Life in the Spirit

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 2nd week in Easter time

April 26, 2022: Acts 4:32-37; John 3:7b-15

Unless you are born in the Spirit, you cannot enter the Reign of God...but how do you see that one is born in the Spirit? It is only through the life that is lived. There can be no space between belief and life... we are expected to live what we believe and what we believe has to be translated into our lives. That is the essence of a life that is Christ-like, the formula for life in the Spirit.

Life in the Spirit has to be verified on a daily basis. As Jesus said, a tree is known by its fruits; so the signs of our life in the Spirit has to be seen in our day to day choice for love, our capacity for sharing, our willingness to give up for the sake of the Lord, and above all in our readiness to think of the other before ourselves!  

The effect and the source of looking at the other, thinking of the other, or being concerned about the other, is identified in the Word today - it is the capacity to have a common point of reference, a singular sense of focus, and a common vision that takes the whole people of God forward together. The concern for the other or the empathy with the other cannot be an extraordinary quality with regard to a disciple of Christ - it is infact the distinguishing mark of a Christian and of a Christian community. Hence, not having that is a lack, a deficiency, a lacuna, an imperfection in Christian terms. 

Is it not therefore essential for us to examine our daily choices: do they reflect a life in the Spirit? Or are we still living a life from below? Let us be born from above, let us be born of the Spirit - that is the sign of the disciples of the Risen Lord.