Behold, I Make All Things New

05-18-2025Weekly ReflectionFr. Augustine Acheme, VC

We live in a world that aches for renewal- hearts longing for healing, relationships in need of restoration, lives yearning for purpose. Into this longing, Jesus speaks through the voice in Revelation: “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev 21:5). This is not a poetic ideal; it is a divine promise. Easter is not just the celebration of an event in the past- it is the unveiling of a new creation already breaking into the world through the resurrection of Christ.

In the Gospel, Jesus prepares His disciples for what lies ahead by giving them something profoundly simple- and deeply demanding: “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13:34). This is His parting gift, His final command. It is the foundation of the new order.

The kind of love Jesus speaks of is not sentiment or preference- it is self-giving, patient, forgiving, enduring love. It is the kind of love that reaches into wounds and makes them sacred, the kind that gives hope where there was once despair. “By this,” Jesus says, “everyone will know you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Our credibility as Christians rests not in our eloquence or accomplishments, but in the depth of our love.

St. Teresa of Calcutta once said, “If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” In a time when division, fear, and selfishness threaten to dominate, the Church must be a living sign of the new heaven and new earth- a people of mercy, joy, and radical love.

In the first reading, Paul and Barnabas return to the early Christian communities, encouraging them to remain faithful despite hardships. “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22). Love in the pattern of Christ will cost us something. But that love also builds something eternal. Through their perseverance, the door of faith is opened wider- to Gentiles, to outsiders, to all.

This Easter season, we are invited not simply to admire the Resurrection but to live it. To let the old order pass- resentments, divisions, complacency- and allow God to create something new in us. So today, hear these words as your own: “Behold, I make all things new.” Let them echo in your mind, disrupt your comfort, stir your heart. Christ is risen, and because of that, nothing- absolutely nothing- needs to remain the same.

Fr. Augustine Acheme, VC