I know it is a little late to welcome the year since it is already the second day of 2017 😊. I still would like to welcome the new year. Yesterday, being a Sunday, I was wishing everyone a “Happy New Year” but it did not feel like something new. Happy, yes. New? Well ...
At this morning’s Mass, I was just concelebrating but the preacher said something that provoked me to thinking some more after the celebration. He said that we needed faith to understand what God has in mind in allowing things to happen around us.
The newspapers these last few days were about hope. 2017 seemed bleak but if we girded ourselves up, we would be able to make it through; even with small bells and whistles! The secular world brings hope to us, telling us that we just need to have faith in ourselves a little more. We have to put in some effort to get things going.
As those who had been graced with the gift of faith, we need to put God into the equation. We know that God is the source of all good. Hope is not simply a desire or yearning for the future to be well and good. Hope is virtue that helps us to be confident in the promise of God. As long as we cling to God, eternal life, i.e. living in the divine life of God, will occur. The Christians in the first centuries were persecuted for their faith. They were confident that no matter what happened to them, so long as they clung on the the Lord, the promise of God would be fulfilled: eternal life with Him.
I was reflecting over what my hope was. Parishioners knew that I would be leaving them in some months and they wished me well. Whilst excited over the new ministry, there is still some resistance in me. Given a choice, I would be happy to remain where I am. I could do without the extra responsibilities that came with the new ministry. So, I chided myself. Where was my hope? God is calling me. Why am I not hopeful? Do I not have the confidence that God will see me through? Then I felt ashamed. I have not practised what I preached. Buck up, I told myself. God is always there.
