Something new

Traditional religion is old.

Traditional religion is practiced mostly by old people, who long for the good old days.

Traditional religion bases itself exclusively on things that are old: the Bible, events that happened two thousand years ago, saints that died hundreds of years ago, non-electric music, and dusty books.

Thus do many people regard (and disregard) traditional religion.

It’s OLD.

On the other hand, we as believers embrace the tradition of faith that has come down to us from Christ through the ages.

Yet even for us, sometimes our faith and our practice of the faith can feel old.

The Lord has a special message for us today’s first reading (from Isaiah 43).

See, I am doing something new!

Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

This is not something “new” in the same way that the world calls things “new.”

In the world of marketing, “new” often simply means “repackaged.”

Otherwise, the word “new” often means something “totally different.”

What does God mean by “new?”

The first and most important things to remember is that God himself, as pure act, is eternally new and totally “alive.” There is no “old” in God, for he exists in the eternal NOW.

This eternal newness exists in all of God’s actions, even when our earthbound and time-limited imaginations fail to recognize it.

See, I am doing something new!

Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

To be sure, God comes to us in the earthbound, time-limited reality in which we exist – that is the wonderful mystery of revelation, salvation history, and most spectacularly and perfectly the Incarnation of his Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And from all this comes the deposit of faith which we continually cherish and explore within the fellowship of the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is the very heart of the Tradition of our traditional religion.

Indeed, our faith is centered on events, words, and forms that are truly ancient and yet they are really and truly and eternally new – for in them, God is alive and God is at work.

We are the ones who make the things of God seem old.

We are the ones who make the things of God seem old by letting them slip into the realm of lifeless habit.

We are the ones who make the things of God seem old by chasing after the cheap thrill of shallow novelty instead of digging deeper into the truly intoxicating and eternally invigorating newness of what God has given.

We are the ones who make the things of God seem old by failing to let them continue to change us and make us new.

We need to ask the Lord to help us put away the distractions of this passing world and to drink more fully of the eternal newness of our “traditional religion.”

See, I am doing something new!

Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of Thy faithful
and enkindle in them the fire of Thy love.

Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created
And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus
reple tuorum corda fidelium,
et tui amoris in eis accende.

Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur.
Et renovabis faciem terrae.