A NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTION

A SERMON FOR THE SUNDAY WITHIN THE CHRISTMAS OCTAVE

The last few days of 2019 are now ebbing away into history, and we have entered that strange limbo between last year and the new year of 2020 when we both look back at what has been (and possibly with a tinge of regret at what should have been) and then forward to what we hope will be.  We have no control over the past—it’s over and done with, it is what it is, and we cannot change it.  The future of course, is a different story, and much, though obviously not all of it lies within our power to shape as we will.  That’s why, at the start of every year, we make New Year’s resolutions… 

Here’s a quick resolution you can keep:  every morning, spare a quick glance at least to your liturgical wall calendar.  As you know, to help us keep our sense of the Church’s spirit, the Guild of St. Peter ad Vincula has published a liturgical calendar.  It’s available still at the back of the church, and I encourage you all to buy at least one and keep it prominently displayed in your home.  It should be the family’s quick and easy reference for every day of the year, answering questions that we really ought to be asking, but alas so seldom do.  “What’s today’s feast day?” for instance, so that you can honour the saint of the day as he or she deserves.  Or why not take that daily morning look at the calendar to see if, by chance, today might be a fast day or a holyday of obligation that you’ve forgotten about?  That’s one quick and easy resolution I would encourage you to make.  But let’s go beyond the superficial, and come up with something a bit more meaningful, something that should be essential even, in your lives.  

Before we leave the subject of our calendar altogether, I wanted to mention my favorite image from the 2019 calendar, the one from December.  Perhaps you’ve seen it on your wall, but haven’t realized the significance of it.  You see, I try whenever possible to choose images that have a particular relevance to the theme of the month, or even to a particular feast day.  Our December image this year shows the ancient cathedral of Canterbury in England, its rooftops covered with the cold winter snow.  And why Canterbury?  Because of today’s feast day.  December 29^th this year falls on the Sunday after Christmas—today.  It is the feast of St. Thomas of Canterbury, otherwise known as St. Thomas à Becket, Bishop and Martyr.  He was the Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of King Henry II, and was martyred inside Canterbury Cathedral on this very day in the year 1170.

Rather than take up our precious time here this morning, I’ve included the story of St. Thomas Becket more fully in today’s Bulletin.  If you haven’t read it yet, please take the time at some point today to get to know a little more about him, and particularly the way he died.  I think it might help us have the right spirit when we make our New Year’s resolutions in time for Tuesday night.  We try so hard to think up things we want to do—stop smoking, lose weight, not spend so much money online, be more obedient to our parents, and so on.  But there’s one resolution and only one that makes any real, spiritual sense for us.  It is this resolution above all others that I’d like to encourage you to make this New Year’s Eve, and commit to it with all your heart and soul.   It is simply this—to follow the example of St. Thomas Becket and place God above all, giving the highest priority in our lives not to our friends, our employers, not even our family and their needs, but to God and our duties and obligations we owe him alone.  If we do this, we’ll find that all those other things we want for ourselves, all those things that have some natural importance in our lives, will fall into place. 

If you make this resolution and really commit to it, don’t be afraid of the consequences.  And yes, you may find that by doing so you’ll encounter a few unintended, perhaps even unwanted effects in your personal life.  But don’t worry about that—you can be sure that if you make God First at all times, it’s a resolution you will not live to regret, especially as you approach your last days on earth.  Look at our saint today, St. Thomas Becket, for example.  By maintaining supreme allegiance to the Creator, he could no longer tolerate the anti-religious behavior of the King, and that, of course, spelled trouble for Thomas.  But what of that?  A violent death, yes, but a glorious death—martyrdom, in fact—and an eternity of triumphant joy in heaven.  Was that terrible death in the cathedral such a hard price to pay for this, his ultimate reward?

So whatever the consequences, remember that everything does eventually fall into place.  And if something falls into a place that you don’t like, remember that it’s a place that God wants it to be in, even if we don’t.  Let’s take just one example.  And it is just one, but it’s very common today and I doubt there are many parents here who haven’t encountered it in their own lives.  Here’s the deal—when it calls for a little tough love with your teenage kids, remind yourself that their little acts of rebellion against you are really just a part of their battle between them and their own fallen nature, rather than against you, and even less so against their God.  It’s part of growing up.  That’s why it’s so common and exists in almost every family.  Your job is to provide the firm hand they need to help them get past these little battles and temptations.  Your job is to get them to heaven.  But if you give in to their sloth, their lack of faith, their refusal to go to Mass on Sunday, their sinful lifestyle, or whatever it might be, you’re not going to help them get to heaven.  Yielding to their whims isn’t going to help you either—your prime duty as a parent is make sure as best you can that they do get to heaven.  So simply, quietly, but firmly and with true charity, remind them that as long as they live under your roof they must obey your rules.  And of course, make sure your rules are based on the Ten Commandments, so that by obeying you, they’re obeying God.  Once they’re eighteen and they flex their muscles of independence, it’s even easier for you—“You don’t want to obey the rules of the house, well, there’s the door!”  You may feel guilty, you may feel uncharitable, but actually, you are performing your duty to God.  Remember St. Thomas Becket, and ask yourself why on earth you would give priority to a rebellious teenager over the great High God!

Kids aren’t really bad, for the most part.  They’re simply growing up as God intended them to, becoming more and more independent, as they need to be in life.  All the more reason why you must instill in them the rock-solid belief that independence doesn’t mean “doing whatever they want.”  That’s the devil’s code, as we all know, and their free will must be grounded on loving God first and above all, in other words, on keeping the commandments.

Like I said, this is just one example, but it’s one you can apply anywhere—to the workplace and the relationship between employer and employee, to school and the relationship between teachers and students, even to friends whose lifestyle is so sinful that perhaps you can’t attend their wedding, or visit their homes.  All of this is called “tough love.”    It’s the “God First” principle in action.  And it’s one I’d like you to consider adopting and committing to, as we venture into the New Year.  

This tough love may be a big step forward in your spiritual life.  Just remember that no matter how tough it might be, it is at the same time truly Love.  When they prepared St. Thomas Becket’s body for burial, they found that he was wearing a hairshirt under his episcopal garments.  His love for God was such that he applied this tough love even on himself.  And that, of course, is the ultimate tough love, which eventually we too must apply to our own life.  We should dwell on that hairshirt, that nasty, itchy, scratchy, but voluntary penance that was always rubbing against his skin.  It’s a little-known fact about Saint Thomas Becket, and yet it says it all.  Let’s pray that the light of Christ illuminate the darkness of our ill-conceived tolerance not only of the faults of others, but especially of our own.  Let us be enlightened by a sense of horror at how far we really are from being holy, and by a renewed fire within us to spend the future trying to catch up.  By the time this sermon is over, the future will have begun, so let’s waste no more time.  You want to make a New Year’s Resolution?  Here you have it.  Go forth and make the year 2020 the holiest of your life so far.  Put God First.