Yes, we have made that crossing over from the dark and tumultuous year that was 2020 into the new 2021 last week. I am quite sure that many people all over the world were happy to leave 2020 behind, with everyone’s ominous encounter with COVID19 seared into our collective memory. And if you are one who likes carrying on time-honored traditions, you would have inevitably made some form of resolution as the clock ticked past the stroke of midnight bringing us into the new year of 2021.
There can be very cynical reactions to resolutions. I have heard many of them. “What’s the use? We always break them anyway”; “I don’t believe in resolutions as I want to live freely” or “resolutions are for losers”. Whilst it is true that there is a very strong tendency to break resolutions made with the best of intentions, I believe that even the desire to want to make resolutions reveal something good inside of us, and it is rooted in God’s goodness and faithfulness.
Resolutions are most often virtues that one wants to embrace and live out in life, which one finds challenging. One realizes that one has in some way lowered the bar in life by the kind of life one had been leading, and that one should be doing better as a human being. This takes humility to admit, and it shows that one is hopeful. It shows that one hasn’t given in to despair and given up in life.
If only we realize that every penitent who meaningfully celebrates the Sacrament of Reconciliation emerges from the celebration with a resolution. Those words of the act of contrition are not only words that express contrition and sorrow for having offended God through our sins. They are also deep and sincere expressions of our intention to start anew, and to give holiness and our quest for sanctification another chance. No one comes out of the sacrament (or at least no one shouldcome out of it) being cynical and muttering under one’s breath “I don’t believe that I can cooperate with God’s grace to the extent that I won’t sin again”. Rather, the reality is that one wants to have more trust and hope in doing better to cooperate with God’s grace, and when one truly gives one’s entire heart, mind and soul over to God, one can indeed not sin in that way again. It’s really a resolution that has a higher impact than a mere wishful thinking that happens at the stroke of midnight of Dec 31. It is really a declaration of a belief in God’s grace and the power of faith.
As Christians, our ultimate belief is in the faith of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The power of the empty tomb of Easter Sunday is our basis for wanting to live life anew, to have fresh starts in life, and to be able to be less reliant on old habits that have kept us in their power and chains (which all addictions are prone to do).
Qoheleth, to whom is attributed the Book of Ecclesiastes has a very interesting saying in 1:9, where he states “what has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun”. Taking it literally, one tends to become a cynic because this quote really does say that there nothing that is really new on the earth. But it doesn’t mean that people should never try to improve themselves and better themselves.
But even if we take that quote literally, it gives us a lot of hope, because God is not “under the sun”. If he is the cause of the sun’s existence, and in fact, the cause of the entire universe’s existence, his power and his dominion is not under the aegis of the universe (and definitely not under the sun’s aegis!) Our God is beyond the sun and beyond all that the universe can contain. More to it, this very same God is even closer to us than we can dare to imagine.
When we can fathom even a smidgen of this awesome reality, then it does make sense to make resolutions in life, especially when it is a direct expression in the belief in the power of God and the power of the empty tomb.
God bless you all in the bright New Year that 2021 will bring us.
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