Struggling With New Year Resolutions

Greetings!

Making New Year Resolutions can be a daunting experience, especially for those who have in the past broken so many of them in the month of January. It seems to me that our good resolutions only stay fresh in our minds for such a short time, and then they begin to dissolve. We seem to be much more comfortable returning to our old ways, as we accept our failure to be perfect without a whimper.

Dare we make any new resolutions this year, when we have so little confidence in our own moral perfection? It is a puzzle.

However, before you get down on yourself too unkindly, permit me reacquaint you with a few Biblical figures. Comparisons are odious, but this little exercise may help you to realize, that all things considered, you're not such a bad egg after all.

A long-time Jesuit friend, Father Bill O'Malley, whose writing is known to the readers of America Magazine, has written on the topic. He has a web site (www.arborwood.com), on which he produces a series of homilies entitled, "Sermons Unsuited for Sheep."

In one of these colorful offerings, which was based on the Gospel of St. Mark 10:35-45, he reminds us how James and John failed to live up to the high ideals of an apostle by making their position in the Kingdom their main concern.

These brothers who had been allowed to hear the actual Sermon on the Mount, and who were with Jesus constantly for the three years of his public ministry, and who even witnessed the triumph of the Transfiguration, fell back into a state of raw ambition. They began promoting themselves, as O'Malley puts it, "to see who would become a cardinal, and who would remain just a priest in the Kingdom to come."

Jesus reproached them both gently. The Lord always seemed to hope for the best and expect the worst. He knew that even the great heroes of the Bible were just human beings. These Biblical icons, "so sanitized and heroicized by homilists, often yielded to temptations far more monstrous than most of us would even dare to consider."

O'Malley continues. "The great Abraham, our father in faith, pimped his wife Sarah, into rich men's harems to save his own skin, (Genesis 12, 10-20). And Moses, the greatest figure in Hebrew scripture tried to stammer his way out of his mission. Even King David, the reputed writer of the Psalms, became an adulterer and a murderer."

In the light of such hypocrisies, who are you to get on your high horse about expecting to achieve perfection. Ponder the impact of original sin on all human beings.

The purpose of this exercise is not to stress your weakness so much, as it is to see better, the urgency of turning to God for help.

If you want to make a good resolution for the coming New Year, why not decide to pray deeply at least once a week. Get inside yourself and face your weaknesses as best you can; remembering that they are merely human defects, which you share with every saint who has ever lived. Then pray for the grace of God to overcome what you do not like.

Just looking at yourself honestly, and asking God for help once a week, may be as good a resolution as you'll ever make. Happy New Year!

by Father John Catoir

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Christianity
Catholic Blogs

Advent Is All About Joy

There was a time in the Church when a spirit of gloom seemed to dominate the thinking of most Catholics. That's why I was fascinated by Pope Benedict XVI's talk given at a youth rally in Cologne, German at the beginning of his pontificate. He said, "I would like to show them how beautiful it is to be Christian, because the widespread idea which continues to exist is that Christianity is composed of laws and bans which one had to keep and, hence, is something toilsome and burdensome."

The pope clearly favors joy over gloom. Jurgen Moltmann, a German theologian, expresses the same perspective in his book, "The Passion For Life," (Fortress Press), where he answers the question, "where did Jesus come from?"

"Jesus came from the overflowing joy of God, and he gives up his life for the joy of the world."

The Lord comes from Joy with the express intention of denying himself to the point of death, so that our joy may be complete. Therefore, shouldn't we try to put aside the attitude of gloom and doom that sometimes rises up in the Church?

Moltmann answered another interesting question: "In the public ministry of Jesus, why did he go first to the outcasts of his world, and not to the scribes and high priests?"

"The inner motivation for Jesus' striking friendship with sinners and tax collectors lies in His joy in God, and in the future of human existence. Jesus does not bring a dry sympathy, but an inviting joy in God's kingdom to those who, according to the law, were reprobates."

The Lord's first concern was to reach out to the "poor in spirit," i.e., those most in need of his message, who would therefore be more open to hearing what he had to say.

Jesus comes primarily as a liberator as Moltmann explains, "The history of the liberation of human beings, the history of their gathering at the banquet of the Lord (the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass), and the history of their unification in the Spirit (the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation), are nothing less than the history of God's joy."

Moltmann comments on this:

"The story of God's suffering in Christ, leads to the story of God's joy in the Spirit. In the fullness of God's joy, Christ's suffering is certainly not canceled, set aside and forgotten, it remains a fruitful, saving, and renewing suffering."

At the Last Supper, Jesus said, "I have told you all these, so that your joy may be complete." His purpose was to give up his life for the joy of the world. That means the cross was never intended to be an end in itself. True, it is a symbol of self-denial, but only within a limited context.

As C.S. Lewis points out: "The New Testament has much to say about self-denial, but not about self-denial as an end in itself. I submit that this negative notion has crept in from Kant and the Stoics, and is in no way part of the Christian faith."

Advent is a season of great joy because it is a season in which we anticipate the coming Feast of Christmas. Therefore, even if you only have a tiny bit of joy in you, please notify your face.

Merry Christmas!

by Father John Catoir

Catholic

Religion
Roman Catholic
Christianity
Catholic Blogs
Spirituality