Toast and resolutions

Numbers 6:22-27; Ps 67 May God bless us in his mercy; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21

To make an end is to make a beginning.

We find ourselves at the end of 2012.  2012 has grown old and we have grown tired of it, as we long for a new day to dawn in our lives and so we pressed forward for the bells to ring and the fireworks to shout in the new year: 2013.

As it is noted, we welcome The year of our Lord 2013.

Just spend a few moments pondering that title:  The year of our Lord

Anno Domini or AD was the notation used to mark the years as they went by.  It was to designate that the birth of Christ changed things for us.  Time was no longer time but rather it was filled with the presence of God.

Today many people just use CE or Common Era as a political correctness.  But can time ever be common once God enters into it and becomes one of us.

Try to focus on that reality as we enter the new year of the Lord 2013.  As we gather around the catholic world celebrating the solemnity of the Mother of God, this holy day of obligation, we are to remember that time is no longer measured by the movement of the sun or the planets or the revolution of the Earth but rather by the maker of the stars.

We are all living in his time as he lives with us, here and now, the incarnate one.

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This day I went into Victoria to go to the bank.  I had a few transactions needing to be done before the new year got under way.

I was then going to meet some friends for lunch.  I had a bout 45 minutes before they would be ready so I decided to got to Hastings, grab a Chai Tea and open my kindle reader and spend a few moments in the quiet unfolding reality of the page.

While I was just settling down into my chosen read, a gentlemen from the local newspaper approached me.  He was wondering if I wanted to participate in the "Question of the Day" part of the news paper for tomorrow.

Basically he would ask me the question then take my picture and put it in the paper.  Luckily I was incognito.  He did not know that I was a priest.

I asked him  what the question of the day was.  He informed me the question was as follows, "What did I think was the most significant event of 2012?"

 I refused to ask the question.  I politely decline the offer for several reasons.  I don't like what the Local Paper as become.  I think it to be a poor media for information. In fact I no longer subscribe to it.

Secondly, I didn't want my mug on the front page.  In my kind of work, the Bishop usually gets irritated with such things.

Thirdly, I didn't like the question.  I felt that if chose one event as the most significant event of 2012 then I would trivialize all the other events, moments, encounters.

At the time, I thought having a quiet time to drink a Chai tea and read a little was pretty significant.

How could I have told him that the most significant event in 2012 is not just one event but what happens everyday around the world when the Priest gathers at the altar and the passion of Christ is re-experienced and the bread and the wine become the real presence of Christ.   The saving grace of Christ is brought to us live each time, time after time.

That is what I wanted to tell him.  But I figured he would misquote me as often is the case with newspaper and then it would trivialize the celebration of the Eucharist, which is really our one great act of fidelity.

No matter how we botch up our lives and make a mess of things every time we go to mass we are faithful to the words of Christ, "Do this in memory of Me."

Is there anything more significant then that and yet it is that celebration that makes every moment significant.

But perhaps we should in this new year try to make each moment and event significant, making it mean something.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures, so says Thornton wilder.  But i think it is less about being conscious of our treasures and more about being conscious that we are God's treasure as St Paul reminds us,

 "As proof that you are sons, God sent his Spirit of his son in to our hearts crying "abba, Father.  SO you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir..."

THis is the mentality we need to bring to each moment of the new year.

Last I leave you with a quote from my favorite president, though he was smart enough not be ever be elected, Ben Franklin, "Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you to be a better man."

Mary Mother of God pray for us

Prayer for the New Year
Breathe in me Holy spirit, that my thoughts may be holy
Act in me Holy SPirit, that my work too may be holy
Draw my heart o Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy
Strengthen me O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy
Guard me then O Holy Spirit that I always may be holy.  Amen