Is Life a Cheat?
Walk down the aisle of any supermarket….. look at the ads in any popular magazine…watch the commercials on TV…. listen to any political campaign.
One word recurs in ever fresh combination: “new.”
It if isn’t a new look…. it’s a new taste…. a new feeling…. a new formula... a new approach.
Everyone with something to sell seems to be promising us something new.
But how many of these promises are fulfilled? …………not many it seems:
- Today’s new car becomes tomorrow’s s old trade-in.
- That new formula tastes like the old formula.
- And we all know what happens to campaign promises after the election!
Is life a cheat?
Is the longing for newness to which all these promises appeal doomed to fail?
To this question our second reading returns the answer: “No.”
“The One who sat on the throne said to me, ‘Behold, I make all things new.”
The Book of Revelation, from which those words are taken, describes in language of poetic imagery the author’s vision of heaven.
But it is part of the good news of Jesus Christ that God offers us…. here and now….. a foretaste of that new and better life which, in its fullness, will be ours hereafter.
The Lord who makes all things new does this in many ways.
Let me speak about just one.
It is indicated by the words that the author of Revelation heard in his vision:
“Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God.”
These words are an assurance that God is always with us.
To those oppressed by loneliness…. the Lord says: “Behold, I make all things new.”
When no one else understands…… there is One who does understand.
When everyone else seems to ignore us, to reject us, to condemn us…. there is One who accepts us.
When I cannot find one other person to accept the love I long to give, and to receive, there is One who does accept: who loved me before I loved him….. who loves me more than I can ever love him….. who will go on loving me no matter what.
His name is Jesus Christ……… He is the One who makes all things new.
Jesus knew greater loneliness than we shall ever experience.
The gospel reading we have just heard opens with the departure of one of Jesus’ closest friends, to betray him.
But Jesus’ first words after this devastating blow do not speak of defeat, but of victory: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.”
What gave Jesus that ability to view betrayal not as defeat…. but as victory?
It was his faith in a God who does indeed make all things new.
St. Paul tells us in our first reading: “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”
As long as this life continues, God’s promise to make all things new does not mean preservation from hardships…. but support amid hardships.
Life is not a cheat.
There is One who does make all things new.
His name is Jesus Christ.
He can make this Parish’s life new……He can make your life new…… He longs to do so.
He will never do this, however, without your consent.
His assurance, “Behold, I make all things new” ……is certain.
Only one thing alone is uncertain:
Do you want the new life that God is offering you….. and our Parish…. even now, through his Son Jesus Christ?
We just may find out by the success or failure of our volunteer fair…….