THINGS NEW AND OLD

(March 11)

“Therefore every scribe instructed (μαθητευθεὶς, become a disciple) concerning the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure things new and old.” (Mt 13:52)

All “scribes” or learned people, who have become disciples of Christ, are to share from their “treasure” things both new and old. This means, things already known and said previously, and things hitherto not known or said, or not yet discerned or articulated, as tradition is lived in ever-new historical contexts.

This also means, we do not proclaim that “everything has already been said by the Fathers,” nor do we engage in what Fr. George Florovsky called “a theology of repetition.” Even while we study and “bring out” to others the “old” traditioned wisdom of previous generations of Christian faith and thinking, we also have the responsibility of bringing out of the treasure of our faith its “new” applications and responses to the new blessings and challenges of our own time. We are also called to do this in the language of our own time, and via the technologies and means of communication we happen to have at our disposal. Thank You, Lord, for dignifying all of us, fallible human beings, with this vocation, responsibly and creatively to live and “bring out” tradition.