O Beauty Ever Ancient! O Beauty Ever New!

Recently I decided not to order any more tea online (Amazon makes it so easy) until I have used up or thrown away what has been accumulating in the back of the cupboard for several years.  I came across a tightly sealed tin with a label:  Packed especially for _______ on October 8, 2010, with the name of the specialty tea.  "Well, this cannot possibly still be good!" I thought.  And then, because it was loose tea, I probably put it away with the thought of buying a teapot or at least a tea caddy before trying it.  But I forgot, as is not unusual with me.

Now that I have both a teapot and a tea caddy, I had nothing to lose by at least trying it -- a Chinese special white tea by the name of Pai Mu Tan.  It had been a gift from my daughter, and, with guilt for not appreciating her effort so long ago, I felt that the least I could do was to try it.  After 10 years, the tea was absolutely delicious -- a delicate blend with a robust flavor -- not something you can find in the grocery store!  How is it that it is not stale, old tea? 

For some reason this morning as I sipped the tea, I was reminded of St. Augustine's famous cry, Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new!  I typed in those words to Google and found the entire quote:

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new; late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”

How is it that my childhood faith of almost 80 years has not grown old, grown stale?  St. Augustine' Confessions reveals his search for beauty, truth, and goodness in everything that could be found outside of himself -- the perennial search in all of us.  And when we find what we are looking for, it is usually tucked far in the back of our own hearts.  It was there all the time, and we failed to recognize it as the object of our search!  

What Jesus wants to give us is not a religion, but rather His own relationship with the Father.  We reject the religion of our childhood as outdated, old-fashioned, no longer suited to our new sophisticated taste.  And yet, when we finally touch the beauty we have been looking for, we find that it was there all along.  We just had failed to "taste" what had been tightly sealed in the container we call "religion."  

It is the job of the Holy Spirit to take what is "ancient" and to make it "new" for us, to make it come alive with freshness.  Jesus once said, "You cannot pour new wine into old wineskins, for the new wine will burst the old skins."  We cannot pour the new, fresh, beauty He offers us into old forms -- everything must be made new again, including our hearts to receive the beauty He offers.  Do not cast your pearls before swine, He tells us, for they will crush your pearls underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.

The beauty is the same as it ever was, but our hearts are not prepared to receive it without a "second touch" from the Holy Spirit.  We cannot see what is ever before us, what has been always offered to us, before our eyes have been opened and our hearts softened by the grace from above.  I long to offer what I see and hear to others, but there is only One Person who can ever give the Gift of the Father, the Holy Spirit, who makes all things new.

When religion has gone stale, when it no longer satisfies us, we can always ask once again for the Gift which makes all things new, the one Gift from above, the Holy Spirit.  In Him, we discover the Beauty ever ancient, ever new!