Tag Archives: T.S.Eliot

Ever Old, Ever New

Our faith is “ever old and ever new.” It has a beauty ever old and ever new, a beauty found in the ancient scriptures we’ve received and in the creeds and traditions handed down to us; a beauty that shines out as it meets new times and circumstances and knowledge. The beauty of Jesus Christ.

Sometimes we hear about “an age of faith,” meaning an age gone by when faith was strong and real. That age is gone, it’s said; our times are unbelieving times when faith is weak and dying.

But is that true? Is faith just for another time, or is it also for our time? Can it be that  it only waits for fresh understanding and expression.

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language

And next year’s words await another voice.” (T. S. Eliot)

“Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever.” (Hebrews 13,8) Where are the voices that speak of him now? Are they ours?

The Leaking Boat

The story of the storm at sea in today’s gospel is so dramatic:

“A violent squall came up and waves were breaking over the boat,
so that it was already filling up.
Jesus was in the stern, asleep on a cushion.
They woke him and said to him,
‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’
He woke up,
rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Quiet!  Be still!’
The wind ceased and there was great calm.
Then he asked them, ‘Why are you terrified?’
Do you not yet have faith?'”

I’m thinking of another boat, not so dramatically endangered, but still in trouble ahead–old age. “We are in a drifting boat with small leakages” (T.S. Eliot)