Newness of life

NEW year usually goes together with new life. We just have

to understand what the true meaning of new life is, since we just

cannot be having a new life every time there is a new year.

            A year comes and goes. But the newness of life that is

meant for us is one which should not come and go, but should rather

remain new all the way to forever. It’s a newness that never fades

together with the years and with our other earthly and temporal

attributes.

            The secret is to live our life with God in Christ through

the Holy Spirit. The basis for this is found in our Christian faith.

In the Book of Revelation, we learn this truth: “He who was seated on

the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’” (21,5) We should have

no doubt as to where to get this everlasting newness meant for us.

            On our part, we just have to make sure that we take care

of our spiritual and moral life since it is through them that we are

enabled to receive God’s grace that is the sole principle of eternal

newness. Everything else in our life should get its life and purpose

from our spiritual and moral dimensions of our life. We have to know

what is truly essential in our human affairs and not get confused and

lost in the peripherals and incidentals.

            We need to deepen our faith in God’s love for us, which

should be shown in deeds. It’s in this way that we can participate in

Christ’s victory over sin and death with his resurrection to eternal

life. That victory will always make us new as St. Paul once affirmed:

            “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has

passed away. Behold, all things are made new.” (2 Cor 5,17) In another

passage, St. Paul said: “For we are buried together with him by

baptism into death, that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory

of the Father, so we also may walk in the newness of life.” (Rom 6,4)

            Again we cannot overemphasize the need for us to be led by

our faith rather by any other principle no matter how important and

indispensable it also may be. We have to understand that the passage

of time and its cyclical character is meant for us to develop and show

our faith and love for God who continues to intervene in our life

since he is still in the process of creating and redeeming us in time.

            Time is meant for the total process of our creation that

includes our redemption. Time is not simply some kind of measure or

record of what went before and after and what is now. Time is a gift

from God that is connected to his eternity.

            We need to be most aware of the purpose of time so that we

do not waste it. Time is best used when we properly correspond to

God’s continuing work of our creation and redemption. Time is best

used when we work for that newness of life that is meant for us by

God. That is when time flows with the eternity of God. In a manner of

speaking, that is when time runs on its proper track, not outside it.

            In other words, we would be misusing time if we use it

outside of our sanctification, of our effort to correspond to God’s

creative and redemptive work on us.