Good evening/morning and Happy
new year!
It’s
suppose it’s more a movie for Lent than Advent, for Holy Week actually, but
there’s a short but very powerful and beautiful scene in the film The Passion
of the Christ that’s very memorable. To
set the scene - Our Lord, tortured and blood, is struggling on the way to
Calvary, and his Blessed Mother sees Him at a distance down a narrow alley, sees
Him collapsing on the dusty stone street, crushed under the weight of His
cross. Mary has a flashback of Our Lord
as a toddler, sees Him tripping and falling and crying, and in her minds eye
she recalls frantically running to Him, gathering Him in her arms, comforting
Him. Back to the present, she now runs
down this alley and embraces her fallen Son, telling Him “I’m here. I’m here” Then, despite His agony and exhaustion, He
turns to her almost with a smile and exclaims “See, Mother, I make all things
new!”
“I
make all things new.” The quote is found
in scripture, but it’s nowhere to be found in the gospels, as director Mel
Gibson took some artistic liberties with this film. Christ proclaims this verse from His eternal
throne in the book of Revelation chapter 21 verse 5, the second last chapter of
the bible. A chapter that speaks of a
new heaven and a new earth. And while it
wasn’t recorded that Our Lord ever said this verse to His Blessed Mother on His
journey to Calvary, it would have been very appropriate, as that is what His
mission was, and Calvary is where He accomplished it.
On
this first day of our new liturgical year, on this first day of Advent, this
phrase, this passage, “Behold I make all things new” would, I think, be very
profitable to reflect on and think about this week. For this is a time of new beginnings. Of re-new-al. A time of starting over. For Jesus, the Lord of new beginnings, of “do-overs”
so-to-speak, came to earth 2000 years ago to make all things new, and during
this season of Advent, we anticipate His coming again, on Christmas morn and at
the end of our time.
So
I ask – what is it in your life and mine that is in need of renewal, of
starting over, in need of a do-over?
Perhaps it’s some sin that by ourselves we simply don’t have the power
to break.
Perhaps
it’s spiritual sleep – apathy or laziness.
Perhaps
it’s spiritual blindness – a failure to recognize Jesus coming to us in the
face of the poor, the immigrant, the prisoner.
Perhaps
it’s a relationship that seems hopelessly broken, that by our own power we are
helpless to mend.
Perhaps
it’s a hard heart that is unwilling to forgive, or unwilling to beg
forgiveness.
Or
perhaps it’s recognizing the need to finally, truly, follow Christ as a true
disciple, a new creation as St. Paul writes to the Corinthians. Our Lord wants nothing other than our complete
surrender to His will and His power, our complete abandonment of our failed,
self-centered, sinful ways. Thomas
Merton wrote that real faith is the “willingness to sacrifice every other value
other than the basic value of truth and life in Christ.” He wrote “[Real faith]
is not just the acceptance of ‘truths about’ Christ. It is not just
acquiescence in the story of Christ with its moral and spiritual implications.
It is not merely the decision to put into practice, to some extent at least,
the teachings of Christ. All these forms of acceptance are compatible with an
acquiescence in what is ‘not Christ.’”
Merton continued, “It is quite possible to ‘believe in Christ,’ in the
sense of mentally accepting the truth that he lived on earth, died, and rose
from the dead, and yet still live ‘in the flesh,’ according to the standards of
a greedy, violent, unjust and corrupt society, without noticing any real
contradiction in one’s life.”
My
sisters and brothers, now is the time to invite Our Lord to come into our lives
anew, to transform us, to make of each of us and our communities a new
creation, to bring His healing, His growth, His grace. “Behold, I make all things new!”
So
in addition to this promise of Our Lord, “I make all things new,” there are three
things I’d ask you to take home and think about:
1.
Be
awake! Wake up! In this Gospel, Our Lord cautions the
disciples to stay awake and on guard. We
don’t know the time or place He will come again, either at the end of time or
at the end of our own time, but the message is clear – we must wake from all
the ways in which we live our lives asleep and with vigilance, watch! Be awake!
2.
Be
open. Be open minded and open hearted and
let the Lord speak to us of the ways in which we need renewal, repentence, and
healing. And watch with open eyes for
the Lord’s coming into your life and mine.
He can come in a million different ways, but if we are open to His
presence, we will find Him. One of my professors
in diaconate formation would start every class with the question “where did you
see God today?” and each of us in class would have to answer. As the next class drew near, knowing that
question was coming, I made sure to walk around with eyes wide open, looking
for God, especially in those around me.
So be open to God’s presence in our lives.
3.
Be
clay. The very last line in our first
reading from the prophet Isaiah says that we are the clay and He is the
potter. Little children are like clay –
impressionable, moldable, teachable. As
we grow older we harden a bit, more set in our ways, more brittle even. If the Lord is to make of us something new,
we must be clay in His hands, soft and malleable. We must cooperate and let Him do His work in
us. Be awake, be open, be clay.
“See, I
make all things new,” proclaims the Savior King upon His throne. My brothers and sisters, the Lord is
coming. Let us make room for Him to come
into our lives, our relationships, our families, our community, our world. To come and transform us and truly make of us
something new.
Happy
new year!
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