I can only speak for myself but my tendency, when looking at what Jesus did by his death on the cross, is to see it as a healing or restoration. In the beginning God made it all good. Original sin broke it. Jesus restored it. But the first reading today from Is 65 reminds that he did something much more. Not only did he heal the wound that sin created but he fulfills the promise.
In Is 65:17 we hear the promise.
Lo, I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
This same promise is repeated in John's vision in Rev. 21:1
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
You may at this point be saying to yourself, "Isn't that when Jesus comes back at the end of the world?" And it is—but it is also already here.
If we read 2 Cor 5:17 St. Paul tells us
Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come., if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
These words of St. Paul we repeat in every baptism,
You have become a new creation, you have clothes yourself in Christ.
If we are baptized, we are already a new creation. We are still developing, and that development will continue until it reaches its completion in the next life; that is true. But that doesn't mean that we are not the new creature. A puppies is a dog. A lamb is a sheep. An infant is a human being. We may still be the embryonic form of the new creature, but we are the new creature.
As we near our celebration of the events that gave birth to this new creation, let us more fully embrace our newness. Let us recognize that "the old has passed away" and stop living as if we are the old creature.
