Unless You are Born Again in Water and Spirit…

You seldom hear Catholics use the word “born again”. Maybe because the word “born again” is often linked to Protestants. But “born again” or “being born again” is a Catholic word.

Why?

Because Jesus it came from Jesus.

“Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” – John 3:5

And Jesus is the founder of the Catholic Church.

All of us Catholics became “born again” Christians when we received the Sacrament of Baptism. In Baptism, the sons and daughters of Adam dies, and are born again in water and Spirit as the sons and daughters of the God the Father. Baptism radically changes us. “Baptism seals the Christian with the indelible spiritual mark (character) of his belonging to Christ. (1272 of the Catechism)”

Of Water and Spirit

At the dawn of creation, water with the Spirit was the Father’s instrument of creation. 

“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Gen 1:2

The Church has seen in Noah's ark a prefiguring of salvation by Baptism, for by it "a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.

The waters of the great flood
you made a sign of the waters of Baptism,
that make an end of sin and a new beginning of goodness. (1219 of CCC)

But above all, the crossing of the Red Sea, literally the liberation of Israel from the slavery of Egypt, announces the liberation wrought by Baptism.

You freed the children of Abraham from the slavery of Pharaoh,
bringing them dry-shod through the waters of the Red Sea,
to be an image of the people set free in Baptism. (1221 of CCC)

Finally, Baptism is prefigured in the crossing of the Jordan River by which the People of God received the gift of the land promised to Abraham's descendants, an image of eternal life. The promise of this blessed inheritance is fulfilled in the New Covenant.  (1222 of CCC)

Salvation is a Free Gift

Catholics believes that Salvation and the incorporation to the Family of God is a “free gift” and cannot be earned. That is the reason, Catholics baptize infants. Since we can never earn salvation, why delay it?

We baptized Catholics must constantly remind ourselves of who we are. We are a new creation. We are children of the Father. Our very being was “marked” by God. And that “indelible mark” says we belong to Him.
But like any gift, salvation can be rejected. We can ignore the “mark” that is in us. We can be children who abandon their Father.

So if you are a baptized Catholic Christian, act like one.
If someone asks you (a Catholic) if you are a “born again Christian”, say, “Yes! We Catholics are the original born again Christians.”