[The following is the fifth segment of a six-part blog, and is a revised version of a Lenten reflection given to my Lay Dominican Chapter on March 11, 2024. All italicized names are references to sources that will be fully listed at the end of the 6th segment. While I am a fan of gender inclusive language, for various reasons, I found it easier to stick to Paul’s terminology for purposes of this discussion.]
In the last four segments, we talked about the spiritual life as a means of becoming one with God who is selfless and self-giving love, and how our fallen nature (the “Old Man” ) resists this union. We discussed the need to give birth to the New Man in order to achieve this union, and how and why the Old Man subconsciously sabotages our efforts by selling us on lies and misperceptions about God and the spiritual journey. Today, we will take a glimpse at how God heals these misperceptions.
Generally, healing begins with baptism because that is when we receive the Holy Spirit and the seed of the New Man. Ro 6:3–4, Ga 3:27. The indwelling Holy Spirit seeks to help us put on the New Man; he is an essential part of this progressive transformation. All we have to do is read the Old Testament to hear story after story of our inability to faithfully live in covenant with God. That is why God promised to put his Spirit within us so that we could live the law. Eze 36:25–29. Only the Spirit of truth can correct our mistaken ideas about sin, about our identity, about God, and about our destiny.
He does this by bring the Old Man’s antics into the light. He who is the power by which our conscience can learn to see our failings starts to teach us how to recognize the Old Man’s works. As we grow in self-awareness, he leads us through the process of deeper repentance. Barthelemy. Unfortunately, the Old Man will lie and tell us that God wants to bring our sins into the light so that he can condemn us. Always remember that God wants to forgive our sins and give us the grace to overcome them. Barthelemy. He wants to purify us so that we can live in full union with him.
Jesus said that anyone wishing to be his disciple has to carry his or her cross and die to self. Mk 8:34. We have to do this in order to overcome the Old Man. This is the hardest thing any Christian will have to do in their lives. We have to see things about ourselves that we do not want to see. We have to struggle in cooperation with grace to leave behind false ideas and disordered desires.
Sadly, giving birth to the New Man has similarities to that of natural child birth. A woman experiences joy, pain, and suffering when she carries a baby to term and endures labor to bring it into the world. So is the process of dying to self. It contains its own joys, sufferings, and pains, but Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our loving midwife. He counsels and consoles us throughout the process, and we can find immense strength in him.
In our final segment, we will explore some ideas on how to bring the New Man to birth.
In Him,
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