BEFORE A NEW YEAR
The theologian Ladislao Boros says in some of his writings that one of the cardinal principles of the Christian life consists in that «God always starts again». With God there is nothing definitively lost. In God everything is beginning and renewal.
To say it simple, God doesn’t allow Self to get discouraged by our mediocrity. The renewing power of God forgiveness and of God’s grace is more vigorous than our mistakes and our sin. With God, everything can begin again.
That’s why it’s good to start the year with the will to renewal. Each year that we’re given the chance to be alive is a time that’s open to new possibilities, a time of grace and of salvation in which we are invited to live anew. Therefore, it’s important to listen to the questions that spring up within us.
What do I hope for this new year? Will it be a year dedicated to ‘doing things’, resolving issues, accumulating tension, disquiet and bad attitudes or will it be a year in which I will learn to live in a more human way?
What is it that I really want to do this year? To what will I dedicate precious and important time? Will It be, once again, an empty year, superficial and routine, or a year in which I will love life with joy and gratitude?
What time will I reserve for rest, silence, music, prayer, encounter with God? Will I nourish my inner life or will I live agitated, in permanent activity, running from one occupation to another, without knowing exactly what I want or why I’m alive?
What time will I dedicate to enjoying intimacy with my spouse and to the joyful living together with my children? Will I live outside of my home, organizing my life by my lights or will I know how to love my own with more dedication and tenderness?
With whom will I meet up this year? To what persons will I draw near? Will I put forth for them joy, life, hope, or will I spread discouragement, sadness and death? As I pass through, will life be more joyful and bearable or harder and more painful?
Will I live this year busy only about my small well-being or will I be interested also in making others happy? Will I close myself into my old selfishness like always or will I live in a creative way, trying to make my surroundings a more human and livable world?
Will I keep living with my back turned to God or will I dare to believe that God is my best Friend? Will I stay mute before God, without opening my lips or my heart, or will there finally spring forth from my interior a humble but sincere invocation?
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
