“The Lord Creates a New Heavens and a New Earth.”

Beloved friends, the Lenten journey began on Ash Wednesday seems to have taken a marathon pace, for we have barely a week to enter Holy Week. God has been good, as usual, during these weeks of Lent despite the challenges we encounter each day. That notwithstanding, God always wants today to create a new heaven and a new earth in our lives at every given opportunity when we avail ourselves.

The Prophet Isaiah assures us: "Thus says the Lord: Now I create new heavens and a new earth, and the past will not be remembered, and will come no more to men's minds" (Is 65:17). This is what the Lord wants to do in our lives once more as draw to the end of our Lenten pilgrimage. Creating a new heaven and a new earth implies God taking away our old life of sinfulness and beginning afresh with us. It also means that God takes away the fears, worries, anxieties, stress, etc. that have come because of wrong choices we had earlier made. When God takes care of our old life, He forgets about it and begins anew. All we need to do is to believe in him; have faith a lively faith.

When we allow God to create us anew, the result is joy and gladness. Creating us anew entails reshaping and remolding us of old ways to accommodate or take on the ways of God. It doesn't dismiss our pain, trials, persecutions, sickness, death, etc., but a new way of coping with these realities in the light of sharing in Christ's suffering and death and remaining faithful to God with the complete understanding that life begins and ends in God. The question to answer is: do I want to be created anew? To be created anew involves two things: first, leaving behind the life of sin and embracing the life of virtue that builds character and second, a complete trust in God, who handles everything for us (Faith). In a sense, it is about a new relationship with God that separates us from sin and allows room to trust in God, no matter what is happening in our lives. We can reconcile ourselves with God by celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation when we are in sin. We shall have penitential services this week to help us in this regard in our various churches to get set for Easter as renewed people. In the Sacrament of Confession, we meet the merciful God whose wrath doesn't endure forever when we return to Him; He gives us what we need and never what we deserve – we get love and healing-forgiveness. 

Happy Sunday to you all!