7 April 2019
Fifth Sunday of Lent
Christianity is not primarily a religion of the past, but a religion of the present. To defend this assertion, I would like to cite Isaiah 43:18-19, where God says “remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new!” In other words, we must avoid any preoccupations with the past that blind us to what God is doing right now. To put it another way, the historical question “what has God done in the past?” is only useful to us insofar as it helps us to understand what God is doing right now, and what he is asking us to do with the help of his Grace.
God’s interventions in human affairs did not cease with Moses, or Jesus of Nazareth or St. Ignatius Loyola. There was no Golden Age of Christianity that is now over and gone. No era is dim or dull to someone who has received the light of Christ. The very same Holy Spirit has been at work in this world in every epoch since the time of Pentecost.
This is not to deny the existence of failures and shortcomings that surround us and that try to claim us. How could anyone deny that this world and all its inhabitants are torn by strife and chaos. It has always been so. What is new, what is really new, is not a matter of fashions or fads or trends. “See,” God says, “I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” Maybe, my friend, you don’t perceive it. Maybe you need to find some time this Lent to turn to God, in prayer, and ask him to show you the new things that he is doing.