Reflection: Not Just Renewed But Made New (Br Jovita Ho)

“You must be made new in mind and spirit, and put on new nature.”

Ephesians 4:23-24

Some time ago, one of my friends remarked that he is convinced that God loves him as he is, and since he is loved as such, thus there is no need for him to be changed. I agreed with his first half of his statement but the second half I begged to differ.

St Paul tells us that “we must be made new in mind and spirit, and put on new nature” (Eph 4:23-24) and this presupposes that after experiencing (either intellectual or emotional) the love of God for us, we would rid ourselves of former mindset, old spirit or spirits and dispose of the undesirable nature that was a result of our sinful past.

Let’s give it a simple analogy. If any of us have bad habits (and I guess I need not explain what bad habits are!) which somehow we are pretty contended with, and yet when we come into contact with someone whom we love, and who we know loves us deeply and unconditionally, would we not want to try to please him or her, and not allow the person to be hurt by these bad habits of ours which we know are objectionable in this relationship? How many of us would want to do something (which no doubt could be a habitual issue) hurtful to our parents and loved ones when we know it to be wrong?

It is true that God loves us as we are, and it is even more true that since He loves us unconditionally, would we not want to be ‘perfect as He is perfect’ and to be more Christ-like in our nature and relationships? To say that we have no need to change after encountering a loving Father, a Brother who died for us on the Cross and who has given us the Holy Spirit is to deny the existence of a relationship. To say such things is to validate what Karl Marx had said, ‘that religion is opium of the people’, and that we are seeking some form of escapism by embracing it.

When we are embraced by the Father’s love, we are also embracing the path that His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ had trod, and He promises us the Holy Spirit to help us along this life-changing. No doubt that ‘we bring the who we are into what we do’, but even more true is that Christ is not offering a second-class option but a first-class promise of being sons and daughters of the Father. Let us not be mediocre Christians but be people filled with a sense of purpose and trust in the Divine Will and Divine Providence, and be a people radiating the Resurrection life to all who we encounter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stay tuned for the next post by Br Jude David on 10th Apr 2011.