ALL-ROUND RENEWAL: BEING SPIRIT-FILLED CHRISTIANS

Call of the Gospel: to be born again

Our Lord began his ministry by asking for ‘repentance’ which in its original meaning of metanoia stands for complete transformation or a round about turn. In the New Testament conversion of heart and entry into God’s kingdom is described in terms of ‘newness’ which is also ’rebirth’ in the Holy Spirit. Ultimately it marks the entry into Christ’s economy of salvation and the eternal life in him which is God’s greatest gift to humanity.  In his conversation with Nicodemus, our Lord clearly tells him that he has to be ‘born again’ of the Spirit in order to see the kingdom of God (cf. John 3: 1-8). In fact, to be born again is the essence of discipleship and the fundamental call and challenge of the Gospel. The poor and the simple people who found in Jesus their Messiah and Liberator gladly accepted the call of the Gospel and followed Jesus spontaneously, for he gave them affirmation of their human dignity as children of God and the confirmation of their hope in God’s kingdom. They saw in him the fulfilment of the messianic prophecies. On the other hand, the rich and the powerful rejected him and opposed him at every step of the way. They questioned his works of healing, forgiving, of giving meaning and hope to people in distress, of breaking the chains of oppression, of proclaiming the justice of God, in short his entire ‘new’ teaching which, in reality, was not a destruction of the Law but is fulfilment in love. They staunchly refused to be renewed in the Spirit, to be touched by grace, to open their eyes to the truth of the Covenant, to accept God’s invitation to be transformed in their minds and hearts.

But the call of the Gospel is unchangeable:

“unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mathew 5: 20)

“if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mathew 16:24)

“unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mathew 18:3)

“it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Mathew 19:24)

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14: 33)

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24)

“Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (John 12:25).

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13: 34-35).

Not ‘good’ people but ‘better’ people

The Gospel therefore is not asking of us to be ‘good’ people or ‘better’ people, but NEW people. This is what St. Paul is referring to when he mentions ‘renewal of the mind’:  “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). In another letter he speaks of the Christian identity as the ‘new creation’: “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed; behold the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). In fact, our surrender to Christ is to put on the ‘new self’: “you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:9-10).

In the Book of Revelation we read: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Revelation 21: 1-2). And the final words that bring to a culmination the whole of salvation history: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21: 5).    

To be ‘new person’ means to be empowered by the Holy Spirit

In truth, to be a new person in Christ is to be filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit who leads us into a radical conversion of life, and this happens through prayer. Prayer is primarily contemplation, a journey within whereby we are enabled to look at ourselves from the light of the Holy Spirit and be both confronted as well refreshed, comforted and healed by the Paraclete, our Advocate and our Comforter. The Holy Spirit gives us the wisdom to solve all our problems and the strength to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus joyfully. What is important is to surrender to the control of the Holy Spirit and pray to him to help us to make Jesus the centre of our life.

The Holy Spirit bestows on us gifts or charisms (cf. 1 Corinthians 12: 4ff) and enables us to bear fruits of the Spirit in our daily life (cf. Galatians 5:22ff). These gifts and fruits are meant for the building up of the Body of Christ through living holy lives of communion in the Holy Trinity and proclaiming the Gospel of salvation in Christ.

Through the fruits of the Holy Spirit, we become mature Christians who live already here and now the life of the world to come. Christian maturity and holiness depend directly on the growth of the fruits, especially love or charity. In fact, without the practice of charity, the gifts of the Spirit would be no avail (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3). This is what we learn from St. Teresa of the Child Jesus (Little Flower) when testifies in her autobiography: “

To be ‘love’ in the heart of the Church: testimony of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus

I was still being tormented by this question of unfulfilled longings for martyrdom and it was a distraction in my prayer, when I decided to consult Saint Paul’s epistles in the hope of getting an answer. It was the twelfth and thirteenth chapters of First Corinthians that claimed my attention. The first of these told me that we can’t all of us be apostles, all of us be prophets, all of us doctors, and so on; the Church is composed of members which differ in their use; the eye is one thing and the hand is another. It was clear enough answer, but it didn’t satisfy my aspirations, didn’t set my heart at rest. Reading on to the end of the chapter, I met this comforting phrase: ‘Prize the best gifts of heaven. Meanwhile, I can show you a way which is better than any other.’

What was it? The apostle goes on to explain that all the gifts of heaven, even the most perfect of them; without love, are absolutely nothing; charity is the best way of all, because it leads straight to God. Now I was at peace; when Saint Paul was talking about the different members of the mystical body I couldn’t recognize myself in any of them; or rather I could recognize myself in all of them. But charity – that was the key to my vocation. If the Church was a body composed of different members, it couldn’t lack the noblest of all; it must have a heart, and a heart burning with love. And I realized that this love was the true motive force which enabled the other members to act; if it ceased to function the apostles would forget to preach the gospel, the martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. Love, in fact, is the vocation which includes all others; it’s a universe of its own, comprising all time and space – it’s eternal. Beside myself with joy, I cried out: ‘Jesus, my love! I’ve found my vocation, and my vocation is love.’ I had discovered where it is that I belong in the Church, the niche God has appointed for me. To be nothing else than love, deep down in the heart of Mother Church; that’s to be everything at once – my dream wasn’t a dream after all. [cf. Office of Readings, October 1, Feast of Teresa of the Child Jesus].   

One can be advanced in age, highly charismatic, abundantly gifted, but quite immature as far as the fruits of the Spirit are concerned because one has not cultivated them and not earnestly asked for them from the Holy Spirit. This we notice in the charismatic movement and many other movements in the Church; also, among the clergy and those in consecrated life.

The Holy Spirit transforms our activities and relationships

The evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit has to be written all over our life. Our life is made up of activities and relationships and the Holy Spirit comes to transform both. We will grow and mature by developing the right relationships and by doing the right things under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Our relations with God have to be renewed so that we will think, feel, speak and act as true children  of God (cf. Galatians 4:6), and this the Holy Spirit teaches us – but we have to ask the Holy Spirit for that gift. The two precious gifts of the Holy Spirit are: wisdom i.e., to have a real taste for the things of God and for eternal realities, and discernment which shows the way we are to follow moment by moment according to God’s plan.

Attitude to self is also a gift of the Holy Spirit, i.e., to see, to accept and to love ourselves as God sees, accepts and loves us; also, to forgive ourselves when God forgives us, so as to live at peace with ourselves and with others.  

We have to pray to the Holy Spirit for the gift of loyalty to our state in life. Whether as a child or youth at home, as a married person, or single for the Lord, as a religious or a priest, we have to ask for the grace to be ever loyal and joyful in our family or community and a source of joy to the other members; for the grace to be understanding, patient, helpful and ever ready to cooperate towards the common good.  

Another important attitude is our role in the Church. Spirit-filled Christians cannot rest satisfied with Sunday Mass, and remaining at the margin of parish life; they need to work like leaven (cf. Mathew 13:33), and bring new life into old structures.

Equally important is our role in society. When we pray for the infilling of the Holy Spirit we to ask for the special gifts we need to be more effective and useful in our present life situation: in school, college, office, place of work, neighbourhood. The Spirit will give us a new sense of responsibility to work selflessly for the society and for our country with courage and hope.

Thus, the Holy Spirit will enable us to set our scale of values and priorities right.

[For the  above thoughts I am indebted to the book Here Comes Jesus by Marcelino Iragui, OCD, chapter 9, ‘Seek All-Round Renewal’].