Deacon Greg Kandra, Columnist

As if he doesn’t have enough to do, Deacon Greg has decided to take on a weekly column, and today we launch him – check out All Things New:

In a movie chock full of startling moments, this was one of the most startling of all.

Toward the end of The Passion of the Christ, Jesus—bloodied, battered, defiled Jesus, struggling under the weight of his cross as he slouches toward Calvary—this Jesus stumbles, falls, and recovers, and then looks up to see the anguished face of his mother.

And he manages to force a smile, briefly, and speaks the words in Aramaic that we know so well from the book of Revelation.

“See, mother,” he whispers, with irony, “behold. I make all things new.”

What juxtaposition! What a searing truth. In the midst of an agonizing death, the Christ was offering a painful, almost joyful proclamation of life. Suffering would bring redemption; out of destruction, we would find salvation. Good would come from evil.

This was something utterly new.

That line and that moment stayed with me long after the movie had ended. It really is the crux of Christian hope—the desire and ability to remake our lives and see anew the world around us. This, our exile, this vale of tears, this place of suffering and hardship and want is also a place of unending possibility. We are always able to begin again. I’m not sure any of us realize that as much as we should.

Read it all; click the RSS feed so you don’t miss All Things New every Wednesday.