NEW YEAR 2023

THE NEW YEAR 2023 REFLECTION Thrust: Newness with new breath! Indicative: We enter another New Year. Anything new brings a lot of excitement and freshness. And we have every reason 1. At last, we made it. We could step into another New Year. We could sail over storms and strong winds. We could cut across mountain-like boundaries and barriers. We could walk ahead along the rugged and hindered road. We reached the new shore, the new station 2023. 2. The very fact that we have made it despite the fears, challenges, uncertainties, and vicissitudes, is a thing to rejoice about. That we are able to see the dawn of a new year in the history of our life, is something great and worth-celebrating. 3. At this point, I place before you a few indicators for our journey 2023: Gratitude, Certitude, Plenitude, Rectitude, and Beatitude. The entry into the new year must well up within us a deep sense of gratitude to God. It is only because of His love, care, mercy, light, and power that we are in 2023. 4. How right is the psalmist in psalm 227: If the Lord does not build the house, in vain the labourers labour. If the Lord does not guard, in vain the guards keep vigil. Yes, if the mercy of God does not flow on us, in vain will all our efforts and plans be. 5. So we shall thank God and we shall remain ever grateful to Him all through. Along with God, let us also be thankful to every person that accompanied us along the journey of 2022. There are so many that directly or indirectly supported us, sustained our steps, and strengthened our efforts in one way or another. 6. The more we nurture a grateful spirit, the more life will be joyful. Because gratitude is not merely a matter of listing the favours received or great things enjoyed. Real gratitude is a blend of faith, love, and hope. 7. One can be grateful to God because he believes in God, trusts in His goodness, and cultivates faith in good. A faithless heart can never be grateful because it does not see and recognise the good. 8. One becomes grateful because he sees with love. He sees the presence and action of love. He sees the power and effect of love. Experiences of love lead to real gratitude. Gratitude is nothing but rejoicing over the beauty of love. 9. A grateful heart is also deeply hopeful. Hope renews our aspirations and expectations, dreams and ambitions. Hope instills new vision, vistas, and horizons. Hope commits us to new efforts, new initiatives, and new challenges. Hope recharges us with new vigour and energies. 10. Thus, true hope is something divine and lofty. It is not merely wishing good and aspiring high. Hope is essentially a benevolent spirit that perseveres and travels ahead and beyond. So true gratitude arises only because of such hopefulness. 11. Then, the new year becomes new because of certitude. True it is that problems and difficulties will not totally disappear. Fears and worries will not completely leave us. But certitude leads us ahead. We are sure and certain that God will never abandon us. 12. In the light of today’s naming of Jesus and the motherhood of Mary, we are sealed in the most sacred name of Jesus. We are safe and secure in his powerful name. No harm or evil can befall us and knock us off because we are entrusted to the divine maternity of Mary. We are assured of God’s grace. 13. New Year is new because of the plenitude and plentitude of blessings. That is what the first reading from the book of Numbers proclaims and promises. Evil may abound but grace will superabound. Fears may assai but confidence will prevail. Failures may pull us down but successes will raise us up. 14. Disappointments may trouble us but reinforcements will console us. Darkness may surround us but rays of light will abound around us. Falsities may frighten us but truth will lighten and enlighten us. Confusions may blur us but clarity and insight of the Spirit will clear our path. resentments and hatred may distress us but love and compassion will redress and fortress us. 15. Aggression and violence may knock us down but meekness and tolerance will unlock the streams of peace and serenity. Selfishness may strike us hard but selfless generosity will hike us aboard. Pride and arrogance may throw us down but humility and magnanimity will row us up. Anger and fury may disturb our spirits but patience and gentleness will give us superb solace. 16. New year is a call for a new life of rectitude. Think right, speak night, act right. Then all will be alright. Then life will turn into a beatitude for others. We not only give blessings to others. Rather, we ourselves will become blessings to others. Imperative: With genuine gratitude, selfless surrender, and undying hopefulness, we shall walk ahead, sheltered under the wings of the sacred name of Jesus and the motherhood of Mary. (REFLECTION 2 FROM 2022) Focus: The New Year that we step in opens up for us new avenues with new hope and assurance, with renewed confidence and courage, for God is with us 1. We are stepping into another new year. At these first moments of the new year, let us first warm ourselves with a warm sentiment of gratitude for the whole of the last year. No doubt that it had its own woes and struggles. But it shall not blind us to the positive and the blessings. 2. There are very many things to thank God and others for. The experiences of God’s protection, care, love, guidance, nourishment, and power that gave us the taste of success, satisfaction, joy, and strength have been constant and deep. The experiences of the goodness of others through concern and support are too numerous. We have many reasons to be grateful. The very fact that we are able to celebrate this New Year is a clear sign of God’s blessing. 3. Of course, we want to be realistic. The New Year is not a magical rod that will vanquish all fears and problems. It will be foolish to think so. Most of the same old challenges and burdens will travel into the New Year as well. But, what makes the difference is when we carry God also into the New Year along with all these. 4. At the threshold of this New Year, we are assured of God’s company and blessing. We hear in the first reading from the book of Numbers, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace”. 5. This blessing by God is symbolised by celebrating the naming of Jesus and the Motherhood of Mary. Thereby we are assured that the New Year will be blessed because we are sealed and shielded by the powerful name of Jesus. We shall march forward and surge ahead because we walk in his holy name and under his sacred tutelage. The name and the power of Jesus shall be our identity, our guide, and direction, our weapon, and our security. 6. Further, we are entrusted to the motherhood of Mary. All our New Year shall be specially mothered by her. She will take care of us with a mother’s tenderness. She will direct us closer to her divine Son. She will obtain forgiveness for our faults and wrongs. She will obtain for us the needed graces to live authentically and fruitfully. Direction: All that is needed to experience the newness of life in the New Year is to be constantly aware of the dignity of our vocation as the sons and daughters of God, to find him in the manger of our hearts, and surrender our lives to the holy name of Jesus and the sweet mothering of Mary (REFLECTION 3 FROM 2021) Focus: We begin the new year, filled with gratitude and geared by hope and vigor. Newness is not the absence and total vanishing of all the old problems but is a new way of looking at them, and approaching them 1. Another year! A new year, full of aspirations and visions. Lots of plans and programs on the slate. Certainly, we hope for the better and we must. The reason for our hope and confidence is God. As we venerate Mary as the Mother of God and celebrate her divine maternity, as we celebrate the naming of Jesus, we entrust ourselves to them. 2. We are assured of the maternal affection and guidance of Mary, and the security and power of Jesus. With the Mother holding the responsibility for us and entrusting us to the safest and most powerful name of Jesus, we can always hope against hope. We can always do better than before. 3. Perhaps the reality may not change much. Perhaps the same fears and problems will persist. But what can change and make difference is our attitude, our approach, and handling. Newness is all about a new heart, renewed attitude and values, and approach. What is old in the biblical sense must change. That old man, that old nature, that old garb, that old leaven must cease (cf. Eph 4. 19f). Our old spirit of ingratitude, of pride, of jealousy, of selfishness, of the loose tongue, of impatience, of insincerity, of crookedness, of revenge and grudge, of aggression and hurt, of greed, the indifference of unconcern – only to mention a few – these must change. 4. Therefore, naming the Lord, Motherhood of Mary, which we celebrate in these first moments of the new year, clearly gives us the greatest courage and hope. In the name of the Lord, accompanied by his powerful name and power, cared for and guided by the Mother’s love, we are safe, secure, and serene. Direction: Nothing can take away our hope as long as we are with God. The new year is the greatest assurance that God will never fail us. Safe, secure, and serene shall we be when we surrender ourselves to God (REFLECTION 4) Focus: Safe, secure, and serene shall we be when we surrender ourselves to God 1. Every New Year brings us new aspirations, new expectations, new hopes, and new plans. The previous year might have left back its own fears and challenges. But life can go ahead and become beautiful only when it is hopeful. The more one loses hope, the more life becomes tasteless, meaningless, miserable, and energyless. Of course, certainly, life has no guarantees, and it is full of uncertainties and adversities. 2. What is it that injects and instills new hope and energy into us, despite and in the midst of all perplexities? It is trust in God, surrendering to His holy name, and entrusting to the divine motherhood of the Blessed Mary. At this entry into the New Year on this first day, we are invited to trust in God and entrust to His care through Jesus' holy name and Mary's maternal affection and guidance. For sure we will be blessed and strengthened. Direction: We thank the Lord for His love and mercy, in which He has benevolently sailed us to another new year. We shall surrender and entrust ourselves and all that worries us as well as all that ignites us. With God beside us, no harm can betide us!