I am about to create a new heaven and a new earth where the things of the past shall not be remembered or come to mind. God has no memories. God is not interested in our past. As our Creator and Father, and as the giver and nurturer of our lives, God’s interest is not in what we have done or in how we have lived our lives in the past. God’s joy is not in reminding us of the many wrong turns that we have made or of the many chances that we have squandered. Rather, God is interested in us right now. God’s joy is in seeing that we are fully alive in the present.
In the first reading, we hear the Lord God promising to do what God has always done: creating and giving life. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God promises to create a new universe in which celebration of life will abound. It will be a universe which will know nothing about mourning and weeping because death will not be part of that creation. It will be a universe that will be a fulfillment of the design that God has had for creation from the very beginning.
This fulfillment of God's design for creation is fully realized in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the restorer of life. In Jesus Christ, God gives to humanity that which humanity had lost: a life with God. Jesus Christ is the bridge that closes that chasm that sin and rebellion had created between God and humanity. In Jesus Christ, humanity has come to know God once again and yearn for that life that comes from God. It is this knowledge that propels the royal official in the Gospel reading to approach Jesus with a request: a request to restore life. It was an opportunity for Jesus to bring to fulfillment the prophecies of old: only rejoicing and happiness shall be known in Jerusalem for there will be no more weeping or crying. Although the royal official was not yet a believer, Jesus granted his request and healed his son. For it was for this that Jesus came: to give and restore life. It was a mission that did not segregate. The healing was rightly interpreted as a sign by the evangelist. It was a sign that the Lord was renewing creation.