Fallen and Broken

We are called to work and bring order to this fallen world. That is a basic Catholic principle that shows up in various ways and various places in our teachings. At the same time, we find that things break. We try to improve them and they still break. We fix them and then they eventually still fall apart. We live in a fallen world, and it can be frustrating at times.

I am working with a new printer right now. We are quickly approaching about 8 hours of “working” with this new printer, and it just keeps failing. New, improved, and better than before; really? No, not as much as we want because, as I said, we live in a fallen world. So these frustrations are there to give encouragement. Yes, you read that right – encouragement.

We are supposed to be encouraged whenever we are reminded that we cannot make this world a perfect place. We are unable to fix everything because that is God’s job and not ours. We are to do what we can, when we can, to improve this world and accept the loving reminders of the Lord that things break, things fall apart, and we need to replace and repair them often. Even the most expensive and well built objects will eventually decay and fade away.

Yes, that is a good thing! This is good because we are supposed to keep our hope in eternal life, and not in this fading world. We are supposed to avoid getting attached to this world and the things of this world. When things break we have the opportunity of saying “this world is not my eternal home” and, “I look forward to the eternal New Heavens and New Earth that Jesus will give to His faithful.” When things do not work right and when they fail to work at all, we can stand back and say “Lord Jesus Christ, please give me patience to wait for that world that You will recreate where everything does what it is called to do.”