Renewal

LET’S foster our need for renewal. Let’s not take it for granted. Nor should we just mindlessly hitch it to some automatic mechanism brought about by social or economic forces, or by some cultural, fashion or temporal trends.

            Let’s do it intentionally, making use of both human and supernatural means, because this is what is proper to us as persons and as children of God. We have to realize that this need is constant and will last till the end of life.

            The new year should be a good occasion to remind ourselves of this duty. Though the shift from the old to the new is merely conventional, it is still useful to pause at this time to take stock of things in our life, making a review and examination of some sort, and to set goals.

            For this, of course, we need to be clear of who we are and what we are supposed to accomplish. This means that some core beliefs have to be set in place. Otherwise we would be clodding aimlessly in an intractable wilderness.

            One problem we can immediately notice is that many people do not anymore bother about such things as core beliefs, creeds or faith. They even mock this matter. Some have gone to the level of indifference, scepticism, agnosticism and atheism.

            The more practical-minded just rely on the attitude of “what comes naturally,’ or at best, on some philosophies and ideologies that in their turn only capture some portions of human concerns.

            It’s a complex situation. But in any event, let’s just hope that the unmistakable need to renew oneself can also clarify the issue of core beliefs that hound all of us. We actually cannot escape from this, in spite of those who say otherwise.

            These past holidays have given me another fresh insight about this need for renewal. Together with the festivities associated with Christmas and the New Year, I also joined in the renewal of marriage vows of two couples—one after 60 years, and the other after 25 years—and the pledge of change of life while visiting prisoners.

            The three events drew different crowds and generated different atmospheres, and yet there was one common element that bound them together. In spite of the time that has passed and the still many uncertainties that the future can bring, the parties involved want to renew.

            The diamond jubilarians want to make their love sealed for eternity. The silver jubilarians wish their love to grow strong and ever young as they still have a lot of territory to traverse in life. The prisoners want to change to normal life.

            This wish to change, to keep on going, to reach the perfection and fulfilment of human aspirations is what fuels our need for renewal. It’s just in the way we are that while we are always bound to a certain place and time, we are also in constant motion, as if in a journey.

            This is an aspect of life that we should take more seriously. For it, we need to be prepared and appropriately trained. That’s why the most basic attitude to develop is that of having to begin and begin again. In this life, while we tend to reach certain goals, we can never attain the ultimate one.

            But instead of not doing anything about it, what we need to do is to continue, without let up, having to begin and begin again. This is a practical law of life that we should apply in our daily affairs.

            We need it, first of all, when we may have committed a mistake. We can always begin again, because even if we have to contend with the consequences of our mistakes, we can always count on the power of atonement and reparation that always produces beautiful effects.

            We have to begin and begin again because we are also subject to our continuing tendency to be lukewarm.  That’s an undeniable condition we have to contend everyday.

            And lastly, we have to begin and begin again because in spite of our best efforts, our ultimate goal to be with God forever always beckons us. Thus, in the Book of Revelation, we read the relevant passage: “He that is holy, let him be sanctified still.” (22,11)

            This attitude of having to begin and begin again makes the need for constant renewal attainable, and not left simply as a mere desire. It keeps us going, fanning the love that is at the core of our being, until that love gets consummated when with God, we will always be new, never to grow old.