The New is Here

“Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come…

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.”

2 Corinthians 5:5, 14-20

Do you wake up in the morning and think to yourself, “I’m a new creation!”? I know I sure don’t. I’ve hit a point in my life where I usually wake up feeling just as tired as I was when I went to bed (there might be some small children who are at least partially responsible for that…); or sometimes I wake up sore, my back or neck aching…what is that about?! I don’t feel like a new creation when I snap at my kids for the umpteenth time because there is something sticky on the floor…again; or when I am frantically dividing my attention between kids and work and my husband trying desperately to accomplish something, anything. 

But like so many aspects of our faith, the fact that I am a new creation, that you are a new creation, is not dependent on how we feel about it at any given moment. Whether I’m sitting in the Church during a rare time of peaceful personal prayer or forcing myself to roll out of bed in the morning, I  am a new creation. Whether you are sitting in the sunshine reading this with a fresh cup of [insert preferred beverage here] next to you or you are reading this as you hide in the bathroom for just a minute of alone time (no shame- I’ve been there!), you are a new creation. 

In the Sacrament of Baptism you and I died and rose with Christ, and in rising to new life we were made new. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1265 states, “Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte [newly Baptized person] ‘a new creature,’ an adopted son of God, who has become a ‘partaker of the divine nature,’ member of Christ and co-heir with him, and a temple of the Holy Spirit.” 

So the fact of the matter is that, as baptized Christians we have been created anew in the love of the Trinity: we have been adopted as daughters of God the Father, we have been given a share in the divine inheritance of Jesus the Son, and have been made into dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. 

How can we lean into this truth in the midst of moments, days, or seasons when we feel worn or are struggling or simply when life feels just “normal”? How do we embrace the extraordinary reality we have been made part of in all the ordinary parts of our lives? This is the work of reconciliation which St. Paul spoke of in the above passage. Every day, every moment, is an invitation to participate in the reconciling work of Jesus. We must continually and intentionally turn ourselves wholeheartedly back to God and our divine calling and identity in Him.

As we become more deeply rooted in our identity as a new creation we can boldly live out the call to share in Paul’s evangelizing work of reconciling the world to God. Part of our inheritance in Christ is sharing in His priestly and sacred work of offering everything we do, think, say, create, love etc. back to God on the altars of the seemingly ordinary lives we are living. What a calling! Suddenly everything I do seems like a chance to respond “yes, it is here!” to Paul’s words: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”

Rolling out of bed, tired and sore- yes, the new is here!

Apologizing for losing my temper with the kids- yes, the new is here!

Putting as much love as possible into even my scattered efforts to accomplish things- yes the new is here!

Join me, sisters, the old has gone, the new is here!

Copyright 2020 Megan Gettinger