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Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Circumcision of Jesus and the Octave of Christmas, and according to the more recent liturgical calendar, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Today is also New Year’s Day, a public holiday which might seem foreign to today’s liturgical celebration. And, in fact, historically there seems to be little connection. However, even chance events are governed by Divine Providence, and perhaps the New Year is rightly celebrated during this period, when we have just observed the celebration of the birth of Christ. With Christ’s incarnation, there is a new order of things, heaven has descended to the earth, God is with us.
New Year’s is also a day in which people are used to making resolutions to improve their own life for the year that is to come. Naturally, it wouldn’t be a good idea to suggest that someone waits until New Year’s to make the necessary changes to their life. In every moment it is good to make the right decisions, to correct the things in us that need to be corrected. If I have sinned, it’s better to repent and return to God immediately; I don’t need to wait a month or a year before doing it. We could die at any moment, and so it is necessary to always be ready; therefore, it is always the right time to repent of our sins and to do good. So, I wouldn’t suggest to anyone to wait until New Year’s to make changes to their life. But, since it is already New Year’s, why not take advantage of this occasion, and make some changes for the better in our lives?
Perhaps the first thing to do, for all of us, is to make an examination of conscience and to go to confession. If I have committed serious sins, this is very important, because without repentance and confession I cannot be saved. Even if I haven’t committed serious sins, however, there are always venial sin, and confessing such faults is a good way to begin to change for the better. We shouldn’t forget, however, that there is a need to make an examination of conscience before going to confession. Every once in a while someone comes to confession and says that he can’t remember any sin, not because he is free of all sin, a condition impossible in this life, but because he did not take the time to examine his conscience.
After having distanced oneself from evil with the sacrament of confession, the next step is to draw near to the good, and thus, become more holy. What is necessary in this step? Pope Benedict spoke of this to a general audience on April 13, 2011. He asks, what does it take for us to become saints?
What is the ‘essential’? The ‘essential’ means never leaving a Sunday without an encounter with the Risen Christ in the Eucharist; this is not an additional burden but is light for the whole week. It means never beginning and never ending a day without at least a brief contact with God. And, on the path of our life it means following the “signposts” that God has communicated to us in the Ten Commandments, interpreted with Christ, which are merely the explanation of what love is in specific situations. It seems to me that this is the true simplicity and greatness of a life of holiness: the encounter with the Risen One on Sunday; contact with God at the beginning and at the end of the day; following, in decisions, the “signposts” that God has communicated to us, which are but forms of charity. Hence the true disciple of Christ is marked by love both of God and of neighbor. This is the true simplicity, greatness and depth of Christian life, of being holy.
Therefore, if someone doesn’t go to Holy Mass every Sunday, we have right here a good resolution for the new year, just as Pope Benedict said, “never leave a Sunday without an encounter with the Risen Christ in the Eucharist”. At the same time, if someone does not pray each morning and each evening, today is a good day to start. And regarding the third pointer, the life of charity towards God and towards his neighbor, each one of us can think of many ways in which we can improve this in our own lives.
We often make good New Year’s resolutions, but we don’t put them into practice. If this happens, though, we need to remind ourselves again that New Year’s isn’t the only time to make resolutions: again, every moment of our lives is a good time to make good decisions. Therefore, let’s ask God for the grace, to make right decisions and to always put them into practice.