He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for "the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy
Spirit." Acts 1:3-5
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You may have heard it said
that you get an entirely new body every 7 years - that the cells of the human body
are regenerated over a 7-year period. This is not quite accurate – but the cells
of our bodies do regenerate and at various rates.
Red blood cells live for
about four months, while white blood cells live on average more than a year.
Skin cells live about two or three weeks. Colon cells have it rough: They die
off after about four days. Sperm cells have a life span of only about three
days, while brain cells typically last an entire lifetime (neurons in the
cerebral cortex, for example, are not replaced when they die) and it takes an
average of 10 years to grow an entirely new skeleton.
So there is some truth in
saying that we are not the person we used to be. The down side is that the new
cells are usually not as good as the ones they are replacing. This is what
aging is all about.
St. Paul has a different
take on our “regeneration “
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. 2Cor. 5:17 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20
We are concluding our Easter
celebrations with this feast of the Ascension of Jesus, and we now anticipate
the feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church – our birthday too. The gift
of the Holy Spirit is a sharing in the very life of God. Those who receive this
Gift begin living a new life, one that has a new destiny, a life that death
cannot destroy. “For if we have been
united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his.” Rom. 6:5
Even as the cells of this
physical body decline and die, within we are living a new spiritual life. The question
for today and this week leading to Pentecost is: am I truly living a spiritual
Life, the New Life of the Spirit, that I received in baptism? Now, if I am concerned
about the condition of my physical body I go to the doctor and he will do tests
to diagnose my condition. This week could be viewed as a time of diagnosis, a
time to examine the health of my spiritual life. Is my faith-life growing stronger or weaker?
Are my works of holiness increasing or decreasing?
May I suggest you take St.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians, especially Chap. 5. Here Paul is a physician, giving us an
excellent examination and diagnosis of our spiritual lives:
For you, brothers and sisters, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity to gratify your flesh, but through love make it your habit to serve one another. For the whole Law is summarized in a single statement: “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you are not destroyed by each other. So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will never fulfill the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh wants is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to the flesh. They are opposed to each other, and so you do not do what you want to do. But if you are being led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the actions of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, witchcraft, l hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying, and things like that. I am telling you now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. Now those who belong to Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, by the Spirit let us also be guided. Let’s stop being arrogant, provoking one another and envying one another. Galatians 5:13ff. |
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