Fr. Ronald Knox: The Risen Christ

There are so many occasions in life, aren't there, when we say to ourselves, "Now I really shall be able to make a new start"? We leave school; of course, all our troubles will disappear now. We go into business; now the world shall see what we are made of. We get married; that, evidently, is going to be the turning point of our lives. We rise to a position of responsibility; now, our chance has come. We grow rich, and have more opportunities for leisure; at last our true nature will have the opportunity to develop. We retire from active work; now, with old age to mellow us, we can live as we would wish to die. Yes, but tell me, is there really all that difference between one stage and the next?


But in the life of grace, ah, if we could only see it, there is a perpetual burgeoning of new life, not merely from one Easter to another, from one retreat to another, but with every worthy reception of the sacraments. Perpetual spring, perpetual renovation of our natures, if we could only catch the hour of grace, utilize it, make it our own. Whatever you are, and at whatever time of life you are, that possibility of spiritual renewal is with you no less surely than if you were a boy at school again, or just leaving school to make your way in the world. Christ is risen; those tidings can neither lose their force with age, nor be staled by repetition; Christ is risen, and life, for the Christian, is always new.

--Pastoral Sermons: Feasts and Seasons of the Year, 12