Too far gone?
What’s new? people used to ask before the more personal and probing How are you? became the norm. The response used to be the news, before ‘the news’ became something else entirely, less informative and anything but new.
Many summers past I have sung the praises of August for its languor and its leisure. Still I rejoice in this most wonderful month of the year, but languor is in short supply. It seems that new stuff is the order and object of the days.
In the school, LED lighting takes the place of fluorescent tubes that most of us associate with classrooms. It will be a great improvement that none of the kids will notice, being preoccupied with seeing and learning. There is new paint too, though we did most of that last year; and flooring, startling because I thought we already did that. Maybe sixteen years of wear makes carpeting old?
If that be then case then twenty years made the carpet in the rectory offices beyond old and almost disgusting, or so the staff insisted. So new carpet has arrived here as well, under bookshelves, desks, and file cabinets no less, all heavy and hard to move. Some new paint is coming too. Once the smell fades the change will be hard to spot, save that things will no longer look old.
You all saw the new deck, which is both great improvement and no big change. The improvement is that it will not collapse under us as we come and go or linger round the table; the sameness is everything else – same size and shape, same features (no elevator, fountain, or self-cleaning function), save the improvement that the materials will last much longer before this new deck becomes old enough to require replacement.
Things fall apart, but first they get old. First repair, then replacement are the requirements of having the care of things. Think for a moment about your kitchen appliances, which seem to age out much faster now than twenty-five years ago. How exciting can a new dishwasher or refrigerator be, except that it actually fulfill its function where its predecessor ceased to do so? Once the memory of the tattered and decrepit past has faded, the new and functional elicits no more joy than yet another hot day in August. Where is the fun and excitement of newness in all this?
Stairs that do not make you fear disaster, lights that do not hum and flicker attract no wonder or awe nor move hearts to gratitude, but rather by the absence of grave shortcomings elicit a contentment that all is as it should be. The absence of applause and excitement is not disappointing in these circumstances. Everything renewed is simply doing what it is supposed to do, being what it is supposed to be.
And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." (Revelation 21: 5) The God who did so marvelously create us did still more marvelously REcreate us, through Christ our Lord. That adds no features, nor electronics, nor Bluetooth; no fresh new color or radical redesign. Simply by the mercy of God, we are made not different creatures, but fully and perfectly ourselves, doing what we are supposed to do, being what we are supposed to be.
August this year is filled with the necessary tasks to achieve the near-invisible improvement of refreshment and restoration. Some few will notice, but fewer still will want to be informed when, resuming our routines at the end of summer, they make the inquiry, What’s new?
Monsignor Smith
