New Year - 2013
New Year - 2013
The beauty of a religion like Christianity is its spiritual dynamism which makes ongoing renewal and regeneration possible. The beginning of a New Year reminds us Christians of this possibility. This Christian dynamism revolves around the three theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Love.
Christianity opens to us the constant possibility of being born, being renewed every day. The New Year is at our disposal in order to live and witness to the ever greater newness of life that our FAITH offers us. Our faith in God has an underlying dynamism. It renders our life ever new. Genuine faith constantly challenges our life to renew itself. It is not that we ‘were born again’ at some point of time in the past (as some Christian sects would claim), but we are being born constantly, and this process has to continue till we breathe the last. This faith defines our life as a growth, a growing into the holiness of God. Every day or every hour and every second that is gifted to us in the New Year is the possibility for this growth. The New Year invites us to share in the Christian dynamism by constantly growing in faith and holiness, especially in this Year of Faith.
One major mistake that we could do as Christians is to live every day the same life. The New Year is given to us not just to repeat the same rhythm of the past year, also the same faults of the past year. It is our right and responsibility to experience and enjoy every day the freshness of life. As Christians we are not to be buried in our past mistakes. Past mistakes are past. We believe in a God whose best synonyms are love and compassion. Our image of God is that of a Father who is ever willing to forgive the mistakes of His children and to receive us to His bosom, like the father in the parable of the prodigal son. This aspect of the Christian dynamism is best reflected in the Christian sacrament of reconciliation. We accept our mistakes, we learn from them and we go beyond them. The word ‘desperation’ has no place in our dictionary. It is HOPE that characterizes the Christian horizon. As we stand at the threshold of a fresh year, this hope should permeate all our perceptions and projects of life and promote its inherent dynamism.
God’s LOVE enabled Him to become a tangible part of our finite history in order to transform it. This is what we celebrated in the great feast of Christmas. This Incarnate Word taught us that the expression of our Faith and the evidence for our Hope are acts of love. Love is the unique path to holiness; love deepens our faith; love brightens our hope. Love is the motor of the Christian dynamism. In the New Year, let us resolve ourselves to live our life ever newer by increasingly engaging in genuine acts of love. I wish all of you A Happy New Year.