New to What is Old

I am new to what is old, a kind of intruder, though I have been here before. Under other guises. As student, poet, artist, person, but that was not enough. It is never enough simply to be oneself, to be what has been handed to you, the easy gather of life, without having reached for what is universal to all, to what is true.

So I am new to what is old in living rather than simply being. Living, as knowing, being "in relation to" what is old.

What is old? What is true.

I wonder, I smile, at efforts and actions to recapture what was as being somehow more true than being as is. I wonder how a person can know God while holding opinions of what was as anything more authentic than what is.

What are we if not that person who listens to the heart? We could only be interpreters, or magicians, or performers.

Christ was present. We know this. We are called to be Christ. Be present.

I am new to what is old, for what is old is true. So I am new to Christ, who is present. What is merely passed is not present. But Christ is present.

All things are made new, through Christ. There is nothing old that is new except that is it is Christ.

This is the Mass, where He is real and present.

And so we are compelled to leave opinions and presentiments behind, as the fruit sheds the husk. In Church, mountaintop, or battlefield, in the midnight hour, in the bright light of noon on a summer's day, we are new to what is old when we lay our self aside, that fugitive clothing, and enter into the body of Christ as He enters us.

This is life. The true life. And it occurs now at this very present moment, in you.

There are no preconditions. How could there be? Why would there be? What tests would a father propose to a child who asks only to be understood.

Recall those who encountered the Lord. Say what is in your heart and follow all who are true as they allow what is true in their heart.

• Listen, who has ears to listen.
• See, who has eyes to see.
• Know, who has the heart to allow what only the heart can confess.

Amen