If we truly want to change our way of life and follow Jesus more closely, we need our own habits to die, so that we can begin a new life in Christ.
Often we will want to make a "change" in our life, rededicating ourselves to Jesus Christ and to living the Gospel way of life.
While this is a good and noble goal, we need to understand what that all entails.
To be "reborn" in the Christian life requires "death" (or many "deaths") to our old and sinful habits.
This can be difficult, as we like to have it both ways, and try to live a Christian life, while holding onto our pet sins.
Death leads to new life
St. Basil comments on this spiritual reality in his Book on the Holy Spirit, featured in the Office of Readings for Holy Week:
We imitate Christ’s death by being buried with him in baptism. If we ask what this kind of burial means and what benefit we may hope to derive from it, it means first of all making a complete break with our former way of life, and our Lord himself said that this cannot be done unless a man is born again. In other words, we have to begin a new life, and we cannot do so until our previous life has been brought to an end.
This not only applies to those who are to be baptized, but any Christian who wants to start anew and fully dedicate their lives to Christ.
If we truly want to change, we need to do precisely that, change. We need to put an end to our sinful habits and to not return to them.
Certainly there will be times when we fall, but in general, we need to be free from any slavery to sin.
St. Basil continues his commentary by using the example of someone running a race:
When runners reach the turning point on a race course, they have to pause briefly before they can go back in the opposite direction. So also when we wish to reverse the direction of our lives there must be a pause, or a death, to mark the end of one life and the beginning of another.
Sometimes this type of death in our lives is drastic, and means leaving an entire way of life to pursue a life in Christ.
Other times it will mean "little deaths" to various smaller sins that keep us tied-up.
Whatever we do, we need to "die" to whatever it is that is keeping us from living in the grace of God.
