March 5, 2006

God says: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). He does not say that he makes all new things. He does not make the latest clothing fashion or the newest kind of car: These are human inventions that pass away. They are, as the Greeks would say, “neo.” Our Lord takes creatures that already exist and renews them. The Greeks speak of this new intensity as “kainos.” It is what Jesus means by being “born again,” which is the re­­newal of mind and heart. “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4).

Two definitive signs of newness are birth and marriage. So Jesus offers the new birth of baptism, and he calls himself the Bridegroom who loves his bride, the Church. As baptism is necessary for salvation, it is available any time, and its greatest celebration is at the Easter Vigil in the new light of the Resurrection. Nor­mally we do not celebrate the Sacrament of Marriage during the penitential season of Lent since these forty days remind us that the Bridegroom once was “taken away” and those days are a time of fasting (Mark 2:20).

The two official days of fasting are Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. Fasting is always part of the heart’s longing for the glory of God. Abstinence is not a complete fast, but is a discipline refraining from certain things which are good in themselves. One can express love for God by abstaining from certain foods, enter­tainments, or other pleasures. All Fridays of Lent are days of abstinence, excepting this year March 17, which is the solemnity of the patron saint of the Archdiocese of New York. All this fasting and abstaining must be done in a spirit of joy because the same Lord who loves a cheerful giver does not welcome gifts begrudgingly given. So, too, almsgiving is a crucial part of the spi­ritual life. The complaint, “They are always asking for money” is a code for “They are always asking for me.” For the true disciple, this should not be a complaint but an exclamation, like the shout of Andrew to Simon: “We have found the Messiah!” (John 1:41).

Le Corbusier’s grotesque designs for a modernized Paris with the venerable old arrondissements demolished, and Speer’s even more odious planned Nazification of Berlin, were architectural parables of what happens when man tries to make all things new apart from Christ who is “ever ancient, ever new.” True renewal consists in adherence to the eternal life of God. As the noble pagan Antigone said to the willful governor in classical drama:

“I did not dream thine edict strong enough
That thou, O mortal man, should’st overpass
The unwritten laws of God that know no change.”