What Are You Most Looking Forward to in 2013?

There is a welcome, refreshing “starting again” feeling about the new year, isn’t there? I think eyes focused on Times Square are about much more than an excuse for champagne, but this longing to get to the finish line in glory. That is, with God, seeing his loving face.

The resolutions and the rest of it, are a great reminders of what we ought to be doing daily, of course. Advent, Christmas, and the new year are calendar dates for reflection. But Examen ought to be our daily routine. There’s a resolution for us!

And if you haven’t discovered him yet, Fr. Timothy Gallagher is a terrific, clear, accessible contemporary teacher of the tools St. Ignatius Loyola left us to make progress in living each day in greater discipline and love of God’s will.

Today’s gospel is the reminder, isn’t it, of why tomorrow, if it comes, matters and what it is and who it is we live it for:

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

A man named John was sent from God.
He came for testimony, to testify to the light,
so that all might believe through him.
He was not the light,
but came to testify to the light.
The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world,
and the world came to be through him,
but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own,
but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him
he gave power to become children of God,
to those who believe in his name,
who were born not by natural generation
nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision
but of God.

And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of the Father’s only-begotten Son,
full of grace and truth.

John testified to him and cried out, saying,
“This was he of whom I said,
‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me
because he existed before me.'”
From his fullness we have all received,
grace in place of grace,
because while the law was given through Moses,
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God.
The only-begotten Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.

As Magnificat reminds us: “every moment offers us a new beginning. We announce the Lord’s salvation ‘day after day’ because his presence changes the meaning of time.”