The Time of the New Year

I'm sure we can all recall times in our lives when it seemed as though the present moment would never end, as if time had stopped and would never progress. Everyday in school felt like this for me. Each class, while only an hour long, seemed as though it lasted half a day, and at the end of the day every student was lined up like track runners awaiting the gunshot to race out of the school - myself included. Yet, on the other hand, there have been times when time seemed to fly by so fast we barely noticed its passing. Usually these are instances of enjoyment or happiness, or instances where we were too busy focusing on something else to notice something truly important happening right in front of us. Like school, for instance. In it, I thought it would never end. Yet now, as I look back at all the education I missed, all the work I could have put into it and how well my future could have been if I had only used my time wisely and graciously, I feel a much greater sense of regret than I felt while in school.

New Year's Eve - what an appropriate date for the Solemnity of Mary. As one year ends and another begins, our mind naturally experiences a deep awareness of time - both in its eternal longevity and just how little of it we really have. The conflict of these senses causes many to feel sad, regretting the time the lost in the past year, while also causing hope for the future in the new year.

Whatever the historical date of Christmas, this sense of time easily calls to mind the image of the Blessed Virgin at Christmastime, celebrated in reminiscence only a few days ago. Can we imagine how well she appreciated time? Think about how many instances in her life, even the brief picture of it we see in the Gospels, were centered on time. At the time of the Annunciation, when the angel St. Gabriel entitled her Gratia Plena and proclaimed the conception of Christ in her womb, she had been preparing to marry St. Joseph her betrothed. Time was nearing for the wedding when the angel abruptly entered her life. The next nine months would prove an even greater sense of both longing and anxiety in the Mother of God - longing for the birth of her Son, the Messianic Savior, Immanuel, and anxiety for the difficulties and dangers that lay ahead.

For the next thirty-three years after His birth, Mary would have eagerly awaited - and dreaded - the beginning of His ministry. We can see this disposition in the Gospel account of the wedding of Cana, where she openly encourages Christ to begin His ministry by performing miracles, to which Christ responds: "Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come." (John 2:4 Douay-Rheims AE). She was obviously aware of this fact, yet immediately after His statement, she tells the wedding assembly, "Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5 DRA) Was she being disobedient or impatient? Of course not. She trusted her Son completely and was eager for the beginning of the salvific work of His ministry, which she knew would begin with His miracles.

And of course, during His Passion and His time in the tomb, her eagerness was replaced with a solemn awareness of the slow, painful pace that time can often acquire in such terrible events.

As we remember back on the year of 2011 and look forward to the new year of 2012, let us see the Solemnity of Mary as the explanation of the New Year celebration, of all the feelings of the heaviness, or the scarcity, of time.

Among the many admirable and saintly virtues of the Mother of God, one that becomes even more clear and relevant at the eclipse of the past year and the beginning of the new is Mary's submission and surrender to God. Most people these days seem to prefer to see only God's mercy, or His compassion, or His teachings or helps or revelations. For most, God becomes either a personal cheerleader or a doctor, offering detached encouragement or mere medicine for our sins. The power of God, the sovereignty of God, has been forgotten, or at best misunderstood and misappropriated.

Time is one of the greatest indicators of God's power and lordship. Despite the conflicts and confusion in the world, time rolls on, the record of the past definitively stamped and the future left open to the freedom of the present. Yet nothing in the universe can stop the passage of time. As with time, God is not vulnerable to the problems and conflicts of the world. His power is infinitely greater than anything in His Creation. Throughout history, a conflict between God and Satan or God and sin has been affixed to Him, as though Satan or sin had the capacity to war with God. I believe this idea has caused many problems for modern people, Christian or otherwise, and from this idea, we have forgotten that God is in conflict with nothing because God is above all things. He is God Almighty - nothing is outside His plan, His power. All things end the way He desires and all things begin by His holy hands. Satan is not some rival deity - he is an instrument in God's ultimate plan, allowed to exist only because he serves some purpose for God. This is true of all Creation, including humanity. All Creation is here for God, as an expression of His love and for His glory.

Many ignore this fact because it can make God seem selfish or even frivolous or uncaring, as though He made existence purely for Himself and allows humanity to suffer and die only so that He can exhibit His power by conquering death. But again, this attitude acts as though a conflict existed in God between His selfless love and His glory. No such conflict does or can exist, because God is above all conflict. Otherwise, He would not be God. Creation is an act of pure love; the glory God receives is a direct result of this, but it was not God's purpose in making existence. God's glory itself is a gift to humanity. By glorifying God, we grow closer to Him and share in His glory, and only with the freedom to not glorify Him can this growth be real and complete.

At this New Year's Day season, it is important to not forget the sovereignty of God. Our past sins, our time lost or forgotten, has no power over God. It is never too late to recognize and admit our sins, to open ourselves completely to God in honesty and surrender, allowing Him to enter our hearts and heal all the wounds we have accumulated over the past year, whether self-inflicted or caused by others. God is not bound by time, by sin, or by any other constraint. All that happens and all that exists does so only because God desires it. All things have a purpose and a meaning in God's plan, whether we can see it or not. No pain is random, no gift is mere luck, no opportunity for growth or charity or repentance just a random turn of fate. Indeed, time has no such power of God and His will.

As the new year begins, let us remember the words of the Blessed Virgin in the Magnificat:
    "My soul doth magnify the Lord.
    And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
    Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
    Because he that is mighty, hath done great things to me; and holy is his name.
    And his mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him."
(Luke 1:46-50 DRA)

I pray, and ask all to pray with me, that in this coming year we may all recognize the holiness and piety of the Mother of God and share in her humility, her honesty, and her complete and faithful surrender to God. I also pray for those of us (most of us) who are under the yoke of pride, believing that we alone have the power to change the world or ourselves. I ask for the intercession of Mary, Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, Theotokos, Queen of Heaven and Earth. God bless.