Sunday in Octave of Christmas 26.12.10 Generational change
Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat its mistakes. If that is so it looks like not many people study history! Every generation does exactly the same things.
There is always war, people killing each other, arguments, selfishness. Whatever is evil seems to happen just as much as ever, no matter what century or what year.
And more to the point each generation ignores/rejects God.
Our Lord was rejected at His birth and then by another generation thirty years later. And then future generations have done the same thing, crucifying Him again - in their minds at least.
They insult, blaspheme against Him like no other. And disregard His words.
We should get better with time. Logically each generation should be better than the one before. ‘They did this wrong so we will do better’.
But everybody does the same mistakes again and again.
So we need some help here to get things to a higher level. We need God’s grace to put His will into effect.
Folly is the consequence of sin; our minds are darkened, and wills weakened. So that even when we know something will have bad consequences we still do it.
Only by divine grace. We have to accept him, at least initially, and then let His grace work on us to help us learn from the past; and with this greater wisdom our thinking will change and eventually our whole culture or society.
At Christmas time especially we would like to think there could be some improvement in the human condition. So far not much to enthuse over.
But it is not beyond us.
We cannot raise ourselves. It takes prayer, repentance, application. Daily seeking the necessary grace. Only God can lead us out of the wilderness.
A few basic steps is all it takes. We can make progress in other spheres such as medicine and technology but no progress at all morally.
The moral sphere requires direct acknowledgment of God and direct contrition. That is why it has not happened.
It needs for us to go further than just a ritual observance of Christmas and to dig deep for the power that is there.
This power is undiminished by time; every day is the first day of the rest of human history.
We can control only our own individual response but we are hoping that there will be a chemical reaction, an explosion of goodwill if a critical mass is reached. If enough people see something in a new light a big change can result.
It is not beyond us, if we connect with the grace of God. It is not beyond us to do that much. We are not being asked to solve all the world’s problems; only to humble ourselves before the crib of Bethlehem, to ask His help every step of the way.
And not to give in to fatalism. Many thinkers have noted the human condition and have resigned themselves to the sameness of one generation to the next; but this is to exclude the miraculous and abundant power of God.
The Covenant which Our Lord established was new not just in the depth of its teaching but also in its power to change human hearts and minds. It would inspire us to get out of the rut.
Just to believe this is possible is itself a breakthrough. This is not some naive optimism but plain honest Christianity; no more than tapping the power which has always been there (just as technological advance is merely discovering powers that have always been there).
Then this and future generations will give God-incarnate the recognition He deserves.
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