History is made up of three kinds of people: those who make it happen, those to whom it happens and those who wonder what happened! Whoever first observed this was onto something. Each of these options is a personal choice. What will ours be?
As 2011 came to an end, it was only natural to reflect on the persons and events that, for good or for ill, seem most to have defined or shaped its character. This past year, because of natural disasters, economic crises and increasingly angry mass uprisings, there was a strong temptation to feel that the tidal wave of history was overwhelming us.
As Christians we do not close our eyes to the what happens in the world around us but we are never content to just let things happen. We also live in the constant awareness that the Kingdom of God — the world as it is destined to be under God’s reign —breaks the barriers that history often throws into the path of those who seek to live lives of virtue on Earth that conform to the heavenly living that the Beatitudes extol.
The beginning of a new calendar year, therefore, is also as good a time to let go of those memories, resentments and lost opportunities that we too often, by clinging to them, empower to control our present and stifle our future. 2012 is an invitation to re-anchor our lives in the One who will never abandon us. After the horror of Good Friday, something very wonderful happened. People who were dragging themselves to the tomb of Christ in order to finish up their post mortems suddenly found themselves running around for the joy of finding it empty. “Do not look for Him among the dead,” the angels told them. And of course Jesus Himself would appear to many of His disciples in the days before His Ascension, commissioning them to tell the Good News to the world that their lives could be changed from gloom and drudgery to joy and freedom.
For Christians, death no longer has power over this world. No matter how bad it has been or may seem to have gotten, the deeds of death are no basis upon which to deprive us of a glorious future that is grounded in the Risen One. We, too, rise again from the ashes of our sins and failures by the power of His grace. So the coming year need not be defined or determined by what happened or did not happen in 2011 or any year before it. Every new day is a resurrection.
Closer to home, in the midst of the serious challenges so many parishes are facing in our diocese, we have a golden opportunity to take a good look at our strengths and challenges so that more folks can witness to the power of the risen Christ. To do this, everyone must know and feel that they have a special role to play in Christ’s Church and that no one should be made to feel anything but loved, accepted and welcome.
In the midst of events that threaten to bury the value and significance of every human person, we affirm the dignity and God-given purpose of every human life, from the moment of conception through death and into eternity. And we need to show this in bringing the Gospel of hope to one another, person to person. This is what evangelization is all about today.
Like the three types of people mentioned above, the choice is ours. Will we be just spectators who watch the world go by or will be bring to the world the Lord and Savior it needs — the real Love we are all looking for — by letting Christ touch our lives?
Nothing is more persuasive than witnessing to a life turned around. All of us have some stories of faith to share, either from our personal experience or from the lives of those who touched us. No hope, dream, wish or concern is too small or insignificant to share. Remember that God chooses the weak things of the world to confound the proud. So let us all step up to the plate and bear witness. With God’s grace, the new year is ours to make!
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As Others See It
“In Lebanon, it is a very tense area; in Jordan, the king seems to be not only accommodating but also much more tolerant of different faiths, but at the same time in this part of the world there is great concern about what is happening in Syria and in Egypt. The Church and Catholic Near East Welfare Association try to reach out and support the people with our accompaniment.
“We don’t have the money to build huge edifices or underwrite costly projects. But we can help with planning, with public relations, or medical advice to modernize hospitals. The sentiment here is: We don’t want charity … we want you to help us with the technical aspect and maybe small seed money.”
– Msgr. John Kozar
President of CNEWA
