Just a Quick Reflection: New Year’s Day — (Year C)

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In every Reading today, there is a sense of newness — of beginning again. And rightly so as it’s the first day of the new calendar year. But I wanted to just highlight a couple of things.

In Ecclesiastes we have the famous “There’s a season for everything and a time for every matter under the heavens” (verse 1). It’s such a famous passage that The Byrds made it into a song:


What I like about this passage, though, is that, as we begin a new year, the seasons have long passed for a lot of the things listed. There’s no longer a season for killing or tearing down; only a season for healing and building up (verse 3). There’s no longer a season for throwing stones or avoiding embraces; only a season of gathering stones and embracing each other (verse 5). And there’s no longer a season for keeping silent or hating or war; there’s only a season for speaking and loving and peace (vv. 7-8). God has placed eternity within all our hearts (verse 11) and now is the season to do what’s good for everyone and enjoy all of life (verse 12).

In the Psalm, the majesty of God’s name is bookended. It’s to remind us that, everywhere we look, God is there whether we realize it or not (and to emphasize we should pay attention to this fact). We’re reminded that when we compare humanity to the cosmos, we’re left humbled at our finite lives. We’re reminded that, in spite of our lowly status, all of creation has been given to humanity for our care and stewardship. It’s our responsibility to make sure our world continues on for generations to come.

In the Revelation, we’re reminded that the evolution of creation is to bring God’s Realm and our realm together; for them to become One (vv. 1-2). That God’s plan for creation is re-creation, not destruction; to make “all things new” (verse 5) not to make all new things. Our vocation as God’s people is to implement that plan in our world. We’re reminded that, not only is God’s name the bookends of the Psalm, but that God is the bookend — the “beginning and the end” — of all life (verse 6). We’re to be mindful of the fact that God “freely gives” the “living water” to everyone because everyone is God’s child (verse 6).

In the Gospel, we’re to consider that it’s through our hands — our lives — that God gives the “water of life” to everyone. That the very things we do (or don’t do) to others we do (or don’t do) to God. We’re reminded that our actions are important, that we’ll be judged by them in our treatment of others — human and non-human alike.

So, as we start out this new year, God seems to be reminding us of something we’ve all known, something that’s already been placed within our hearts. That the seasons of hatred and war and violence and injustice are over (and should have been over for a long, long time). God’s reminding us that God works through us to bring about change — to give “living waters” to others, to work for justice and end violence in all its forms, to see all peoples as God’s family and our sisters and brothers, to care for this planet as it evolves into the place of Oneness with God’s Realm.



~~~
In the Love of the Three in One,

Br. Jack+, LC

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