Reflection
Today is Saturday, July 4th. It is the Saturday of the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time.
“Behold I am making all things new.”
That quote, from Revelation 21:15, is not part of the readings for today. However, it was echoing in my heart as I prepared this reflection. The promise - “Behold I am making all things new.”- is not just fixing the old; it is a radical re-creation where pain, sorrow and brokenness are removed. It may not be fully realized until Christ comes again, but it is meant to be experienced in this lifetime. It is a call to transformation, now, in this moment. It is an invitation to experience healing and a renewed heart, mind and direction RIGHT NOW, not just at the end of time.
This call to transformation is like fingerprints – it is all over the readings for today. The First Reading contains these words – “Thus says the Lord: On that day I will raise up the fallen hut of David; I will wall up its breaches, raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old….”
Could THAT DAY be TODAY?
The Gospel proclaims: “No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth, for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse. People do not put new wine into old wineskins…. Rather they pour new wine into fresh wineskins…..”
I must admit for most of my life I was a “seasonal Catholic”; a “Sunday Catholic”. I would attend Mass on Sunday; I would go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation once during Advent and once during Lent. I would receive absolution and promise to “avoid the near occasion of sin.” On Sundays, and with the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I found myself filled with God’s grace, but Monday and the season of “ordinary time” quickly arrived.
Perhaps you are like me.
I was not being “restored” or “rebuilt”; I was simply patching up my wineskin.
It occurred to me – Perhaps that is not what God wanted FOR ME; not what God EXPECTED OF ME.
I asked the Lord to begin to make me new. I began to do an examination of conscience at the end of each day to make myself more aware of my action or inaction during the course of that day. I started each day with a Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as I knew I needed her help. I called upon St. Michael the Archangel to “defend me in battle” when I sensed the devil on the prowl looking to devour my soul.
Admittedly, Satan occasionally wins a battle, but I know Christ and I are winning the war. I am a “work in progress”, but I know I am being transformed, made into something new.
“Behold I am making all things new.” – Could those words be for you?