REFLECTION FOR TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF EASTER

REFLECTION FOR TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF EASTER

REFLECTION THEME: The Transformative Power of Spiritual Rebirth and Communal Unity

BY: Fr. Francis Onwunali

Our earthly birth puts us in a relationship with God as creature to Creator. It is a gift of God. It is something for which we should truly give thanks and praise to God. Yet an even deeper relationship is ours when we are born “from above” by the Ruah (Pneuma – Spirit) of God. This makes us not just creatures of a Creator, but children of a Father, Who is God, and thus, we become siblings of the Lord Jesus (Bob Kondrath). This is the implication of Jesus’ teaching to Nicodemus in the gospel reading of today (John 3: 7-15). Anyone who is born from above is born of the Spirit and believes in the Son of Man Who has come down from heaven. The Son of Man, when lifted up as Moses did the serpent in the wilderness, will give eternal life to all who believe.

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The effect of this relationship in the Divine Life is manifested in the life of the early Christians in the first reading (Acts 4: 32-37), who were “united, heart and soul.” As abundance of life flow in the Divine Life of the Godhead, so in the union of the children of God who participate in the Divine Life, everyone’s needs are provided by the community- they owned everything in common.
Dear friends, the result of Jesus “being lifted up on the cross”, His rising from the dead, and His exaltation and ascension to the Father’s right hand in heaven, is our “new birth in the Spirit” and adoption as sons and daughters of God. This is Grace; gift unmerited! How willing am I to selflessly relate with one another as a sign of my participation in Divine Life?
I pray that as we journey in life today, we will live like children of the same Father, a life that transcends blood relationships, sealed in the unconditional love of God. As we struggle with different challenges facing us in life, we pray to be gifted with the seven-fold gift of the Holy Spirit so as to keep alive our “new birth in the Spirit”- a life of freedom from sin and death, hoping to see it end in praise of God’s Name.
Have a Spirit-filled day!

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