Within the saving plan of God is the mystery of the Incarnation, where God became man in the Person of Jesus. This Christmas season, we celebrate this amazing mystery. Jesus came to reveal to us our Father in heaven and to restore all that was broken within us from original sin.
To come to know God is to also gain an understanding of who we are, since we are created in His image. We were created in His likeness. (Gen. 1:27) Therefore, we were created with a spirit that God “breathed” into our flesh– “then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.” (Gen. 2:7)
It is through this spirit that we come into union with God, who is Spirit, and receive from Him truth and the power to live it in the world. Through this communion, God reveals Himself directly to each of us, and we come to know Him intimately. He also blesses us with the power of self-mastery to control the passions of our flesh.
When Adam and Eve committed original sin, our spirits were suppressed, and we lost that connection with God’s Holy Spirit. Because He is holy and pure and we became sinful, we could no longer experience this life of God and understanding of God’s amazing reality in the spiritual realms. We lost sight of His Kingdom and His unquestionable rule over us.
The Gospel of John, Chapter 3, gives us a great example of this reality. The story of Nicodemus visiting Jesus at night shows us exactly how we are unable to see or understand what God is doing in the world. Jesus explains to him why he doesn’t understand who Jesus is, even though Nicodemus has seen the signs and wonders that Jesus accomplished.
Jesus explains that no one can see the kingdom nor enter into it without being born of the Spirit and water (3:5). When one, through faith in Jesus, freely gives their life completely to Jesus (through a decision to get baptized or after getting baptized as a child), Jesus responds by giving them the gift of Himself in the form of the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to be born from above (again).
Once this gift of the Holy Spirit is activated in the hearts of true believers, the Spirit begins to illuminate the ways of God to them. Without this connection, they can’t understand what God says or does. They can only see it from a purely earthly context.
We see this exemplified when Jesus uses the term “born again” or “from above”. Nicodemus, puzzled and lacking the Holy Spirit, questions whether a grown man can reenter his mother’s womb (3:4). He had no clue that Jesus was speaking of a spiritual birth.
Chew on this verse and the surrounding passages, and you will see that unless we have the Holy Spirit alive and activated in us, we can’t understand God’s ways.
“Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” 1Cor. 2:14
Amen! Come, Holy Spirit upon us and renew the graces of Baptism and Confirmation in all your people this day. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created and you will renew the face of the earth!