Word of Life
for ages 4-8 | for ages 9-17 | Print | Audio
Behold, I am making everything new! (Rev 21:5).
This word of life is taken from the book of Revelation, the text that concludes the collection of writings that are found in the New Testament. As the name implies, this book unveils and reveals: infact, the aim of the author was to help the reader understand the significance of the last things that will occur at the end of time: the return of Christ to earth, the definitive defeat of evil and the rising up of a new heaven and a new earth.
It is not an easy text to understand. It dates back to the years 81-96 AD when Christians were facing fierce persecution and there was an atmosphere of fear in their communities. They had begun to wonder what would become of them and the message that had been entrusted to them. Some were asking why did God not intervene.
This was the situation when the author was sent into exile by the Romans to the island of Patmos. While he was there, he began to have a series of visions and was commanded to write them down.
Behold, I am making everything new!
The book of Revelation sought to bring hope to persecuted communities: despite the difficulties and violence they were experiencing at the time and the uncertainty of the future, it conveyed the message that good will ultimately triumph and God will make all things new.
Today too, when we watch the news or read the headlines, we see so much tragedy and distress in the world that we risk becoming desensitised to it all. […] But there is a Father who weeps with us; there is a Father who sheds tears of infinite compassion for his children. We have a Father who waits in order to console us, because he knows our sufferings and has prepared a different future for us. This is the great vision of Christian hope, which stretches over all the days of our life, every day of our existence, and seeks to raise us up once more.”[i]
Behold, I am making everything new!
We cannot know when and how this will happen and there is no point in searching for the answers. What is certain, however, is that it will happen.
“The final pages of the Bible show us the ultimate panorama towards which a believer is travelling: the Jerusalem of Heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem. It is described as an immense ‘tent’ where God will welcome all people and dwell with them forever (Rev 21:3). This is our hope. What will God do when we are finally with him? He will show us infinite tenderness, like a Father who welcomes his children who have long struggled and suffered. Behold, the tent of God is with all men and women! [… He] will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, nor mourning, nor weeping, nor pain, for the former things have passed away […] Behold, I am making all things new!’ (Rev 21:3-5). The God of newness!” [ii]
Behold, I am making everything new!
How can we live this month’s Word of Life?
“It assures us that we are on our way to a new world that we are preparing and building right now. Therefore, this is not a mere invitation to disengage and escape from the world of the present. God wants to renew all things: our personal lives, friendships, married love, families; he wants to renew social life, the world of work, school, culture, leisure, health, the economy and politics… in a word, all areas of human activity. But to do this, he needs us. He needs people who let his Word live in them, who are his living Word and are like Jesus wherever they are.” [iii]
A young Christian woman called Alice understood that following God’s call meant that she needed to change many aspects of her behaviour and allow God to act more fully in her life and so renew it from within. She received the ‘immense gift,’ of the opportunity to spend some time in India. There, she began to understand real joy and she felt immersed in God’s grace, even during difficult times. She spent time in prayer, community life, and voluntary service. She was deeply touched by the children she met in the orphanage because even though they had nothing, they were incredibly enthusiastic and taught her a lot about life. Alice’s time in India was not just a trip, but a pilgrimage, a journey of ‘ups and downs’, where she had to ‘empty her rucksack’ but found enrichment and freedom.
Prepared by Augusto Parody Reyes & the Word of Life Team.
[i] Cf. Pope Francis, General Audience 23 Aug 2017
[ii] Ibid
[iii] Cfr. C. Lubich, Word of Life.
