A New Opportunity

Right after the Christmas celebrations, we're already getting ready to celebrate the arrival of another year. Once again we are filled with hope, plans, and projects—after all, it is a NEW year. What is it that ignites this hope in us? Why do we get so excited? Isn't January first like any other day? 

God is an excellent teacher who educates His children so that we can seek to find Him in our lives and walk the path that will lead us to eternity with Him in heaven. With this in mind, God created nature in a cyclical way: we perceive the passage of time not only in our bodies, with aging, but above all with the different seasons. 

The different seasons are a wonderful way for God to teach us about the transience of life and also to help us hope for a new phase, a new beginning. We get happy in the spring when we see the flowers growing; super excited in the summer with so much life being born, so many fruits; we start to get more introspective in the fall with life going away and more apprehensive in the winter, where it seems that everything is dead.  

But even in winter, we know that we don't need to be apprehensive for long, because we have the certainty that spring will come. And this certainty of spring, this hope that winter will end in its own time, is what drives us forward, living one day at a time. 

Those of us who live in places where the seasons are not so well defined (as they are here in Brazil) can see this passage of time through the calendar, with the counting of the months, and we can understand this cycle of life more especially with the liturgical calendar.  

Human beings, with their limitations and flaws, need hope (one of the theological virtues) in order to make progress, in the material life and especially in the spiritual life. And because we live in a cyclical way, experiencing the different seasons and counting the months of the year, our hope increases when we remember that on January first, the new year begins, and we are given a new opportunity. 

A new opportunity to do better, to change some aspect of our material life, such as a new job, a new car, a new house. A new opportunity to reconcile with someone, to make new friends, to open up our family to the arrival of another child or to the arrival of sons- and daughters-in-law. Or a new opportunity to overcome a flaw in our personality, to further stimulate a quality that we can bring to fruition. 

I'm delighted to think of the goodness of divine providence in placing January first right in the middle of winter for those of us who live in the northern hemisphere, precisely where this season is felt most strongly! A warm boost of hope in the midst of winter's cold ... 

In these resolutions and projects for the new year, perhaps the most important one concerns our relationship with the Holy Trinity, after all, our goal is Heaven. At the end of our journey on earth, we will be judged by Love and what we will take with us is only what we have done out of love, for love, and through love. 

So take heart! Let's take advantage of this new opportunity for a fresh start, let's take stock of how our year has gone and choose some way to grow in our love for God. It could be improving our daily prayer, doing some regular spiritual reading, praying the Rosary every day (or at least a decade), perhaps including Holy Mass one more day a week, or reading the Bible regularly. In short, everyone needs to see what can be done and choose just one thing to start with, being faithful to that little bit, to that one purpose. Then, at the end of the year, give thanks for your achievements, ask forgiveness for your failures, and always have the courage to start again!