Homily
for December 31, 2007
Liturgical Year A- Cycle II
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
By Fr. John Carney Topic:
Spiritul Resolutions for the New Year
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Reading
I I Jn 2:29-3:6 If you consider
that God is righteous, you also know that everyone who acts in
righteousness is begotten by him.
See what love the
Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God.
Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not
know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be
has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall
be like him, for we shall see
him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes
himself pure, as he is pure.
Everyone who
commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. You know
that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No
one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him.
Gospel
Jn 1: 29-34 John the Baptist
saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who
takes away the sin of the world. He is the one of whom I said, ‘A man
is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’
I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was
that he might be made known to Israel.” John testified further, saying,
“I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from the sky and remain upon
him. I did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water
told me, ‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is
the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ Now I have seen and
testified that he is the Son of God.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Year’s
Eve. I hope it is a quite and safe one for
everyone. I don’t think I’ve been awake on New Year’s
Eve for ten years. When I was a kid, I
would go into the city, New York City, and watch the ball in Times
Square. I was thinking about that earlier today. I would go
with a couple of my friends. I think we were 14 years old.
We’d get home at six in the morning. Don’t let your kids do that.
(Laughter)
But it was actually quite safe.
New York was a very safe place.
You wouldn’t know that from reading the papers. New Year’s. We often think about the past on New
Year’s. It is a kind of nostalgic evening. Tomorrow we
think about the future, but New
Year’s Eve, we often think about the past.
We all sing that wonderful song, “Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and
never brought to mind. . . we’ll take a cup of kindness yet to Auld
Lang
Syne.” None of us has a clue to what
that means but we all sing it and that is probably because of the state
of
drunkenness at that time. By the way,
“auld lang syne” means “time gone by.”
Robert Burns wrote this. Bobby Burns
of Scotland in the 1700’s and it is old Scottish and that is why we
don’t
understand it but we sing it anyhow. You’ll
sing it tonight I hope. But really, we
should look to the future, not auld lang syne so much, as to the days
and years
ahead. I read a poll sometime back about
people’s resolutions on
New Year’s Day: 22% of them regarded
health and fitness; 18% about career; 15% of resolutions about personal
interest (like golf, I guess); 11%, personal finance, 11%, time
management; and
8%, family and relationships. The poll had no mention of any spiritual
goals
about what we’re going to do next year.
Yet that’s the best resolution, isn’t it, to make a spiritual
resolution. Kick it up notch in our
spiritual life. Maybe by resolving to do
morning prayer or evening prayer and/or both.
Maybe by resolving that at night, if you are able, to kneel by your bed
and do an examination of conscience for that day only, just one day.
Then ask God’s forgiveness and strength to
lead a good day tomorrow. That would be
a great resolution. Occasionally
attending daily Mass when you can would be good or making visits to the
chapel. I hope you consider that
tonight, to make a resolution of a spiritual nature, so that when 31
December
2008 comes that you and me are all closer to God than we are tonight.
The nice thing about a new year, in
fact the first day of
a diet, no matter how bad a shape you are in, you feel good that first
day. You know you’ve done something
today and you are on a roll and it’s going the right way. The
tick is up. The trend is positive. That’s the nice thing
about New Year’s, we
can all have that feeling tomorrow.
Indeed, we are setting out in this New Year to the unknown. The
truth is, we don’t know the future. It’s not ours to know.
Probably the earliest disciples of Jesus
didn’t know the future either. Had they
known, they would have been concerned.
Most of them were martyrs but they didn’t know the future. They
just knew that they had Christ with them
and that wherever they took Him, everything would be just fine, thank
you. We can say the same thing. We don’t know the future,
where 2008 will
take us, in terms of health or jobs, relations, or anything.
However, we do know that with Christ,
whatever comes our way, we’ll be all right.
We’ll handle it. We’ll be
OK. We really believe that. I know I speak for all of us
here when I say
that. Mary, who may have been 14 years old,
when she said, “Let
it be done to me according to thy word.”
Then the angle left her. It’s
important to note, the angel left her.
She was all alone again. She
didn’t see or hear anybody. She didn’t
know the future. Can you imagine the
thoughts she had that night? The Mother
of God. She had Christ physically,
literally with her. She knew everything
would be all right. Then Joseph took her
into his home. May we take Mary into our
home this year. She is our Mother
too. The Mother of the Church. She brings Jesus, the Head
of the Church,
with her. Take the Church into your home
this year. Welcome Mother Church and her
teaching. Learn your faith. Practice your faith.
Defend your faith. We have many critics today, very few who
defend our Holy Mother. We all need to
realize what a blessing we have in the Church, in Mary, our Mother, the
Church. May we all say with her, “I am
the servant of the Lord. May it be done
to me as you say.” Let’s do it in a real way too.
In God’s eyes, there is no pecking order
among us, among Christians. We’re all
just starting out. We’re all taking our
first baby steps in spirituality. That’s
why we need a mother to teach us, to hold us, and to guide us.
The most spiritually advanced person here
[and the only thing I know, I don’t know who it is, but I know it’s not
me, and
that I do know] but the most spiritually advance person here is just
starting
out on his or her spiritual journey. No
matter how far you get, no matter how much you learn, no matter how
much you
pray, you’re still a rookie when it comes to the spiritual life. There was a story about a monk from
Gethsemane who
visited an abbey in Ireland. It was an
ancient abbey and it had more than a hundred steps leading up to the
monastery
doors. The abbot welcomed him and
apologized for the many steps. The monk
from Gethsemane said, “There are many steps in Gethsemane Abbey too.
I count them as I climb. This is how I count. One, one,
one, one.” In the spiritual life, we are always
counting, “One.” Interestingly,
sometimes when we make some progress we find ourselves, and feeling
“Wow, I’m
making some progress.” If you ever get
that feeling, watch out. Watch out. If you ever say, “You
know, I’m getting
there.” Watch out because you’re about
to trip and fall and make a fool of yourself spiritually. Better
to say, “One, one, one.” We have a new start tonight, tomorrow,
that fresh
promise, a fresh start. It’s a good time
to cut yourself some slack for your past mistakes and take that first
step
again towards God with Mary. You know,
Our Lady of Guadalupe said to Juan Diego at Tepeyac said, “Do not let
anything
afflict you. Do not be afraid of any
illness or accident to pain. Am I not
Her who am your Mother? Are you not
under my shadow and protection? Do you
need anything else?”
May the Lord bless you
and keep you. May His face shine upon you and be gracious
to you. May the Lord look upon you
kindly and give you His peace.
We can’t
fix the mistakes we’ve made but we can go forward from this day.
We can love each other as God loves us. The opening prayer said
it well today.
Father,
help us to live as the Holy Family,
united in respect and love. Bring us to
the joy and peace of your eternal home and grant this through our Lord
Jesus
Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit.