New Year (2021-01-01, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God)

Title:   New Year

Bibliography Reference: Dietrich Von Hildebrand, Transformation in Christ. “Chapter 1, The Readiness to Change”

[_01_]  It is a truth nearly universally accepted that the calendar dates of December 31 and January 1 should be associated with putting away what is old and coming up with or doing something new. Thus, the new year’s resolution ("N-Y-R")

          A resolution is a decision to take out a new broom, a new vacuum, or a new shop-vac rid ourselves of the past. That’s often how we look at “discarding” of the year just ended.

[_02_]  I’d like to reflect on this and the CONCEPT of __ N-Y-R,

COMMITMENT of N-Y-R,

CHRISTIAN and N-Y-R.

[_03_]  CONCEPT. I read this reminder that the “new year” as we currently know it was not always so universally accepted. Of course, different cultures have their own “new year”.

          Our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate Rosh Hashanah in our autumn as the new year.

          And, even nations populated by Christians did not always agree on January 1 as the new year.

          And, in the Catholic Church, our new liturgical year started with Advent.

          Nevertheless, it’s good as a concept – a social concept – that we all agree that January 1^st is the starting point for everybody, that January 1 is a time to start over.

          That we start the new year together.

          For those of us old enough to remember, this collective and common experience and feeling of a new year was particularly pronounced and celebratory on January 1, 2000 the start of a new millennium.

          Did we not see how people all over the world reacted to the new year? January 1, 2000 was such a page-turner for the whole world all at once.

          January 1, 2021 has a similar sentiment.

 

[_04_]   And, it’s good for us to remember that starting over – turning over a new leaf –is something we really do not “in solitary” but rather in “in solidarity”, as a community together.

          Today is a day to remember to pray for those who feel alone or abandoned and to know that – in prayer – we are united with them.

          We start the new year together – that is the CONCEPT.

 

[_05_]     Then, the here is the COMMITMENT of a new year.  As we sweep away 2020 with all of its anxiety and distress and uncertainty, there is the temptation to put all of the commitment to renewal on someone else’s plate.

          Is the commitment to renew really on my plate? On my table?

In my house?

          E.g., the government must be renewed. Or, the congress must get it right. Or laws must be changed. Or other people must change.

          Of course, there are legitimate ways we are called to work for truth and justice.

          Yet, is it also true that in the “commitment” to renewal, I cannot control the behavior of others or the outcome of events.  

          We may enter into Twenty-21 with the expectation or insistence that things must get better or that other people must get better.

          But, by what standard or method do we measure improvement?

          Is there a metric system for that?

         

 [_06_]     Of course, in a spiritual sense, we are reminded that CHANGE is good for us when we speak of the change of heart and mind required to follow the Gospel

Jesus said: “There is more joy in heaven over 1 sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people in no need of repentance”.

That 1 person repentant has a commitment to change and even the tiniest bit of commitment can be the seemingly insignificant loaves and fishes multiplied by our Savior for the good of all.

That’s not just a resolution for a new year, but for a new day every day.

Our Blessed Mother Mary stated this supremely well:

“Let it be done to me according to thy word.”

 

 

[_07_]     So, to accept Christ is to accept change. St. / Cardinal John Henry Newman has a famous saying:

          “to live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

 

[_08_]       That’s the commitment to following Jesus Christ, each day, that into every life, not only rain will fall, but change will also fall upon us.

          Consider the person you know who is caring for a spouse or elderly parent, or a parent raising a child, in which the conditions and circumstances are variable. While we are called to give our loved ones structure, we also recognize that there are certain outcomes we cannot control. We can love them by helping them to change what they can change… rather than making them be what we want them to be.

To be perfect is to change often.

 

 

 

[_09_]       What about Christian discipleship and the new year?

          While we will experience change and be changed along the way, we are also called to remember that a resolution – for a new year or new day – is also a time for us to recognize that if we do not accept changes if we avoid a change simply to stay the same, then we are imprisoning ourselves.

          And, I’d like to use an example/analogy by Dietrich von Hildebrand who was very influential on Pope John Paul II.

          Von Hildebrand observed that when we are young, we are naturally ready to change, even eager for some changes, to from Pre-K to “K” Kindergarten, and through all levels of school.

          I have a friend who grew up in Hoboken and has an advanced degree in mathematics from Stevens Institute of Technology. He tells people: “I went from Kindergarten through my Ph.D. and never left Hoboken!”

          He’s the exception..and whether we leave our hometowns or not, we are called to change.

          And, growing up, we gravitate to change, it is part of the fluidity and fluency of growing.

          But, at some point, as grown-ups, our penchant and interest in change tends to decrease.

          Sometimes, we resist change simply because it’s different.

          For example, while I might enjoy many aspects of technology and having a “smartphone” device, I am also old enough to remember when I never had such a device, never had an interest in having a cell phone and swore I would never buy one. Sometimes, I wish I still did not have a mobile phone. So, in many ways, I do not welcome change, even beneficial changes.

[_10_]        Dietrich von Hildebrand quotes Michelangelo: the sculptor / painter who said: “Lord, take me away from myself and make me pleasing to thee.” (repeat)

          It is Michelangelo’s Renaissance-era way of saying: “I am am my own worst enemy”.

          So, in a Christian way of resolution, we are called to die to ourselves, to let things go, forgiving each other’s faults – which is often a daily resolution.

          And, by the way, forgiving someone does not mean we are APPROVING of someone or saying we were not INJURED … it simply means we are letting go of the hurt, the resentment. It’s a resolution, a decision.

[_11_]   This resolution also includes a desire to be closer to Jesus, which was famously articulated by the thief on the cross at Calvary:  “Lord, remember me when thou come into thy kingdom”.

          A new year – Christian – resolution is one that unites us to Jesus in his Passion, Death, Resurrection reminding us that he is making changes possible for us as we take up our cross each day, in new resolution for love of God and love of neighbor.

        [_fin_]