Ruins, Restoration and New Beginnings

All across Ireland there are ruins of houses, castles, and churches - most dating from the late medieval period with some much older and some a bit newer. At first, these ruins looked very sad to me - forlorn symbols of some greater, more glorious time.

Yet as each day went by, the more ruins I saw, the more I realized that they had a certain beauty with their walls covered in lush green vines, surrounded by wild fuchsia and even palm trees. They each tell a story of a more glorious time - when lords and ladies graced the halls, children played in the courtyard, and lambs and cattle grazed outside the walls. It was a time when monks and nuns kept alive the faith in a dark age, and created beautiful and useful art such as the Book of Kells. Before they were ruins, each building had its own story of hope for the future, but over the years families died off, the church struggled against politics, and plagues and famine stalked the land. It might seem as if that hope fell into ruin like the buildings.

Or did it?

The people of Ireland are a resilient people. Over the centuries, everyone from the Vikings to the British ravaged their land. They fought among themselves over property, power, and even religion. Yet, through it all, the people of Ireland have picked themselves up, dusted themselves off and begun again. They have left some of those many houses, castles, and churches as ruins - a reminder of a past when it seemed as if glory deteriorated into unsalvageable decay. But they have also restored many of those buildings, and there are many more that people in the countryside still live in - complete with newly thatched roofs, paint, and even electricity, that show the pride of the people for things of the past, while acknowledging the need to maintain and even improve them for the future.

As we begin the season of Advent - rushing around concerned with parties, gifts, and our own challenges, the Church reminds us that it is also a time to defy convention and slow down, a time to look past the heady time we live in, and look to the future. All the material things around us will one day fall into ruin - to future generations they will show a time when present day lords and ladies graced the halls, children played in the cul de sacs, and pets frolicked in the yards. They will wonder about the hope felt before it all fell into ruin. As we look to that future beyond ourselves, we need to look past the present hustle and bustle and learn that we too can survive the politics, plagues and famines. For if we dwell on these things, we will not be able to build on that past, pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and look to the return of our Lord.

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.