“Behold, I am making all things new.” In Revelation, Christ utters these words from the throne as the cosmos is remade and a New Heaven and a New Earth are coming into existence. It is the fulfillment of God’s promise, a promise first witnessed in Christ’s resurrection. When the disciples talked with, ate with, and even touched Jesus’ resurrected body, they were beholding the first glimmer of what God would bring about at the end of history. Christ stood among his friends and followers, His very body a marker on the trail that He was blazing through death into new life.
For centuries, much of the Church observed Advent, not as a time of waiting to celebrate and commemorate the birth of Jesus, but as a penitential season anticipating Christ’s second coming. The Christian year began in a season of fasting and repentance. The Christian year, both historically and within the liturgical Tradition, does not, begin with Christ’s entrance into our lives, but with the profound contemplation of Christ’s absence. It began with the longing for God to show up, a longing for the author of history to make all things new.
I could list a few significant parts of my life where I am longing for Christ to make new. Some are areas where my own sinfulness has grown into toxic, faithless habits. Others are areas beyond my control where sin’s fingerprints have left their stain. And there are some areas where the difference between the two is more murky. Dear Jesus, come make all things new.
This time of year, I like to see how many different film adaptations of A Christmas Carol I can watch. There are some old favorites like A Muppet Christmas Carol, but I also like to see how Charles Dickens’ classic is being interpreted over and over and over again. Regardless of the decade or the director, the story always climaxes with Scrooge’s profession that “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, Present, and the Future.” For Scrooge to be a new man, to never revert to his apathetic and embittered self, he must not forget what has been, be ignorant of the plight of humanity around him, or succumb to a hopeless, lonely end. Scrooge must have compassion for his past, charity for his present, and hope for his future.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to do the same. Advent is a season for reflection and repentance because that is how we prepare and participate in Christ’s making us new. We get to taste that newness now. Christ’s resurrection work is for us now. We anticipate Christ’s reign coming in its fullness because we experience moments of it in our present.
With Advent quickly giving way to Christmastide, please join me in asking, “Jesus, show me what needs to be made new? What in my life needs resurrection?”
“Behold, I am making all things new.” Amen.