New people for new times

WORD 2day: Monday, 2nd week in Ordinary time

January 16, 2023: Hebrews 5:1-10; Mark 2: 18-22

When the Lord announces in the book of revelation, 'Behold I make all things new'...its not merely about some things to be made again or be re-created; it's primarily about a new mentality, a new perspective that God wants to instill and inspire in us. The source and the spring of this new perspective is Christ himself. He is at the same time the high priest and the sacrifice; the prophet and the Lord of the prophets!

In fact with a new way of relating with us, with the unique way of sharing our very nature with us, Christ makes us a new people! And that is what the Lord wants to see in us: our new selves - free from the shackles of the past and the prejudices of the ages - to relate with each other anew and to live each other without any conditions or preconceived notions.

The times are new... everyday the world is changing. There are things good that come our way and there are things that get from good to bad and from bad to worse. There are newer experiences for ourselves and for others around us: are we sensitive to all these and open to the persons around, or are we lost in our own small little world? The homeless migrants, the innocent persecuted, the ordinary exploited, the voiceless tortured... the experience is so painful all around.

Jesus becomes one among us and one like us, ready to make of himself the very offering and the high priest to offer it: it is an invitation to remain sensitive to others, in spite of our own problems. To be compassionate with the suffering, our own troubles notwithstanding. This is what it means to be new people, for the new times! Let our Christian-ness be shown in our compassion and love, not in our pride and arrogance, or in our legalism and ritualism! Let us become new people for the new times!