The Fullness of Life
Newness of Life
We have just celebrated the joyful season of Christmas and recalled how the Son of God was conceived and born of the Virgin Mary through the power of the Holy Spirit and was laid on a manger. We also recall how the Magi was guided by a brilliant star to a cave in Bethlehem where they found the new born baby lying in a manger, and in the presence of Mary and Joseph they knelt down in worship as they laid down their gifts.
The birth of Jesus Christ is the beginning of a new creation. The Incarnation of the Word of God is something so new that it renews everything in the whole of created reality with its eternal newness. It also challenges us each day to a newness of life.
But there is no authentic renewal of life without an experience of conversion from a life of sin to a life in Christ. Sin will always hinder our true freedom while grace will be the only force that can turn us around to redirect our life along the path of freedom. Grace is God's gift of divine life to every person who has decided to turn away from sin to follow Christ.
The process of conversion follows a certain pattern. It usually begins with becoming conscious of our sins and being sorry for these. These leads to confession, or admitting before God and His Church our personal responsibility in the wrong done. Then follows an effort to change from the old way of sin to a new life of grace. Conversion will always bring a new feeling of peace, inner freedom and spiritual joy. It is like passing through a dark, stormy night to a radiant, peaceful dawn.
Conversion may happen repeatedly in our life. As long as the roots of sin, selfishness and untruthfulness still remain in us, there will always be a need to go through the process.
There are means of hastening our conversion, but it will always be with the grace of God. We have no power of freeing ourselves from sin. This means, then, that conversion always presupposes the grace of God. Often, too, they are simply channels of God's grace.
One means is the practice of daily reading or listening to the Word of God. Daily exposure to the Word of God will lead us to deeper self-knowledge, and from self-knowledge we are led to deeper conversion.
Another means is to regularly examine our conscience. We begin by humbly asking God to enlighten us an allow us to discover the areas in our life that we tend to hide from Him and from ourselves. When certain faults or sins are repeatedly done, we may need to ask God to reveal to us the root causes of these. We end our examination of conscience with a prayer and a resolution to amend our life.
Finally, it may be very helpful to have a regular confessor who can help point out to us some areas in our life that may need to be amended and exposed more often to the liberating light of divine grace in Christ.