Dear brothers and sisters,

We have heard the words of the Apostle Paul, who reminds us today that we are called to “put off the old man with his deeds, and to put on the new man, who is being renewed according to the image of the One who created him.”
But why does the Apostle Paul even say this to us, if we are already baptized?
Have we not already heard the words: “As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ”?
Why, then, does he again call us to put off the old man and to put on the new one?
The Apostle Paul tells us this because baptism is not the end, it is the beginning of the journey.
In baptism we received the seed of the new man, but that seed must grow, be nurtured, and be guarded from the passions and from forgetfulness. We have put on Christ in baptism, but every day we must protect that garment, so that we do not wear it thin with anger, bitterness, vanity, and indifference.

The old man does not disappear magically; he tries to return through habits, through old thoughts, through the weaknesses of the soul. That is why the Apostle warns us, not to shame us, but to awaken us. To say to us:
“Do not live as though baptism belongs to the past, but as though it is today, in this very moment, alive and active within you.”
These words are not merely a moral instruction, they are a call to the complete transformation of the human person in Christ.
Saint Maximus the Confessor teaches that the “old man” is not simply an external weakness, but an inner condition of the soul that lives only for itself, turned toward passions, habits, and egoism. Such a person is closed off within his fears, his own will, his small interests. He fights to preserve himself, yet in doing so, he loses himself.
The “new man,” says Saint Maximus, is not just a slightly better or more moral version of the old one. The new man is the one whose mind, will, and heart are slowly returning to God, the one who learns to love, to humble himself, to live in communion. He is the one who allows Christ to become his very life.
Christian life, therefore, is not cosmetic repair, it is a path of transformation. God calls us to this path, but He does not walk it instead of us.
God calls, but the human person offers his freedom, his decision, his effort. Salvation is not an imposed reality; it is a free response to God’s invitation.
And so, in the Gospel, the Church shows us people who were invited, yet did not come. They were not evil; they were not openly against God, but they were carefully attached to their small lives, to their work, their habits, their concerns. They did not say, “We do not need God.” They said, “Now is not the right time.”

And here lies the deepest tragedy of human freedom.
Our downfall does not always come from great sins, it often comes from small excuses.
We postpone prayer.
We postpone confession.
We postpone repentance.
We postpone forgiveness.
And time passes, and we become the old man more and more.

Therefore, the experience of the Church teaches us that the new man is not born all at once, but is formed through ascetic struggle and the Liturgy, through conscious participation in the life of the Church. The Eucharist is not merely a custom or a pious habit, it is a foretaste of the Great Supper in the Kingdom of God. As the Holy Fathers say: the one who comes to church with his body but not with his heart has not yet entered into the mystery of the new man.
Dear brothers and sisters, today we are called to ask ourselves sincerely:
Are we among those who came, or among those who found an excuse?
Does Christ live in us, or do only we live: our fears, our vanity, and our habits?
If we recognize the old man within ourselves, we must not fall into despair. God has not called us to be frightened, but to begin to change, quietly, humbly, step by step. The new man is born when we say:
“Lord, here I am. I want to come to You, I want to belong to You.”
And so today, dear brothers and sisters, let us ask the Lord to grant us strength:
to cast away resentment, bitterness, and envy,
to overcome self-sufficiency and indifference,
to return to prayer, to the Liturgy, and to love every neighbor.
And when God calls us, let us not answer with excuses, but with the words:
“Yes, Lord, here I am. I want to become a new man in You.”

To Him be the Glory now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Amen.