Month: December 2021

Have you started your list of resolutions for 2022 yet? Have you broken any of those resolutions already?

To be honest, making resolutions doesn’t work for me, and especially New Year’s Resolutions.

Making New Year’s resolutions is like trying to squeeze myself into someone’s bright idea for self-help that is supposed to create some magnificent change in my life. It never does, and I realize again and again that I absolutely don’t fit into these pre-fab great movements everyone embarks on to create life-changing modifications of behavior.

Has making resolutions worked for you? If it does, great! If making resolutions doesn’t work for you, I invite you to step back and take in the broader picture: eternity. It might just turn your idea of the value of resolutions on its head.

Resolutions Assume You Know What’s Best for Your Future

To start with, resolutions are most often about getting you somewhere: a more healthy, beautiful, prepared, financially situated, culturally engaged you. As a Christian, however, you can’t know for sure what will be the right plan for your future. Why do I say this?

Christmas, which we just celebrated, is about the Son of God being born in the “fullness of time.”  From this statement of Saint Paul in his letter to the Galatians, we learn: God’s timing is always perfect. His divine plan is loving and proceeds in perfect time. God is always right on time and just in time.

However, to take in the whole picture with faith, we believe Jesus was born in the fullness of time, and his parents had to leave home to Bethlehem for a census, and there was no room for them to stay for the birth of the Child, and it was the animals and shepherds who attended the Prince of Peace in his first hours on earth, and his life was endangered by an angry King jealous for his power as Mary and Joseph fled with him to Egypt…. Every plan Mary and Joseph may have had for the birth of their Child was way too small in the face of the loving designs of the Father for the birth of his Son in the fullness of time.

Every plan Mary and Joseph may have had for the birth of their Child was way too small in the face of the loving designs of the Father for the birth of his Son in the fullness of time.

Resolutions Are Our Plans Our Way

When I get in my resolution-making mood, which I occasionally still do, my mind gets very strategic and my will determined to decide to do or not to do something that will change my life so that I will be happy. The problem is that my vision of what will make me “happy” is often short-sited and distorted.

Consider the crucifixion of Jesus. It certainly seemed to be the wrong event happening at the worst time. A “perfect” plan would have been for Jesus to solidify his small group of apostles and ensure they had the power and the skills to accomplish his plan into the future. Instead, the death of Jesus seemed, on a human level, to make no sense. His life ended on Calvary, his disciples scattered, his vision for the restoration of humanity seemed to have come to nothing… In fact, it is just this interpretation that we hear from the lips of the frustrated disciples making their way to Emmaus after Jesus had died.

And yet the crucifixion of Jesus was absolutely perfect in the mysterious plan of the Father.

The problem with “resolutions”—at least when I make them—is that I am trying to bring about a future that I think is the best and most advantageous for myself. And to do it my way, on my timing, to accomplish what I have determined to be the most perfect outcome for my future.

And this is precisely why they never work for me. They are my resolutions my way.

Mary and Joseph had to leave behind all their preparation and plans and projections, as holy and beautiful as they may have been, and place themselves in the trajectory of what the Spirit was bringing about in order to orchestrate the Father’s plan with perfect exactitude.  

Mary and Joseph embraced God’s holy future, and they were swept up into the spontaneous, surprising purpose of God who does nothing by mistake, nothing without design, nothing without love.

Mary and Joseph were swept up into the surprising purpose of God who does nothing by mistake, nothing without design, nothing without love.

You Are an Indispensable Part of God’s Plan

As Philip Krill states: “All those chosen and elected by the Trinity, and baptized into Jesus, are actors, together with Christ, [and Mary and Joseph] in the great theo-dramatic plan of the Father’s mysterious will. Every saint has his or her special part to play. Each of us is an individual member of the Body of Christ. We are as ingredient to Christ ‘coming to full stature’ as were all the great saints of the past. We stand fore-square among them, mid-stream, as it were, in the endless line of those ‘streaming towards the mountain of the Lord’ (Isa. 2:2-3)…. Our identity in Christ is that of persons in transit. We are on the way to the Lord, in the great company of all His saints” (Philip Krill, Before the Foundation of the World: Encountering the Trinity in Ephesians 1, ebook page 45 of 111).

This year, don’t settle for resolutions that aim at a future too small for your dignity as a member of Christ’s Body (like losing weight, reading more books, cleaning out the garage, embarking on an exotic vacation). Like Jesus, like Mary and Joseph and all the saints, allow yourself to be swept up into the purposes of God for your life. Your identity, your mission and purpose in life, is some specific role as one of the members of Christ’s Body.

Before you make resolutions to fix, modify, or improve aspects of your personality, skills, physical appearance, or health, remember this: you can be certain that you have been fitted specifically with gifts and talents, weaknesses and strengths, liabilities and skill-sets that equip you perfectly to perform the role that has been preordained for you from the foundation of the world by the Father.

You are an indispensable instrument of God’s plan.

You are an indispensable instrument of God’s plan and in perfectly surrendering to the divine flow of God’s love, as mysterious and incomprehensible as it sometimes appears, you will find your happiness.

Resolutions often target weaknesses in order to turn them into strengths so we can become or appear to be who we want to be. However, mystery and divine providence often rely specifically on our weaknesses to be the places where the glory of God shines through as we play our part in the drama of the mysterious plan of salvation.

Life is Mystery

In the end, life is Mystery:  not perplexing confusion, but the Wisdom that is larger than our strategies, the Future that is greater than our projects, the Love that will encompass all of our potentials.

Mystery means God has a plan for you that is perfect in every way, a plan that can encompass and save even suffering and disappointment.

Mystery means God will use you just as you are for a plan that has existed since before the foundation of the world and will exist into the unending future of the eternal kingdom.

Mystery means your life has a purpose fitted specifically to you, a purpose for which no one can replace you. It is a purpose that unites you to the communion of saints.

Mystery means that God will take care of “growing” you into the full stature of Christ so that you can ever more graciously and completely take up your place in the mysterious plan of salvation that is unfolding day by day.

Mystery means that even your designs for your life will be lifted up into God’s loving plans if you don’t insist on them too much, at the expense of all that the Holy Spirit is bringing about. In the end, God will set you down again on the roads of your earthly plans, once you have been purified.

Mystery means God’s timing is always perfect. His divine plan is loving and proceeds in perfect time. God is always right on time and just in time.

Resolutions are too small for you. Okay, you may want to note a few things to tackle in order to live with greater awareness and intention, but the resolution that is the most important one to make at every moment of every day is this: like Mary and Joseph embrace God’s holy future, and consent to be swept up into the spontaneous, surprising purpose of God who does nothing by mistake, nothing without design, nothing without love.

Happy New Year!

Image Credit: Photo by Thilipen Rave Kumar from Pexels

Christ, born in a manger, almost hidden, means he goes into the lowest, darkest, most forgotten places within ourselves and our world where we can experience in a new way his peace and his joy.

In five days we will be celebrating Christmas and even in these final days of Advent many are already attending Christmas parties and rejoicing with the “joy of the season.” Once again we’re celebrating the birth of Christ, the Light of the World, as we continue to walk through the darkness that has swirled around us for the past couple years.

Today’s Gospel introduces the young girl who would mother the Son of God, the woman whose response to the angel Gabriel would bring to birth the eternal Joy that would wipe away our tears.

“Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:38).

In the midst of the darkness of the world she lived in, Mary believed in the promise of God that she was the Mother of his Son. Mary’s life returned to normal as the angel left her. How could she explain what the Holy Spirit had brought about in her? Who would understand? She didn’t celebrate the first Advent expectation for the birth of the Christ, she lived it in her flesh and in the solitude of faith. She walked through nine months toward the birth of her Son with an open heart, increasingly overwhelmed with wonder, gradually more aware that her walk of faith would be a path of suffering.

Mary was the first to know the “joy of the season.” We learn from the narrative of the Annunciation, that it is in the midst of the daily routine of our own lives that we receive the most beautiful announcement we can hear: “Rejoice, the Lord is with you!” Our Christmas celebrations, though important, are but a flicker of joy compared with the story of God’s relentless love for us, the true cause of our joy.

Pope Francis said that “God continues to look for allies, he continues to seek men and women capable of believing, remembering and recognizing that they are part of his people and cooperating with the Holy Spirit.” He seeks for “hearts capable of listening to his invitation and making it become flesh here and now” (Pope Francis, March 25, 2017).

The young girl Mary shows all of us the only response to this God that will bring the world joy: “May it be done to me as you say. I am saying YES to your whole plan. I give you myself, here, now, and forever. I give myself to your plan for the world through me.” God’s plans are far more beautiful than any plan we could create for ourselves.

In his sermon on December 6, 2019, Father Raniera Cantalamessa wrote: “The contemplation of Mary’s faith urges us to renew, above all, our personal act of faith and abandon­ment to God. That is why it is so vitally important to say to God, once in life, let it be done, fiat, as Mary did. This is an act enveloped in mystery because it involves grace and freedom at the same time; it is a form of conception. The soul cannot do it alone; God helps, therefore, without taking away freedom.”

In these final days of Advent let the joy that fills your heart, be the amazing realization that the Lord is with you! Whatever may be your sorrows or distress this Christmas season let the Virgin of the Annunciation, the Mother of the Lord, assure you again and again, “Rejoice, my child, the Lord is with you!”

Image Credit: Apollonio di Giovanni, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

She was a young mother, not more than 25, and carried an eight-month-old baby girl in a front-facing baby wrap. With her left hand she guided her other daughter towards the Baby Jesus statue in our Book Center yesterday here in Alexandria, Virginia. It was our annual Baby Jesus Party and families were arriving all day to take their pictures with Baby Jesus and shop for books that would feed their spirits. (I heard there is a shortage of Santas this year, but all the children could definitely hear Jesus calling, “Let the children come to me.”)

So many beautiful families yesterday, but while I took a few moments to sit down, it was through this woman that God granted me such a moment of grace.

As they left Baby Jesus, it was the older daughter, maybe about two years of age, who began to cry. Mom dropped down to her knees and put her arm around her daughter and said, “It’s okay.” Then she let her cry if that’s what she needed to do, assuring her every now and then over the next four minutes or so that her tears were okay, gently trying to guess what might be causing her distress.

As we gather near Jesus this Christmas season, we all have moments of tears, wistful memories of what could have been, empty places in our hearts and at our tables…. We, like the little girl, sometimes shed tears, and are unable to explain exactly what they mean or what it is we need. God, like a good mother, says to you, “It’s okay to cry.”

God wraps his arms around you, kneels down to look you right in the eye, and whispers, “It’s okay to feel the way you do.” In a season where we are told we should be happy and nostalgic and romantic and excitedly anticipating sleigh rides “over the mountains and through the hills to grandmother’s house we go….”, it’s more than okay if your heart also carries a weight that is tearing open the veil to eternity from whence comes “the Dawn from on High.”

God wraps his arms around you, kneels down to look you right in the eye, and whispers, “It’s okay to feel the way you do.

So here are three things you can do if along with the sentiments of the season, you also find yourself shedding invisible tears:

1. Give yourself the gift of Christmas alone-time just once. Eat your breakfast early one morning in front of your Christmas tree or crêche and just let everything be. Let the season soak in spiritually and emotionally. Let time pass without plans and alarms and getting ready for the next things to be done. No carols, no seasonal expectations, no putting yourself aside to make Christmas for someone else. Just as it takes time and protection from competing stimuli for short-term memories to convert into long-term memories, I believe it takes time and sacred quiet space for our experiences and feelings to sink into our spiritual consciousness and formatively shape who God is creating us to be.
2. Do something “Christmassy” with family or friends that doesn’t involve any preparation. This afternoon I walked down to the waterfront here in Old Towne at the end of King Street. The river walk was a quiet place where I enjoyed the families who were out for the day. As I started back up King Street, though, I spontaneously called my dad just to say hi. A street musician was playing Christmas music on the saxophone and he so uplifted my heart! I needed to share it with someone else. Share what uplifts your heart with someone else, or go along with their fun for a few hours.
3. Keep your Bible handy and dwell a bit on this passage from the prophet Baruch. If you have a designated prayer time like a turn for Eucharistic Adoration great, but just reading a few verses before you get out of bed each morning or during a coffee break will work just as well. As you read it, pay attention to the feelings this passage arouses in you, any memories, hopes and dreams. Pray the passage with a spirit of gratitude.

“Build up, build up, prepare the road!
    Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.”
For this is what the high and exalted One says—
    he who lives forever, whose name is holy:
“I live in a high and holy place,
    but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit,
to revive the spirit of the lowly
    and to revive the heart of the contrite.
I will not accuse them forever,
    nor will I always be angry,
for then they would faint away because of me—
    the very people I have created.
I was enraged by their sinful greed;
    I punished them, and hid my face in anger,
    yet they kept on in their willful ways.
I have seen their ways, but I will heal them;
    I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel’s mourners,
    creating praise on their lips.
Peace, peace, to those far and near,”
    says the Lord. “And I will heal them.”

Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,
    and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.
Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;
    put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;
for God will show your splendor everywhere under heaven.
For God will give you evermore the name,
    “Righteous Peace, Godly Glory.”

Arise, O Jerusalem, stand upon the height;
    look toward the east,
and see your children gathered from west and east
    at the word of the Holy One,
    rejoicing that God has remembered them.
For they went out from you on foot,
    led away by their enemies;
but God will bring them back to you,
    carried in glory, as on a royal throne.
For God has ordered that every high mountain and the everlasting hills be made low
    and the valleys filled up, to make level ground,
    so that Israel may walk safely in the glory of God.
The woods and every fragrant tree
    have shaded Israel at God’s command.
For God will lead Israel with joy,
    in the light of his glory,
    with the mercy and righteousness that come from him.

Finally, I imagine some readers are a little worried that I seem to have moved on to Christmas when Advent is just half over. It is Gaudete Sunday, however, and lifting hearts that are sorrowful is the redemptive excitement of the season of Advent. At St. Mary’s Basilica on Royal Street, I noticed they already have the stable up, which at first surprised me. I figured they’d be sticklers for the Advent-Christmas divide. I went up to look at it more closely and the stable was populated with all the animals of the nativity scene. Just animals and a shepherd. After all, the place where the animals were kept would have been there before the night Jesus was born, and it would have been used for day-to-day shelter for shepherds and animals. Into that simple and humble reality, Jesus was born, a surprise guest who made our earth his home.

We too in Advent, and all year through, live our simple and humble daily lives, always waiting for the exciting moment when it clicks in our heart that Jesus who has already come is here with us right now. So perhaps instead of keeping the Advent-Christmas divide so strictly this year, your heart might rejoice in the comfort the Redeemer came to bring you, and give it as many days as you can to let it soak in. There is nothing more urgent for our hearts and our world to know than this Advent-Christmas promise: through Christ our Redeemer, God has history under his powerful love, walks the ordinary paths of his people holding them each by hand, and will ultimately bring all of the chaos caused by the human disorder emerging from our unruly hearts into the dominion of the Kingdom that will never end.

Image Credit: Anakarina via Cathopic