“Behold I make all things new.”

These are Jesus’ words from our second reading from the Book of Revelation today.

“I make all things NEW”

Everybody loves new things. 

New things are very exciting. They are fresh. Different.

Buying a new car…is awesome.

Seeing a brand new movie…is fun.

Hearing new music from our favorite band…

Reading a new book…

Meeting new friends…

Starting a new job…

You could say novelty brings with it a certain amount of built-in interest. New stuff, new experiences, and new people are fascinating to us. They hold our attention…

But only for so long, right?

The new car… eventually gets old and starts breaking down.

The new movie… becomes a movie you’ve seen a million times.

The new music… starts to get very familiar and perhaps a bit dull.

Even new friendships… lose that initial spark and enthusiasm.

The new job… can easily become tedious and repetitive.

This fact of life is especially challenging when it comes to life-long, permanent commitments:

The newly weds go off on their honeymoon and have a blast! Everything is new and different and fresh… but after a few months, after a year… after five years: The honeymoon is over, right?

Real life sets in. (Can I get an Amen?)

Don’t worry! Something like this happens for newly ordained priests as well. At first, you’re the brand new baby priest! Everybody loves you! Everyone is so excited for you! There’s all kinds of hoopla. Everything is new! Your first Mass! Your first anointing of the sick! Your first confession! First baptism! All your brand new vestments!

And then…. five years suddenly pass by…

And you’re now hearing your five-millionth confession…

From the same person!

Confessing the same sins!!!!!

Real life sets in! …And you realize: “Wow, I’ve committed, I’ve promised to do this for the rest of my life.”

If we’re not careful, our life can quickly devolve into a frantic search for endless new stuff: 

The next new purchase, the next new achievement, the next new relationship, the next new vacation… We can end up chasing the experience of novelty to try and hold off creeping feeling of boredom…

Be very very careful! Because within this frenzied search for the “new” comes very powerful temptations to abandon the “old.” To neglect our responsibilities. To avoid our commitments. To flee the battlefield!

The Desert Fathers often warned of something they called “Acedia” —  sometimes referred to as the Noonday Devil or the 8th Deadly Sin. 

The person who suffers from acedia, they say, will anxiously look around for more and more “new stuff” BECAUSE they’ve become sad, disillusioned, and apathetic toward God and His calling for their life. 

As one author puts it, Acedia is “manifested first of all by a constant need to move, to change” — a constant need for “NOVELTY” — “To change one’s locality, work, situation, institution, occupation, spouse, friends…” 

Eventually, acedia leads to a kind of disgust for “anything lasting,” for “everything that stays in one place.”

Now thankfully, most of us probably DO NOT struggle with full-blown “acedia” — but even so, I think the warning is very helpful.

Because WHEN it inevitably begins to happen that the “new” loses its initial luster and becomes “normal,” “familiar” and (dare I say) even kind of “boring”… How are we going to respond? Will we give up and run away? We will we break our promises? Will we allow ourselves to be pulled away to the next new thing that promises a quick fix?

I propose that it is at THIS precise moment that Jesus wants to step in and remind each one of us:

“Behold, I make all things new.”

Jesus is in the business of making ALL things fresh again. 

He came to make NEW men and NEW women!

NEW hearts!

NEW creations!

NEW virtues!

NEW holiness!

He wants to breath new life into our vocations!

He wants to bring about deep, lasting RENEWAL in us!

His mercies are NEW every morning!

He promises us a “New Heavens, and a New Earth!”

“The old order has passed away.”

“I give you a NEW commandment,” Jesus says — “Love one another, as I have loved you!”

BUT… and this is important…

God’s idea of “newness” is of an entirely different sort than worldly newness.

The world’s idea of “newness” is constant flux and change. Change for change-sake… it’s the myth of modern progress. If we’re not constantly changing and updating our views and sensibilities…if we’re not keeping up with the times, then the world dismisses us as old-fashioned, out of touch, and un-evolved.

But as we all know: God never changes!

God does not “develop” or “evolve.”

In Him “there is no variation or shadow due to change,” as the Letter of St James teaches us.

So…How do we reconcile all of this?

Perhaps St. Augustine — one of the greatest theologians who ever lived — can help us find some clarity!

In his book “The Confessions,” St Augustine once wrote this amazing paragraph. It’s possibly one of the most famous paragraphs in all of Western Literature — 

“Late have I loved You!!! O Beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I loved You! And see, you were within and I was in the external world and sought you there, and in my unlovely state I plunged into those lovely created things which you made. You were with me, and I was not with you. You called and cried out loud and shattered my deafness. You were radiant and resplendent, you put to flight my blindness. You were fragrant, and I drew in my breath and now pant after you. I tasted you, and I feel but hunger and thirst for you. You touched me, and I am set on fire to attain the peace which is yours.” 

Wow.

Beauty, ever ancient, ever new…

That is the key right there!

We are privileged to have a God who is always ancient — always enduring, always unchanging, always steadfast, a rock-solid firm foundation! — and yet He is also always new — always creative, always fresh, always totally unexpected and beautifully surprising in all His Providential ways!!!!

Another way to think about this is that our God is much OLDER and yet simultaneously much YOUNGER than we would ever dare to imagine!

GK Chesterton, in his amazing little book, Orthodoxy, compares this sort of idea to the way that little kids, because they are so energetic, will playfully demand that grownups do the same thing over and over and over again…

“They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”

I think this is the ticket to entering more fully into our daily commitments — those every day realities that can become so boring and repetitive…

We need to turn and become more like children. We need to ask our Father in heaven for the grace to see things with fresh eyes and renewed mind — We need to appreciate the MYSTERY of this life again… and turn to Him saying: “Do it again!!!!”

And he will reply: “Behold I make all things new.”

I’ll finish with this:

In just a few moments’ time, Jesus will once again say those very old, very familiar words: “Take this all of you, and eat of it… This is my Body! Drink from it! This is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of the NEW and ETERNAL covenant”

These are incredibly ancient words.

Maybe we are a little too familiar with them? Maybe they’ve sort of lost some of their freshness…?

And yet here is the unchanging Truth: 

Every single Mass is brand new. 

Every single liturgy is brand new. 

This particular moment has never happened before! 

I invite you to expect something BRAND NEW from the Lord in THIS particular celebration of Eucharist!!!! 

It is a literal foretaste of the New Heavens and the New Earth that Jesus promised us!

“O Beauty, ever ancient, ever new!”

Help us, Lord, to love as You love. 

Help us to be made forever new by THIS Holy Mass and EVERY Mass.