NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE, JANUARY 1, 2006

Luke 2:21 “At the end of 8 days, when He was circumcised, He was called Jesus.”

What’s in a name? Quite a lot when you are Jesus. Firstly it means ‘Savior’. Secondly, the name wasn’t decided by his parents, as is usual, but was given by the angel to Mary before he was born. What then was in the mind of Joseph and Mary on that day of circumcision? And what did they think of their future? What was their New Year’s resolution?

The gospel tells us that Mary pondered all these things in her heart. What was she pondering on that New Years day 2000 years ago? I remember an old Jewish saying: ‘How do you make God laugh? Tell him your future plans.’ Perhaps God was laughing at future plans on that New Years day all those years ago. Perhaps he was smiling. Any future plans Mary and Joseph had were soon overturned by Herod the King. All might have seemed blissful on that New Years day - but soon things were to change.

And New Years Day is like that, isn’t it? As we look forward to a fresh start and the promise of a New Year full of hope, who knows if any of our plans will actually eventuate. What about our New Years resolutions? Perhaps we have made some strong ones last night and this morning - but will we keep them? “How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans.”

New Years resolutions are all well and good, but usually broken sometime down the track. For Christian people the time for making resolutions is in Lent. That is a better time for such things because it is surrounded by a season of grace. And perhaps because we Christians still use the term A.D. – Anno Domini - we should pray today that this New Year will be a year of Our Lord – a year in which his holy name is honored.

These are the thoughts we should have as we come to offer Mass on this first day of January 2006. The concept of New Years resolutions almost fulfills that old Jewish saying. For surely God laughs at what we think is good for ourselves. And for many people things resolved today and plans made will end up in tatters. Often our plans come to naught, and even our best intentions fade away in the impossibility of their fulfillment.

It is not just that we don’t see our resolutions through, or give them up. Sometimes God has other plans for us - or surprises. You and I both know that the hardest prayer is the prayer of Gethsemane: “Nevertheless not my will, but thy will be done.”

God’s plans and our plans are wonderful when they intercept. But so often they go in different directions. God’s plans were a surprise to Mary and Joseph all those years ago. Life was going along quite nicely for them, the marriage was coming along - and then an angel appeared to both of them. You would think that the appearance of an angel would be a portent for a rosy and secure future. But if they both thought it was plain sailing from then on - and maybe they thought that - they must have wondered about their God. A quick voyage to Bethlehem. No room in the Inn. Shepherds arriving from out of town. And no choice in the name of their child. Maybe the old Jewish saying was ringing in Mary’s ears as she realized that what she expected was not what God had in mind.

But it doesn’t stop there. Just as everyone was getting used to the stable and the animals I leave you occasion - God laughs again. At Epiphany exotic, rich, impressive potentates from afar descend upon the scene. This was completely unexpected. Once again God’s plans are different to ours. And God is still laughing. For the security of wealth and power that these men represent is followed by awful dreams. Herod has plans of killing. And God tells Joseph of new plans. Take the child and his mother Mary to Eqypt, he says. The glory of the Kings’ visit is changed to refugee status for Jesus, Mary and Joseph as they flee to Egypt.

In Egypt when news reached Mary and Joseph of Herod’s killing spree – did they wonder why our hopes are often dashed? Why our joys are often followed by sorrow? Why our best laid plans are thwarted by the powerful and the vicious?

Today we stand on the threshold of another year pondering these things. The mystery of life in all the joys and sorrows; in all its successes and disappointments; in all its unfulfilled dreams and resolutions. Of our plans and of God’s laughter.

At the heart of the mystery of life is the fact that in all the comings and goings of our daily lives the Word is now made flesh and dwells among us.

On this New Years Day I leave you with a New Year’s resolution that comes from a poem which hung in the Calcutta orphanage of Mother Teresa:

People are unreasonable, illogical, self-centered

- love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives

- do good anyway.

If you are successful you win false friends and true enemies

- be successful anyway.

The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow

- do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable

- be honest and frank anyway.

People love underdogs but follow only top dogs

- follow some underdog anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight

- build anyway.

People really need help, but may attack you if you try to help

- help people anyway.

If you give the world the best you have, you may get kicked in the teeth

- but give the world the best you have anyway.