Making Choices: I Firmly Resolve! Can New Year's Resolutions Become Reality?

Over the years I have realized that every end really can become a beginning, for the man or woman who has faith in the God who invites us to begin again, again and again

The New Year offers hope for change and invites us to make choices. In reality, it is our choices which will make us. Over the years I have realized that every end really can become a beginning, for the man or woman who has faith in the God who invites us to begin again, again and again...

P>CHESAPEAKE, Va. (Catholic Online) - 'For a son of God each day should be an opportunity for renewal, knowing for sure that with the help of grace he will reach the end of the road, which is Love. That is why if you begin and begin again, you are doing well. If you have a will to win, if you struggle, then with God's help you will conquer. There will be no difficulty you cannot overcome.' (St. Jose Maria Escriva, The Forge, 344)

The London Daily Mail recently ran an article entitled "New Year's resolutions 'barely last longer than a week'"  However, the fact remains, we all make them. The experience is nearly universal. Some Nations use different calendars, but the passing of one year to another is marked by a deliberate period of reflection over the past year and a pledge to begin anew, to change, in the year to come.

Health Clubs seize the moment, inviting the newly resolute to begin shedding the unwanted weight which is a symbol of the lifestyle choices which they sincerely hope to change. GK Chesterton wrote: "The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. Unless a man starts on the strange assumption that he has never existed before, it is quite certain that he will never exist afterwards. Unless a man be born again, he shall by no means enter into the Kingdom of Heaven."

We all want to change as we end one year and look to a new one. In a rare moment of near universal reflection and honest self assessment, we admit our failures. We pledge to learn from them and move toward a better future. In Little Gidding written by T.S. Eliott we find these often quoted words: "For last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning."

Over the years I have realized that every end really can become a beginning, for the man or woman who has faith in the God who invites us to begin again, again and again... He alone makes it possible by sharing His very Life with us. This gift is called grace and through receiving it we become what the Apostle Peter called "Partakers of the Divine Nature".(2 Peter 1:4)

Millions will utter these words this New Years Day, "I firmly resolve.." Lists will be compiled and promises made- to oneself, to others and to God. Sadly, many will not be kept. These words attributed to Mark Twain too often ring true "New Year's Day. now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual."

I will record my goals and aspirations in my journal; a list I will return to throughout the year. This year I am taking my fitness plans to a higher level, joining several others in a rigorous year of specialized Martial Arts Training. That is one of my goals, to keep the momentum of physical fitness from this past year moving forward. I am getting too old to feel old. So, I will seek a black belt. I have tried before but never quite made it. However, I will try again in 2011! As for that goal, as well as the others, the older I get the clearer it has become; I know I cannot achieve any of them on my own.

Unlike I did when I was a younger man, I no longer write my New Years goal list before a period of protracted prayer. I use to make the list first, in a fit of self generated enthusiasm and then ask the Lord to bless it! I know better now. I need the light of the Holy Spirit to even comprehend what is needed if I ever hope to change.

I am ever grateful for the opportunity to attend Holy Mass on New Year's Day and celebrate the great Feast of Mary, the Mother of God. She is the first disciple, the prototype, the symbol of the whole Church. We who are members of the Church are invited to emulate her "Yes" to the invitation of God and make it our own. We are to make a place for Him within us and become bearers of Christ to the world.

There at Holy Mass, if we listen with our spiritual ears, we can hear the Angels sing. We hear the living Word of God proclaimed, equipping us with wisdom from above to help inform our lives below. We approach the Altar of Calvary and receive the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ, the source of all grace. Without grace we simply cannot keep these New Year's resolutions. But with grace - which is a participation in the very life of God - we really can.

I awakened this morning with a prayer in my heart. It is one which Roman Catholics over fifty years old recall well, "An Act of Contrition": "O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen."

The prayer has gone through several revisions, maintaining the necessary elements of course. The preliminary line struck me as significant for our New Year's Celebration and became the title of this reflection "I firmly resolve."  However, it is incomplete without the words which follow ".with the help of Thy grace". That second part, "with the help of Thy Grace" holds the key to answering the question of whether New Year's Resolutions can work. Yes, if they are inspired by the Holy Spirit and aided by God's grace.

The celebrations will soon begin in Sydney, Australia. Last year 1.5 million people participated in massive fireworks displays and festivities. Final preparations are being made in Times Square, New York where authorities are expecting the largest crowd in the history of such New Years gatherings. At midnight, the ball will drop and a massive crowd will welcome a New Year with the sincere hope that it will offer them a new beginning.

On this  New Year's eve, I pray that in the Year of Our Lord, 2011, we may all find the fullness of grace which comes through a living relationship with the One who makes all things new  (Rev 21), Jesus Christ.  There is a universal longing in every human heart to be made new, to begin again. In and through Jesus Christ, there is also a way. How deeply we want to be made new. There is Good News! We truly can! St. Paul reminded the Christians in the City of Corinth - and reminds every one of us "whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Cor. 5:17)

New Years Eve is a great existential moment, ripe with expectations. It invites a spiritually cathartic time of reflection, offers hope for change and invites us to make choices. In reality, our choices will make us. Let us choose to live our lives in Christ this year and find the way to turn resolutions into reality.

Happy New Year!

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