By Father John Catoir

I don’t know about you, but year after year I find myself breaking my New Year’s resolutions. Having said that, I readily admit that as we approach New Year’s, we need focus. This is a good time to get serious about our future happiness. Am I on the right track or not?

To test yourself, you might find it helpful to stop and think about what God wants you to do for Him. Surely you must realize that your happiness for all eternity is linked to that question.

We usually think quite a lot about New Year’s resolutions, but I don’t think it’s helpful to stress much about them. We tend to break them a few weeks after Jan. 1 and then drift back to our normal lives. I prefer to put the emphasis where it belongs: on God. What does He want?

Here’s the heart of it. When you love others, you try to please them, isn’t that true? Pleasing God is simple when you think about it. Everything in Scripture tells us that God is pleased when we invite Him into our lives and then strive to do His will. He wants us to accept His love and share it with others. It all comes down to the art of pleasing God by becoming spiritually altruistic.

Are you spiritually altruistic? God wants us to love one another. Do you see yourself as a loving person? God wants us to help one another. Do you strive to help others? God wants us to teach one another. Do you teach spiritual values by good example? God wants us to forgive one another. Do you harbor anger or resentment? God wants us to comfort one another. Do you have compassion for those who suffer?

As you can see, we’ve moved away from the topic of your happiness. Or have we? Clarifying the definition of happiness is precisely the point.
Self-centered people are usually grasping, egotistical, dominating, obnoxious and unhappy. They moan and complain, even when they have much
more than the average person.

God wants you to be happy. He knows that egotism is exactly the wrong way to achieve happiness. It usually breeds misery. That’s why he commands you to love your neighbor. It’s not a suggestion; it’s not a plea. It’s a command. God’s will is deadly serious. Your eternal happiness depends on it, but so do your self-respect, your joy and your happiness in this life.

Knowing that God wants you to be happy and that he actually teaches you the way to achieve it can be a life-changing experience. It has been known to alter people’s entire direction in life.

Am I serious about not making any New Year’s resolutions for 2015? Yes and no. If you feel more comfortable with a specific goal, then God
bless you. My hope is to convince you to be open to the whispering of the Holy Spirit so that all year long you will have the holy desire to surrender to the urgings of the Holy Spirit as they come along. These urgings are called graces.

Be assured that your good intentions are duly noted in heaven, but try to let God be the one who reminds you of them.

Father Catoir, a native of Jackson Heights, is a retired priest of the Diocese of Paterson, N.J.