In today’s reading, we have further clues that this might have been an encyclical especially designed for those who had been recently baptised.

 

The writer is exhorting the readers to leave the pagan ways behind them and to live in the way that models itself on Jesus. They are to put aside their old self and be renewed - undergoing a spiritual revolution so that they can put on the new self prepared for them by God.

 

The image of laying down an old self - or dying to the old life was a strong element in the celebration of Baptism in the early Church. Today, we speak of the newly-baptised as a new creation, clothed in Christ.

 

It is easy to see how someone recently baptised or received into the Church could feel as if they had left something old and tarnished behind - and dream that it could last forever.

 

However, reality creeps in - and old habits die very hard. As the novelty wears off, it is very easy to slip back into old and familiar ways - and suddenly to realise that you have come a long way from the hopes and dreams of Baptism.

 

For those baptised as children, this can be even more pronounced - the idea of dying to self at the age of a few weeks is impossible to grasp - especially for the baby! It can feel as if our “old self” has always been part of our lives - bad habits overlaying the grace of Baptism.

How can we make real the feeling of putting something old and tarnished behind us and start afresh? Where the old and tarnished feels like sin, Reconciliation is one answer.

 

At a very simple level, however, it can begin every day. We speak of “daily conversion” and the habit of waking with an expression of desire to live that day modelled on Christ can refocus our lives on the values by which we want to live. This is the basis of a “Morning Offering” - a traditional way to start the day..