The need to be born again

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

Christ said it very clearly. When a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came to him by night, telling him that he must be from God because of the signs he was showing, Christ answered: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (Jn 3:3)

And when further asked how one can be born again, he simply said: “Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (Jn 3:5)

What Christ wanted to tell Nicodemus, and us now, was that all of us need a profound spiritual regeneration, which is a supernatural transformation through water and the Spirit. This would involve dying to sin and rising to a new life in Christ. This is usually accomplished sacramentally in baptism, where one recovers the divine life that is meant for us as God’s image and likeness, sharers of his life and nature, but which we lost due to sin.

We have to understand, though, that this need to be born again is not just a single emotional event, but a continuous, daily process of turning away from sin by embracing the cross the way Christ embraced it, and conforming our life to Christ through a working faith, humility, and recourse to the sacraments, especially the sacraments of penance and the Holy Eucharist.

In other words, to be born again is to willingly link ourselves with God, who in the Spirit continues to be with us, always intervening in our life, showing us his will and ways, in manners both discernible and understandable as well as mysterious and inscrutable. This is what is meant by being born in water and Spirit.

Water refers to the sacrament of baptism, which signifies that we are willing to link up with God in the Spirit, and everything that is involved in such a linkup — fidelity to Christ, following his teachings, and so on.

That’s why our Lord told Nicodemus, “Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

It is the Holy Spirit who will guide us, and all we have to do is be docile to the Holy Spirit, a relationship that does not undermine our freedom, but rather enhances it. Let’s remember that our freedom is never absolute, since we, as human beings, as persons, do not exist absolutely by ourselves alone, but as creatures who receive our existence and everything in it, like our freedom, from God.

We need to be clear about this point, because many times we believe that we just have to live our own life, in complete and absolute autonomy from God and from others. We often consider our relationship with God and others as purely optional, developed at our own convenience, and so on.

And we often depend only on what we have — our intelligence, our talents, our privileges, our looks, our wealth and fame, our earthly powers. These endowments, without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, can go anywhere and nowhere. The only way we can be on the right track is when we are living and doing things with the Holy Spirit.

We really need to be born again and develop what is called the life in the Spirit, the life that is proper to us!

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com