. “But I say this to you: do not swear at all, either by heaven, since that is God’s throne; or by the earth, since that is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, since that is the city of the great king. Do not swear by your own head either, since you cannot turn a single hair white or black. All you need say is “Yes” if you mean yes, “No” if you mean no; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” The prompting of the Holy Spirit is the principle of the Christian life. It is not our life as such, but God’s life received within us, in which we participate. We deliberate less the more we grow in the spiritual life. As Saint Paul explains, we are more in Jesus Christ the more we die to our old self to live perpetually in the presence of the risen Lord. Our Lord’s words imply God’s total ownership of us. To think that we have the freedom to do whatever we want as Christians is to suffer the delusion of the devil. With the Psalmist, we entrust ourselves in thanksgiving to God. “My Soul, give thanks to the Lord all my being, bless his holy name. My soul, give thanks to the Lord and never forget all his blessings.”

Let us pray: O God, from whom all good things come, grant that we, who call on you in our need, may at your prompting discern what is right, and by your guidance do it. Grant us the grace to grow in our knowledge of our sonship in the Son. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.   

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