NEW YEAR DAY!
“May the Lord bless you and keep you! May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you! May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace!โ
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Amen! Good morning brothers and sisters in the Lord! Today as most of us have known by now already is first day of the year 2024 and at the beginning of every year we celebrate Mary as Mother of God.
In all cultures, the passing of the old year and coming of the new is marked by a two-fold celebration. The first phase of the celebration, on the last night of the old year, is marked by noise-making, drunkenness and disorderly behavior. In it, humanity re-enacts the primordial chaos that enveloped the world before creation. The second phase of the celebration, as the first day of the New Year dawns, is, very different. It is marked by calmness, clear-headedness, and orderly behavior. In it again humanity re-enacts creation, the triumph of order over chaos.
The name “January” comes from the Roman god Janus, the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future. This is indeed a time to look back at the year that has just ended and to look forward to the New Year ahead of us. How did I spend this one year of my life that has just passed? Did I use it to advance my goals and objectives in life? Did I use it to enhance the purpose of my existence? Could I have done better last year in the way I invested my time between the demands of work, family, friends and society, and the demands of my spiritual life? What things did I achieve last year and what things did I fail to achieve? How can I consolidate the achievements of last year while reversing the failures and losses in this New Year? Through soul searching questions like these we find that a review of the past year naturally leads to setting goals and resolutions for the New Year.
There are people who tell you that there is no point making New Year resolutions. Do not believe them. We must set goals and make resolutions as a necessary conclusion to our review of the past year. And we do need to review our lives from year to year because, as Socrates says, the unexamined life is not worth living.
Today’s newspapers are full of individual and collective New Year resolutions. Most of those, however, are not resolutions at all but only wishes. What is the difference between a resolution and a wish? A wish identifies a goal one wants to reach; a resolution specifies the steps one will take to reach it. A wish says this is where I want to be, a resolution says this is the road I will take, and this is what I will do to get there. The wishful person says “I want to pass my exams this year” and the resolved person says “I will devote an extra hour to my studies everyday in order to pass my exams.” The wishful person says “I will have more peace and love in my family this year” and the resolved person says “I will spend more time with my family at table instead of rushing off to the TV, so that we get to know and understand ourselves better.” The wishful person says “I will live a life of union with God this year” and the resolved person says “I will set aside this time everyday to pray and hear God’s word.” The difference between wishing and resolving is: are we prepared to do what it takes to make our dreams come true, are we prepared to pay the price? The blessings of God on His people as mentioned at beginning above, are meant to give them hope. They are also meant to give them courage to solve the problems of everyday life. Today we are asked to trust in the Lord and call upon his blessings at the beginning of this year 2024. The first reading of our liturgy taken from the book of Numbers says โThey are to call on my name and I will bless themโ (Numb 6:27). In the second reading St. Paul gives us the reasons for hope at the beginning of the New Year that Jesus Christ, Godโs only Son has become one of us. He was like us in all things except in sin. That is to say God has accepted us as his children. We Christians must therefore witness Godโs love which was manifested in Jesus Christ.The gospel today presents Mary to us as a model of that new life in Christ that all of us should wish for ourselves in the New Year. There we see that Mary was prepared to do something to realize this goal. What did she do? We read that the shepherds, when they went to adore the Child Jesus in the manger, told all that the angels had said to them. “But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). Again after the boy Jesus was found in the Temple, we are told that “His mother treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51). Mary was a woman who valued the word of God, who treasured it and made time to meditate and ponder it. It is true that the holiness of Mary is attributed to the grace of God, but this should not make us forget that she needed to make an effort in order to co-operate with the grace of God. She pondered the word of God in order to discern what God was saying to her at every stage in her life as the handmaid of God.
The two examples above of Mary pondering the word of God, namely, after the visit of the shepherds and after the finding the child in the temple, show that Mary found the word of God both in divine revelation (the angels’ words to the shepherds) and in her own experiences (her encounter with her son in the temple). Similarly God speaks to us today through divine revelation (e.g. the Bible, the teaching and preaching of the Church) as well as through our personal experiences, if only we make time to reflect on them as Mary did.Whatever the situation in which we find ourselves – a hardship, a disappointment, a decision to make – God has a solution, an answer that is right for us. We tell God about it in prayer but we also listen to what God has to tell us about it. Prayer is a conversation with God but sometimes all we do is pick up the phone, read out the list of our problems to God and drop the phone without listening to hear what God has to say to us. Let us today resolve to listen more to the voice of God, to treasure God’s word and ponder it in our hearts. Then shall we be able to realize our New Year resolution of a new life in union with God. If our world has become such a mess it is we human beings who have taken Godโs gift for granted and often abused them to create conditions of misery for others. We must be frank and humble enough to admit that we ourselves are the cause of pain in the world. Why blame God for the harmful infects of our sins of selfishness, greed, craving for power, lust etc? What has God to do with the discrimination, exploitation, corruption and violence that prevail all over the world?
It is not good enough to think that we are good simply by not doing any harm to anyone. But what about the good we fail to do because we donโt do? The sin of omission is one of the worst sins in the world. We have to concentrate on doing good rather than on merely avoiding evil. As Christians, We must avoid the Esau-syndrome, who mortgaged his birthright over a plate of pottage (Geneses 25: 29-33). We must also shun the way of Judas Iscariot. Who sold his Master for the Pieces of silver as slave (Matthew 26:15) and we must make well inform choices; not to be given to selfish sentiment and political manipulations as the crowds who chose the criminal Barabas to release and rather have Jesus crucified Matthew 27:17-22).
Sometimes our attitude as believers drive souls to hell. We can make a difference by how we treat people, especially when they make mistakes. If you cannot be a bridge to connect people, do not be a wall to separate them. If you cannot be a light to brighten peopleโs good deeds, then do not be darkness covering their efforts. If you cannot be water to help peopleโs crops sprout, then do not be a pest to destroy their crops. If you cannot be a vaccine to give life, do not be a virus to terminate life. If you cannot be a pencil to write anyoneโs happiness, then try to be nice eraser to remove their sadness. May I conclude from where I began:
“May the Lord bless you and keep you! May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you! May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace!โ this year 2024.
+Ab Matthew Audu – Jos
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