Greetings!
Literally hours before the new year I received tragic news from a good friend of mine. His nephew, a law enforcement officer in New York, happened upon a robbery at a local store. John lost his life hours before the New Year. He left a wife and two children. I wish this were the only sad news I received before or right after the New Year.
I was all set to write my New Year blast to all our friends
and family at Catholic World Mission. I was all set to wish each and everyone a new start, a fresh beginning for the New Year. If you are like me, you probably received several warm wishes welcoming 2012. But my heart is still heavy from some of the tragedies that have befallen several of my friends and their families. What a way to start the New Year. Fortunately, not all are bad news. We have two new additions here at the office -- little darling Annamarie, and cute as a button Andres. Both babies and their families are doing well. Thanks be to God for the many other good news.
This leads me to my dilemma. What sort of New Year greeting do I send to family members knowing not all are well? For every person blessed with a wonderful start, there's another who is dealing with something sad or tragic. When I think about it, this New Year would most likely be the same as any other prior years. There will be good days, and there will be bad days.
I happened across a homily by St. John Chrysostom, bishop and Doctor of the Church (c. 347 - 407). He spoke of a man of very little stature. He was from a poor village, a land little esteemed, and according to people of his time, "producing no good thing". His father was a poor fisherman, so poor that he took his sons to the same employment. They were so poor, St. John Chrysostom astutely commented "Now you all know that no workman will choose to bring up his son to succeed him in his trade, unless poverty presses him very hard, especially where the trade is a mean one!" It's bad enough this man was from a very hard profession, even amongst fishermen he was considered to have occupied the lower rank. You see, this man did not even fish from the sea, but fished and passed his time on a certain little lake. The man's fishing net was not strong enough to be used at sea - a certain mark of extreme poverty. St. John Chrysostom went on about the stature of this man. He said, "as for worldly instruction, he had none at all." St. Luke testified that not only was this man ignorant but that he was absolutely unlettered (Acts 4:13).
But why talk about this man? And what does this have to do with New Year greeting? Perhaps you've heard of this man. He wrote,
"This fisherman whose business was about lakes, and nets, and fish; this native of Bethsaida of Galilee; this son of a poor fisherman, yes, and poor to the last degree; this man ignorant, and to the last degree of ignorance too, who never learned letters either before or after he accompanied Christ" (excerpt from homily) was used by God to write one of the deepest writing about God's mysteries and God himself.
Yes, we can all learn from St. John, the Apostle and Gospel writer. Year in and year out, he remained with the Lord through good and bad. In the end, the Lord had something special in mind for him. St. John would ascend to wisdom mere ordinary men could not even imagine.
So in this New Year, my wish for you may not be something new but more of the same. If you sought comfort from the Lord last year, I wish you more of the same. If you had found the Lord once in your life but have been away from Him, I wish you renewed connection with the Lord.
Whatever circumstances you find yourself. Whether you have much or you have very little. Whether you feel you are worthy or unworthy, my wish for you is the same. I wish for you to remain with the Lord. I do not doubt your faithfulness will be rewarded in the end.
St. John was a very ordinary man doing ordinary things. But through good and bad he remained with the Lord. In the end God graced him with something new - the wisdom to write and teach about the very nature of God. Who would have thought that doing the same thing consistently over and over again would lead to something new? When we remain consistently faithful to the Lord, we discover the "newness" of life he wants for all of us. God's way is mysterious indeed.
I guess I am wishing you something new this year after all. I wish you a newness of life by way of the same old and consistent thing: allowing the Lord to be there for you everyday of this year. You see, the Lord is with us always... never-changing, which yes, is more of the same.
Happy New Year.
