Skip to main content

This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant

Is there anything new under the sun? (I’m thinking of the New Year and all that.) Not according to the author of Ecclesiastes.

What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us (1:9-10).

I wonder what this author would say about all the inventions of the last 200 years and about the Internet, that did not exist before the 1990’s. Would he say that, at last, something truly new is happening right around the world? Or, would he continue the same rant as ever?

Then I saw that all toil and skilful work is the rivalry of one man for another. This is also vanity and a chasing after wind (4:4).

Oh yes, that: rivalry of one for another, vanity, and chasing after wind.

Still, instant communication with friends does come in handy at times, and computer-simulated models can teach so much about the universe.

Just as you know not how the breath of life fashions the human frame in the mother’s womb, so you know not the work of God which he is accomplishing in the universe. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening let not your hand be idle: for you know not which of the two will be successful, or whether both alike will turn out well (11:6).

And so forth.

On the other hand, a portion of the Bible is called the New Testament. St. Paul is one of its principal spokesmen:

Whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold new things have come (2 Cor 5:17).

We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, too, might live in newness of life (Romans 6:4).

You should put aside the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Moreover, there are, of course, the many terms other than “new” that refer to the newness of life in Christ: resurrection, justification, glorification, Spirit-filled, life eternal, etc.

In this beginning of another new year, two laws are apt to be at work: the first, with nothing much truly new, and mostly—in essence, if not in appearance—more of same.

And then there is life ever-new and ever-renewed in Jesus Christ. I wonder which will predominate in my life this year.

We all seem to know well how to produce “more of same.” But what about a life truly renewed daily in Christ? What would that be like anyway? What would it look like?

Looking at the context of the above quotations from St. Paul, we see that first there is a deep, interior transformation that goes on.

This transformation comes from a continual contemplation of the Lord Jesus in word and in sacrament, as well as in our neighbor, in other words a constant or continual inclination towards receptive prayer.

Whatever one’s resistance to this, one can choose to turn continually in one’s spirit in the direction of the Lord.

Only he knows the real purpose of this New Year in God’s providential plan; only he knows how to truly negotiate its troubled or untroubled waters, how to rightly estimate its many potentials, and when to act and when to wait.

Only the Lord knows, also, how any of this coincides with the mystery and the limitations of each person, of myself. Only he understands that unless, human as we are, we find a way to gaze upon his beauty, we truly do in some measure wither and die.

If we are living, then we are praying; only if praying in some manner as described here are we living!

Otherwise, we remain stuck in the rut of going nowhere fast, no matter at what pace we are speeding along. It is the rut of our own thoughts, ideas, and so-called inspirations. It may fascinate for a time, but when we look out the window of self at the passing world, we find we are pretty much where we were last January 1! Lord, have mercy!

The fruit of this prayer is a constant knowledge of the need to repent and to seek God’s mercy.

But even all the above faithfully practiced can also come to nothing, unless the Gospel of the Lord is lived in relationship to our neighbor.

It’s all very nice to float heavenwards, I guess, but the heaven I’m heading towards is mostly of my own making and therefore not heavenly at all, unless I become Christ, give Christ to my neighbor. Unless I love him and bow to him in service in my brothers and sisters.

All that listening and adoring and contemplating my Lord suddenly sets my heart on fire for him suffering or in some need in those who are around me or who come into my life in one way or the other.

And I simply cannot ignore that cry, that presence of glory and beauty who is my fellow human being.

Recently, I was talking with a brother priest visiting Madonna House, Combermere, from southwest Ethiopia. It was near the end of his month-long visit, and Father Worku, a young priest, age 36, had touched many of us with his stories of serving the people of that region, many of whom experience incredible hardship and poverty.

One day Father had completed a long and arduous journey over rough terrain in a very undependable car. At last, having arrived at his remote mission outpost, he was about to take a few moments to clean up, have a shower, perhaps rest a bit. (The shower consisted of a couple buckets of water poured over oneself while standing in a stall.) However, this was not to be.

No sooner had he gone inside when loud banging on the door of the house pursued him, accompanied by loud and frantic voices: “Abba! Abba! Come quickly! It’s an emergency!”

“I’ll be there in a few minutes; let me take my shower first!” ‘No, Abba! Come now! Now! A woman is in difficult labor and must go to the hospital in Jimma.” (Jimma is a good distance from this mission, in the direction from which he had just come.)

So, Abba Worku, dusty and tired, got back into his jalopy, accompanied by the woman in labor and three or four others, to head back towards Jimma.

It wasn’t long, however, before shouts came from the backseat and then cries of joy and praise of God. A healthy boy had just been born in the backseat of Abba Worku’s car! He was eventually given the name Daniel and was baptized.

“You know,” Father said to me, “it is so often this way with Christ: when I seem to have nothing left to give, it is just then that he will ask for a little more. Then it is not so much me as Christ in me who gives of himself. How good God is!”

Is this, Lord, what you mean by a new life in you? At last we let you live in us, and then, to your glory, something new can actually happen on this earth?

Maybe even enough peace and generosity to give the little Daniels of this world a real chance, until that new creation comes in fullness where his dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, and his kingship shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:14).

[icons icon=”fa-arrow-circle-o-left” size=”fa-3x” type=”normal” link=”https://madonnahouse.org/restorationnews/” target=”_self” icon_color=”#a3a3a3″ icon_hover_color=”#175f8f”]