Does 'born again' mean baptism, or does it mean a renewal of the mind?
A viewer, a cradle Catholic who became Protestant and is now revisiting Catholicism, struggles with the meaning of 'born again,' since Catholics say it is baptism while he views it as a renewal of the mind.
Answer
The Catholics are correct in saying that the ontological state a person assumes once he has received baptism is that he has been born again, because he is now a child of Jesus Christ, whereas before he was a child of Adam and the devil. We are not talking about feelings or a sense of being an advanced Christian, just the ontological state of being. A baby does not feel any different when we pour water on his forehead, but he is born again, because before the baptism he was a child of Adam on his way to sin and death, and now he is a child of Jesus Christ; if that baby died right after baptism, he would go straight to heaven. We are born from above because the Spirit comes down into our souls by way of the water, and as Thomas says, the soul is renewed and infused with grace that cleanses it and makes it pure. Now the Protestants, apart from the Lutherans and Anglicans, largely do not hold baptismal regeneration, so they read John 3:5 as a personal 'born-again experience.' I will not deny the legitimacy of their experience of coming to know Jesus, but you cannot apply that to John 3:5, because baptism is not a mere symbol of a profession of faith; 1 Peter 3:21 says 'baptism now saves you.' Baptism cleanses you of sin and opens the soul to be filled with grace, and that renewal of the mind is a continual process for the rest of your life. In Catholicism justification and sanctification are both an ongoing process, not a once-for-all event as in the Protestant view.