Heading in the right direction

Each year especially as we are encouraged to undertake a review of life. This often seeks to create new resolutions which will be the focus of our life. They seek to provide a way of being present to ourselves and others. However, like many goals once achieved what do we do next? They see our lives as a set of tasks to be achieved rather than an orientation that guides our whole lives. If we know our orientation this will help us to regularly review whether what we are doing is a true expression of who God wishes us to become. 

I would propose that this may be the best way to guide us into the new year by asking who we want to become and what gives the best expression of who we are in daily life. It can be a very simple guiding principle that helps us to discover how we are present. I keep returning to Micah 6.8 where the prophet says to act justly, walk humbly and love tenderly in seeking God. This very simple review helps us to be people who act, reflect, and pray in accord with what is fundamental to who we are called to be.

Also in this year of Matthew where we accompany his insight into the person of Jesus, we are called to learn mercy not sacrifice. I believe this emphasis is not so much on the time we give, the money we donate, or the treasure we share but rather a motivation that seeks to hold a person's life as blessed as our own. It calls us to become people who are aware of how we are graced by God not solely for our own good but for the good of all creation.

As we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God we can be guided by her insight into how the life of Jesus impacted her own. This was not just a life of giving up but of surrendering to the life-giving presence of God which she bore within her. This did not just end with the birth of Jesus but accompanied him in his hidden years as she witnessed how she was helped to ponder the way that God joins us in the mystery of ourselves. May we discover how God orientates us for the journey ahead as we join on our pilgrim way in 2023.