NEW HEART, NEW LI FE
In biblical times, leaven stands for something left over from old dough that is used to make new dough rise. As such, it stands for something old, something carried over from the past, something that makes an old reality continue on. It also stands for the corruption that is passed on to humanity from one generation to the next.
As a therapist, I am familiar with what family therapists call the “family intergenerational transmission system,” which, roughly understood, is equivalent to old leaven being passed on to new dough, old habits and frames of mind and even old patterns of behavior that are passed on from one generation to the next.
Anxiety is one such “old leaven” that is passed on in family systems, but by no means the only one. So is sinful behavior. Children learn what they live through role modeling.
No one, however, is condemned to repeat and relive old patterns. Two thousand years of experience have taught the Church and humanity that one can rise above such old patterns and come out fresh, renewed and totally different from what ordinarily is expected by society.
One can begin on a clean slate. No one is condemned to repeat the past. One can just put a stop to that “old leaven” and come out renewed, refreshed — and yes, repentant. Even longtime smokers can manage to quit “cold turkey,” as they say. And for this to happen, all it takes is the will to get rid of the “old yeast” of habits that enslave. “Clear out the old yeast, so that you will become a fresh batch of dough,” writes St. Paul.
Hundreds of saints in the Church’s roster proved it is possible. St. Augustine, for one, showed us this is doable. In my life, I have known of individuals who, owing to some life-changing experience, do away with the old, to pave the way for the new. This is called a change of heart, a conversion experience, or a metanoia, an about face, a total turn around. Difficult, but not impossible. New heart, new life! Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB
REFLECTION QUESTIONS: What negative old family patterns of behavior are evident in your own life? What new habits can you do to replace them?
Heal me and my family, Lord, of the wounds from past generations. Make us confident to renew our lives with new patterns of behavior.
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