About a century ago, the Jesuit poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a poem that begins: \u201cThe world is charged with the grandeur of God.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s a beautiful statement of the miraculous \u2013 and it\u2019s more surprising because Hopkins himself suffered from depression. His life was a struggle, full of difficulties and disappointments. It was not always easy for him to see God\u2019s goodness in the world around him.<\/p>\n
It can be that way, at times, for all of us.<\/p>\n
But there is no better time to look for God\u2019s grandeur, and to discover it, than now. The beginning of a new year.<\/p>\n
You see that in all the news stories today that mention the first baby born in the new year.<\/p>\n
But you could also see it last night, in the hundreds of thousands of people who huddled together in Times Square, shivering in the cold, waiting for that ball to drop, and waiting for history to be made, and waiting for a new number to be added to the calendar.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s there in every horn that was blown, every explosion of confetti. It\u2019s loud and crazy \u2013 but it is our way of saying \u201cWe are alive. Despite all that has happened to us, and all that we have done wrong, and all that has gone right\u2026we are starting a new year. We are beginning something new.\u201d<\/p>\n
And I would add: we are able to do that because \u201cthe world is charged with the grandeur of God.\u201d<\/p>\n
We need to be reminded of that, I think. It\u2019s easy to miss \u2013 especially given the times we live in. Foreclosures, unemployment, recession, growing debt, the bloody battles underway in Israel. It seems hopeless.<\/p>\n
But then we look at the feast we celebrate today, and find hope.<\/p>\n
Mary was a woman who herself understood what it was like to live in an uncertain and frightening time. The Mother of God was forced, days after giving birth, to become a refugee, to save the life of her child. Yet she never abandoned hope. She never lost trust in God.<\/p>\n
Her trust in God, and her faith in the future, is one reason why we honor Mary today, the first day of the new year.<\/p>\n
But consider another reason, too: in this early moment, the brand new year \u2013 like the Blessed Mother \u2013 is spotless.<\/p>\n
The future is a clean page, an empty calendar, waiting to be written on<\/strong>. Everything is pure. Everything is possible. And that is Mary. She is Possibility. She is Creation begun anew \u2013 the New Eve. With Mary, and the birth of her son, the coming of God as man, we get a fresh start.<\/p>\nIt begins this day with a reminder of how it began 20 centuries ago, when the grandeur of God was made known in the unlikeliest of places, a manger.<\/p>\n
The gospel reading today speaks of the first people to discover it: the shepherds who hurried to the stable. As Luke tells us, they left from that encounter with Jesus to \u201cmake known the message that had been told them about this child.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that, they became \u2013 in fact \u2014 the first evangelists.<\/p>\n
It was those anonymous shepherds, men who probably couldn\u2019t even read or write, who were the very first to tell the good news. Luke tells us that soon others were also hearing the news \u2013 and that they were \u201camazed\u201d at what they were told.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re still being amazed.<\/p>\n
And Mary? In today\u2019s reading, she doesn\u2019t utter a word. She \u201ckept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
Others spread the word. But she is the one who gave us The Word.<\/strong><\/p>\nThis is traditionally a day of beginnings \u2013 when resolutions are made. That treadmill you got for Christmas will get a work out \u2013 for a week or two. So will the diet\u2026and the promise to stop smoking\u2026and the vow you made to finally clean out the garage.<\/p>\n
It all sounds good for a few days. But it\u2019s soon forgotten, or neglected.<\/p>\n
But don\u2019t forget or neglect this beautiful reality: God\u2019s grandeur is with us, and among us. The world IS \u201ccharged with the grandeur of God.\u201d It is there in the Eucharist we are about to receive. It is there in the bright light of every winter morning \u2013 and the bright hope that is promised to us with the birth of the savior.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re going to make resolutions, resolve to live this year in that hope.<\/p>\n
And my hope for you, and my prayer for you, for this year is the same one we heard in the first reading. It dates to the time of Moses\u2026but was popularized by one of the great deacons of the church, Francis of Assisi.<\/p>\n
It is my prayer\u2026<\/p>\n
That the Lord bless you and keep you.<\/p>\n
That the Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.<\/p>\n
And that the Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.<\/p>\n
Happy new year.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Preached on January 1, 2009<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the vault\u2026 + About a century ago, the Jesuit poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote a poem that begins: \u201cThe world is charged with the grandeur of God.\u201d It\u2019s a beautiful statement of the miraculous \u2013 and it\u2019s more surprising because Hopkins himself suffered from depression. His life was a struggle, full of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":264471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11252],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-open-mind"],"yoast_head":"\n
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