There was a phrase in the gospel that Deacon Chester read that I would use to begin this reflection: “There was a man, Simeon ... awaiting the redemption of Israel.”At this time of the year, radio and TV commentators are focusing on the past year, the past decade, the first of the new century as well as the year ahead of us.
We, ourselves, can look to the future as well. Many are planning resolutions for the year ahead. Let me assure you these will not work as
most of us may have experienced in years past once we have passed day three of the new year. What happens to us?
Each of us was always in the mind of God. We can not say when we arrived there because we know but do not understand divine time ... where
there is no marking of time.
Here’s an example I use with school children ... no offense to adults! Imagine an opened box ... the top lids are opened wide. On the right side on top of the lid is the time where we are in God’s mind. One day he says to each of us, “I am going to enflesh you and send you down into the box ... which represents the earth. There you will be accompanied by an Intention that I have for you. Your duty is to discover this intention through the gifts I have given to you: your personality, your skills, etc. You will have this intention with you all your life. But do you know it?
How can I know it? Well, it happens this way, God entrusts you with the intention and a particular Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who will be your power in the world. The Spirit will be your guide, he will inspire (enspirit) you.
This means you need a true spirituality ... every day trying to be aware of God’s relationship to you. The Church offers us the various season of the year to come to know God and how he is trying to work with us.
In the relationship you come to know the intention, the power. However, if we are not connected to God by a genuine spirituality, you will never succeed in accomplishing the resolutions you feel you need to make in the beginning of a new year. It just will not work.
So, back to the beginning. Making new year’s resolution? Remember they will not work unless you allow the power that God entrusts to you in the intention that he has for you in this work in the box that I described earlier. So, to make a new year’s resolution work, get inside your heart. Listen to the Lord and what he and the Holy Spirit want you to do, his intention for you. When you are linked to that intention, the Spirit’s power will enable you to accomplish your goals.
I will be out of computer capabilities until New Year's evening. Let us pray that God will bless all of in our efforts to make the new year a time when we are more aware of the many ways God shares his abundance with each of us.
