Glory Days – Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year C

Some of you may know a Bruce Springsteen song from 1984 called “Glory Days.”

In the song, Springsteen sings about a group of middle-aged friends sitting at a local bar longing for “the good ol’ days,” the glory days.

The days when you could blow a fastball by a hitter.
The days when all the boys’ heads would turn when you walked by.

The glory days.

You can imagine these friends sitting together drinking, maybe unhappy with the way their lives have turned out, frustrated at unfulfilled dreams, unpaid debts, or stale relationships.

In our mind’s eye we can see them raise their glasses with wistful eyes, singing the chorus:

Glory days, well they’ll pass you by.
Glory days, in the wink of a young girl’s eye,
Glory days.

Maybe we recognize a little of ourselves in that group of middle aged friends, looking back on state championships, young loves, or financial successes. Or maybe the younger people among us look at that group of friends and worry that it might be them some day, afraid that when they grow old all they will have is the memories of their glory days.

It’s not just individuals who look back like this. Entire nations of people have their “glory days,” too.

This is what’s happening our first reading today. The Israelites were in exile when this passage from Isaiah was written. They had been conquered by the Babylonians, and the skilled workers and educated members of the Israelite community had been captured and taken into exile. And while they’re in exile–alone, frustrated, alienated–they long for the glory days.

They remember the days Moses led their ancestors through the Red Sea, rescuing them from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians.

They remember the time that their forefathers marched on Jericho.

The remember how they grew into a great nation under King David.

Like those friends at the bar in Bruce Springsteen’s song, the exiled Israelites are caught up in the events of the past.

And even the Church is not immune to dwelling on glory days. We too can spend our time nostalgically looking at the past, at what seem to be the glory days of the Church. If we’re angry or frustrated at the Church, we might long for the way things were. We might sit with disgruntled friends and raise our glasses to the Council of Trent or the Second Vatican Council, or we might toast St. Augustine, or Pope John XXIII, or Pope John Paul II.

Glory days.

But in the midst of the exile, in the midst of the Israelites’ longing for their glory days, the prophet Isaiah speaks with the voice of God, and his message is for us, too: “Remember not the events of the past. The things of long ago consider not; see, I am doing something new.”

When we get caught up in looking at the glory days of the past, we run the risk of not being able to see the new things that God is doing in our lives right now.

We can see this clearly in the events of the last month, and especially the last week.

For the first time in centuries, the pope resigned.

“See, I am doing something new!” says the Lord.

For the first time in history, a pope from the Americas has been elected.

“See, I am doing something new!”

For the first time in history, a Jesuit has become the Holy Father.

For the first time, a pope has taken the name Francis.

“See, I am doing something new!” says the Lord.

And dare I say it, for the first time, Gonzaga is the number one basketball team in the nation.

And just as God does “something new” for Israel and for the Church, so he does something new for each of us individually.

But if we’re too busy looking at the past, we miss what God is doing today, right now, in this moment.

In our spiritual lives, however, it’s usually not the great events of our past that blind us to God’s presence. More often than not we get preoccupied with the sinful things we’ve done. We dwell on them over and over, beating ourselves up internally over mistakes we’ve made, sins we’ve committed, friends we’ve hurt.

But God has something new for us, too. Can we see it? Do we recognize it? Looking back over just the last twenty-four hours, what new things has God done for us?

We can be assured that God is doing something new for us each right now, right here. Something in the back of your mind maybe, or perhaps in the person next to you in the pew. Perhaps God is speaking to you through the different objects here in the church–the candles, the stations of the cross, the altar, the crucifix.

Perhaps we can allow the many new things of this past week to remind us that God is always doing something new. Maybe we can take our eyes off the sinfulness of the past, off of the glory days, both individually and as a Church, and we can look forward with Christ to the glory days that are to come.

“See, I am doing something new!” says the Lord. “Now it springs forth, do you perceive it?”

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