Our baptism gives us an identity that is thicker than blood: we are now adopted sons and daughters of God the Father and brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ – members of God’s divine family and members of His Body, the Catholic Church, the new covenantal community.

With this new identity comes a new way of life. This life involves a new way of thinking and acting. We see this taught clearly in both the Old Testament and New Testament. For example, in the prophet Jeremiah 21:8 we read: “And to this people you shall say: Thus says the LORD: See, I am giving you a choice between life and death.” In Romans 8:13, St. Paul exhorts: “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” (cf. Paul’s contrast in Ephesians 4, v. 22 and 24 between the “old self/man” and the “new self/man.”)

The very early Christians were fond of this way of speaking in “contrasts.” For example, we see it in the late first century document, The Didache (also known as “The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles”). It’s divided into three (or sometimes two) parts and sixteen chapters, with Part I titled, “The Two Ways,” i.e., “The Way of Life”, which is the love of God and one’s neighbor, and “The Way of Death”, which includes a list of serious vices to be avoided as contrary to the Christian life (e.g., such immoralities as murder, abortion, infanticide, adultery, and even a possible reference to contraceptive practices in Part I, Chapter 5, as John T. Noonan argued in his book, Contraception).

More recently, St. John Paul II’s 1993 encyclical, Veritatis splendor, no. 26, references the Didache and speaks to the importance of upright living as integral to what it means to be a Christian: “From the Church’s beginnings, the Apostles, by virtue of their pastoral responsibility to preach the Gospel, were vigilant over the right conduct of Christians, just as they were vigilant for the purity of the faith and the handing down of the divine gifts in the sacraments [cf. 1 Pt 2:12ff; cf. Didache, II, 2]. The first Christians, coming both from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, differed from the pagans not only in their faith and their liturgy but also in the witness of their moral conduct, which was inspired by the New Law. The Church is in fact a communion both of faith and of life; her rule of life is ‘faith working through love’ (Gal 5:6).”

Our common and universal vocation as Catholics is to live up to our great baptismal dignity; it’s to live worthily according to our identity as people who have been made new by Christ in the Holy Spirit. We are now to follow Jesus and His Church. This “following” includes the new way of life that they propose: to choose “the way of life” (=Jesus) over “the way of death” (=“the world, the flesh, & the Devil”; cf. Mk 4:15-17; Eph 2:1-3). This is the surest way for us to holiness, to perfection, to sanctity.

Concretely, then, this new way of life includes keeping the 10 Commandments and observing our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount and its Beatitudes. These biblical texts, along with Church teaching, are the moral “maps” for our spiritual journey, while an informed conscience is our “compass,” the sacraments are our “nourishment”, the moral virtues are our “toolkit” for dealing with obstacles blocking our path to the Kingdom, and prayer is the “flashlight” that illumines our path.

But “the world” (i.e., everything contrary to God’s wise and loving plan) is opposed to this way of life. So, we will find ourselves often having to live “counter-culturally” to the secular or godless way of life we see all around us. Part of what the Church means by the “New Evangelization” is the need to confront this world (and even our fellow Catholics!) in love with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. What St. John Paul II called the “culture of death” won’t be defeated without our witness to the “culture of life.”

There is nothing that should be more precious to us than our Catholic faith. And nothing that is incompatible with it should be considered good. This faith is both God’s great gift, but also our “task.” We therefore have to appropriate Church teaching and God’s word in our own life. In other words, we have to consciously make choices to live the Gospel in a relativistic culture that is becoming increasingly hostile to historic Christian beliefs and practices. Discipleship isn’t easy! It isn’t for the faint of heart! But God has promised His grace to us! He has given us His Church to help us! He will not abandon us in our efforts to love him and our neighbor more and more each day!

Finally, let us remind ourselves that the work of being Jesus’ disciples is not completed over night. No: It’s a life-long task that implies daily conversion: the steady growth or progress in holiness in our particular “states of life” and personal vocations. St. John Paul II describes conversion as “a complete and sincere adherence to Christ and his Gospel through faith” (Redemptoris missio, 46). The New Testament has a wonderful word for this radical change of heart from sin to God: metanoia. It’s the work of “clothing” ourselves with Christ (cf. Gal 3:27) or “putting on” Christ (cf. Rom 13:14) each and every day, and purposely deciding that we’re going to cling to him and not to the culture (cf. John Paul II, Veritatis splendor, 21).

I conclude with a powerful call to conversion from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans. It’s one of my most favorite passages in the Bible: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12:2)

Mark S. Latkovic, S.T.D. is a Professor of Moral Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary (Detroit, MI), where he has taught for over 23 years. He is co-editor of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Natural Law Tradition: Contemporary Perspectives (The Catholic University of America Press, 2004), as well as author of What’s a Person to Do? Everyday Decisions that Matter (Our Sunday Visitor, 2013) and numerous articles in scholarly and popular journals.

Articles by Mark: