New Year 2019: Counting our days aright

NEW YEAR’S EVE 2018

YEAR OF THE YOUTH

DECEMBER 31, 2018

Jesus, I trust in you!

It is the last day of 2018 and as the clock moves slowly towards midnight, people all over the world will be engaging in countdowns. There is revelry everywhere because there is something about the passing of one year to another that captures the excitement of people. Of course, we are celebrating something that is secular because the transition involved civil years. That is why the celebration all over the world has a worldly, secular character. People will be dining and dancing the night away on to a new year.

But for us who follow Christ, tonight’s countdown has a special significance. It reminds us of the way we look at time with the eyes of faith. To us, history is not just a meaningless cycle of events but a journey from a definite point of time to another definite point. History is the human journey from Creation to the end of all time, the second coming of Christ. And at the center of this human historical journey is Christ, the Lord of history, the Lord of time. That is why we divide history into two: BC (Before Christ) and AD (the year of the Lord). Pope John Paul II, in the celebration of the great Jubilee Year 2000, made us aware of this once again: the birth of Christ is the center of all human history. The Incarnation is the definitive entrance of God into human history and this momentous event changed the course of man. Before he came, all of us were on the way to perdition. But God entered history, the Eternal One entered time and space, in order to change that course. He has put a stop to this slippery descent of man and brought it to a path of redemption. Being born in time, Jesus transforms it. No longer is time a countdown to punishment. Through Jesus, time has become a countdown to redemption. That is why at the beginning of Advent, the Lord bids us to stand erect and raise our heads, for our redemption is at hand.

And that is why we count time. We pray the Psalm: “Lord, teach us to number our days aright, so that we may gain wisdom of heart.” (Ps. 90:12) We ask for the grace to number our days aright. Yes, we number our days because our days are numbered. Time for us is not an unlimited commodity. It is something given to us in a limited way. As I have told you in the past, every year, every month, every week, every day, every hour, every minute, every second that passes brings us closer to the end…and that end is not something dismal, but something we long for because this end is our grand meeting with Jesus who will return in glory. The limited time given to us is a time of grace and mercy, an opportunity offered by the Lord to us to work out our earthly life in keeping with his divine plan and decide our ultimate destiny. (CCC, 1013) And this time which keeps going forward will never return. Once it passes, it is gone forever. There is no replay. There is no take two. You miss it…move on to the next. And remember, it is running forward faster than you think. This is why we must take advantage of every second, every minute to advance in grace and holiness. St. John Bosco said, “Do good while you still have time.” Yesterday, we saw Jesus advance in wisdom, age and favor before God and men. As 2018 is passing, can we truly say that we have advanced? Surely, we have advanced in age. We have become a year older definitely…and nothing can stop this. But have we advanced in wisdom? Did we learn from our mistakes? Have we become more understanding and more loving? Have we matured in thought and action? Have we become more discerning of the ways of the Lord? Or are we still gullible to the devil’s deceptions? Have we advanced in favor before God and men? Have we become more pleasing to God? Have we become more respectable before others? Am I a better person today than last year? Am I holier now than before?

Tonight is the time to sit in silence and reflect before God. How much time I wasted tinkering my gadgets and missing out on the people around me, the people who love me? How many opportunities to deepen my relationship with God have I wasted? How many opportunities for love and communion have I passed? For this, let us beg forgiveness. Lord, I can never take back the time passed. I am sorry.

Tonight is the time to sit before the Lord and ask him: Lord, how can I rectify my ways? How can I make up for lost time? How can I do better? This is what Resolutions are all about. Make your resolutions and seriously take them to heart. Do not immediately abandon them because you do not know if you will still be here next year. Make every second count and you will be wiser. “Lord, teach us to number our days aright, so that we may gain wisdom of heart.”

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!