PUTTING ON OUR NEW NATURE

PUTTING ON OUR NEW NATURE Fr Luke A Veronis   Christmas is a time of wonder and joy. Why? Because God acted in a unique manner in history. He decided to come and save humanity from the darkness and evil of the world. Humanity was lost in its fallen nature and God lifted us up to a new reality. Saint Paul talks about this darkness in today’s Epistle reading – how humanity gave in to its evil desire of jealousy and envy, sexual impurity, idolatry, anger, hatred, slander, and foul talk. We are born into this fallen world which means we live in a world that has become distorted from its original intention. In the beginning, however, God created everything good and beautiful. This included the summit of His creation, humanity, created in His image and likeness. We were created good with every good intention. And when he created us, He gave us the greatest gift of His divine love. We were created to be in constant communion with God. Genesis offers a beautiful image of Adam and Eve walking in the Garden of Eden talking with God, in fellowship and communion with the Lord Almighty. There was joy and love, harmony and peace, wonder and gladness. Yet with this divine love, like any true love, we also received the gift of free will. And Adam and Eve used their free will to willingly forget their Creator and to turn away from His divine love. Instead, they listened to the alluring and deceptive voice of Satan, turning toward his lies and turning away from God. They turned away from the goodness in which they were created and rejected the fellowship of love in which they communed. Instead, they freely chose to listen to the father of lies, forgetting, rejecting, and disobeying God. In humanity’s breaking communion with our Lord, this led to all of creation breaking communion with its Creator. Remember, everything was created good, yet the freely chosen darkness and evil corrupted all creation into its present fallen state. This is the world into which we are born. Yet, we’re not born guilty of this evil, as the Catholic and Protestant churches say, but we are born into a fallen world where from the moment we are born we are tempted to turn away from God and adopt the fallen nature of the world. We now live in a world where it seems easier to sin than to do good. Thank God, though, that the story of history doesn’t end here. When the fullness of time had come, God acted in a revolutionary manner on Christmas day. He entered humanity to change our fallen human situation. He came not only to show us what a true human being is - the perfect human being - but to reveal the path for all people to discover our own true humanity in Him. We can become what God meant us to be, like Him. We can fulfill our divine potential and live in constant communion with our Lord. This is why Saint Paul highlights in his epistle today how we have “put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” In Jesus Christ, we can become a new creation by putting off all that is fallen and ugly in our lives – our evil desires, jealousy and envy, sexual impurity, idolatry, anger, hatred, slander, foul talk –we can put off all our addictive and corrupt behaviors and instead allow Christ to live in us. Yes, we are still tempted in various ways to turn away from God. Just like Adam and Eve, the Great Deceiver is whispering in our ears delicious lies. He’s trying to fool us into believing his ways will lead us to fulfill our greatest desires. Yet, in reality, his way only leads to darkness, despair and death. Again, the Apostle Paul invites us to “put off our old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” We are children of God, heirs to His kingdom. We are created to live in eternal communion with the Source of Divine Love and Joy, filled with His grace and mercy. In Christ Jesus we discover the ultimate meaning of life, experiencing peace and true happiness. When we become a new creation in Jesus Christ, we see the world with wonder and amazement. We notice His beauty all around us, in the people we encounter and in all we experience. The Good News of Great Joy which the angels proclaimed abides in our hearts, giving us hope in all circumstances and guiding us to live our lives with the deepest meaning and purpose. Yet, here is where our free will comes back into the picture. We have a choice to embrace this new nature or to cling to the old. Will we choose to become a new creation in Christ Jesus? Today’s Gospel reading reminds us of this choice. In the parable, guests are invited to a great feast, only to make excuses of why they can’t attend – their work, the possessions, their family, or whatever other excuses they could use. They reject their invitation to the great feast because they prioritized other things in their life. This is like those who reject the path to putting on the new nature and becoming a new creation in Jesus Christ and clinging to the old. How could we reject this? Why would we reject this? Why do some choose to stay in the darkness, in the fallenness of their affairs. Because they don’t believe they can take on a new nature. Because they don’t believe they can overcome their corruption. Ultimately, they don’t believe the Good News of Great Joy which Jesus Christ brings into the world at Christmas time! Becoming a new creation takes faith; it takes using our free will in the right way; it takes believing in the wonder of Christmas, the God acted in a unique manner when the fullness of time had come in history to become one of us, so that we could become one with Him! Let us all put off our old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of our creator. God became one of us so that we could become one with Him!