THE New Year certainly evokes the idea of a new beginning. However else we may think of the first day of the year, it is undeniable that with it we think we are beginning again.
But this business of having to begin and begin again, highlighted by the New Year’s Day, should make us more aware of the deeper importance of this task. It should remind us of our duty to renew ourselves.
Truth is we need to renew ourselves deeply and thoroughly, not only superficially and partially! This should not just be an idea, a slogan or a routine. It has to be an all-embracing program of life and a functional life-long strategy.
To begin again is not just a matter of course. That is to say, remove the hype that accompanies it, there is really nothing in it. To begin again is a grave human necessity that springs not only from our nature but also from our belief that we are meant for a supernatural destination.
Yes, dearie and sweetie, that’s just how the cookie crumbles in our life and world. Physically and externally, we may not be able avoid the effects of time and the onslaught of old-age. But deep within us, there is something that’s supposed not to age and die.
That is the reason for this business of ours to begin and begin again. We are supposed to prepare ourselves in this life for that leap to eternal life. With every new beginning, it’s like we’re making another winding of our earthly spiral to catapult us to eternity.
For this, we have to understand that what is involved is not just purely human and natural things. What is involved is the renewal of our soul, that it conforms more and more to its spiritual nature and supernatural end. That is to say that our renewal should not just be cosmetic, skin-deep, pegged, nailed and tacked to external appearances and earthly things only. It has to plumb the depths of our heart.
Our heart should not be dominated only by the material and temporal. It has
to be liberated from these confinements, and made to freely beat its proper lifeblood.
And that’s none other than God. Its proper language is love, it is self-giving, the one Christ lived and commanded us to do. It is not self-centeredness or greed. It is giving of oneself.
Its food is the truth, ultimately found in doing the will of God, again as Christ said and fulfilled especially with his death on the Cross. “My food is to do will of him who sent me.” (Jn 4,34)
In short, to achieve our goal of loving God truly, we have to understand that his means that our freedom is fully expressed only when lived in obedience to God’s will, when our freedom is so tied to our obedience to God that both mean the same thing to us.
This is the purpose of our continuing renewal in this life. For Christian believers, to pursue this renewal outside of this context would be foolishness and a pure waste of time.
Many New Years will come our way, bringing in things big and small, new and old. Whatever combination of things each new year may bring, we should not forget the real purpose of this cycle. It is to bring about another renewal, a winding of that spiral that launches us to eternal supernatural life with God.
And this renewal cannot be stopped even by our own sins, failures and mistakes, which can be expected to come. Our Father God is endlessly merciful, and as long as we play the prodigal son always, we can expect God’s mercy to be given to us. It is his joy to do this.
On our part, we should realize then that our own failures and mistakes, our
weaknesses and difficulties need not separate us from God. They precisely can be the occasion to bring us closer to him, in a way that is even more intimate since we would be asking for his help and his forgiveness.
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