This is the time traditionally we make resolutions to be a better person. We aim to outdo ourselves this year to the next. But as always, at the end of each year, we will find ourselves in the same situation. We gained more inches and weight, debts increased and we are no better than last year.
New year is supposed to give us new hope and I believe that our focus has been misguided so we end up most of the time not doing well with our “resolutions.”
In the Church Tradition, the real “new year” begins with First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent. Advent is the Church’s meditation on the two coming of Christ – first, His coming in the flesh at Christmas, and second is His coming in glory which establishes his reign as the Lord of History.
The missal offers a helpful reminder of this fuller dimension of the mystery of the Incarnation in one of its auxiliary prefaces for Advent:
“You have hidden from us the day and hour in which Christ your Son, the Lord and judge of history, will appear upon the clouds of heaven clothed in power and splendor; on that great and glorious day, the present world will pass away, and new heavens and a new earth will arise. Now, Christ comes to meet us in every man and in every time, so that we may accompany him in faith and bear witness in love to the blessed hope of his reign."
Now that’s something worth considering even as we celebrate the “civil” new year. Maybe this time we focus on what is really essential, i.e., renewal than resolution. This coming new year, let us not wait but to actively come and meet Him…let us renew our resolve to come and meet Him in the sacraments, especially the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation where we can find Him and dwell in His presence all year long. Then we won’t really worry about how well we are doing with those resolutions.
Have a blessed New Year to all!
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