Ty Tomson: "To Restore All Things in Christ"

They say that fashion trends are circular. What was popular today may not be popular tomorrow, but if you wait for the next day, it will be back in style. This is true with more than fashion. It can been seen in some kinds of music from the 20th century, various schools of architecture from throughout history, cooking techniques from around the world, and, yes, even certain styles of dress (especially from the 70s!). Such constant change is either a testament to the fickle indecisiveness of human nature or evidence for our collective insanity.

There is a recent movement to return old things to their original state. This can be seen in the renovation of the old homes of famous people to what it would have been like when they lived there, the use of authentic antique instruments in the playing of medieval music, and the fixing and reusing of old family heirlooms like jewelry, furniture, or wedding dresses. This drive to restore has been present in the Church since Her beginning, since the Apostolic Age in which Christ sent forth His apostles to evangelize the nations has been an inspiration and example for Christians of every age. The call to restoration was highlighted by Pope St. Pius X in his motto, “Instaurare omnia in Christo” (“To restore all things in Christ”).

The college seminarians at the Josephinum have recently taken up this adage. St. Pius X happens to be the patron of our college chapel, in which we saw the great potential to restore to its original beauty seen in pictures from the 1950s. We especially wanted to return pews to the chapel as there originally were, get more appropriate floor covering than the maroon carpet that covered the nave of the chapel, and expose the original brick that is hidden by drywall on the sides of the sanctuary. In our vigor, of course, we promised to donate as much time and energy as was needed for the restoration project, however long it took us. We paid big for that one.

A church in the area was building a bigger church building and offered their pews to us, which we simply had to find a way to transport to the seminary. Although that required a couple of trips with some extremely heavy lifting, it was nothing compared to what would come. Together we spent hundreds of hours over six months stripping, cleaning, sanding, staining, repadding, reupholstering, polyurethaning, and installing the pews for our chapel, and that doesn’t even count the week we stayed after graduation to tear out the carpet, rip up the tile under it, and lay down two layers of a subflooring so the hardwood floor could rest evenly. We will soon be looking into a way to take out the drywall to expose the beautiful original brick that bordered the sanctuary.

Now, the chapel is just about finished. It will take some more work, but it is finally coming together. As we worked for countless hours on these projects, we had a great deal of time to reflect on what connection this project might have for a priestly vocation. Restoration to the original state is a timeless Christian theme, as I said before. But it has to do with more than just the externals. A priest brings the grace of the Sacraments to the faithful and restores them to life in Christ. In Baptism, he restores their fallen human nature to life in the Church and cleanses it from original sin. In Confession, he brings them the Sanctifying Grace for which their souls were designed. In marriage, he brings man and woman together in marriage, as God intended from the beginning. In the Eucharist, he makes present the historical events of the Last Supper and the Crucifixion through the halls of time to the altar at Mass and makes the graces of the Cross flow into our hearts in the Body and Blood of the Lord. In everything the priest does, he is a pontifex, a “bridge-maker,” who joins the gap between man and God and restores their original relationship.

Certain styles or fashions are temporary, coming and going unpredictably. Living in God’s grace, on the other hand, is not transient. It is not only an original state that is meant to be preserved for our time on earth, but also a divine vocation that calls us to beatitude with God forever in the life to come.