New Year's Resolutions
 

A friend noted that "I started a list of New Year's Resolutions and then deleted it. If I begin each day focused on, centered in, and committed to what I profess to believe, I'll not need such a list. If I don't begin each day that way the list won't change the outcome."

By now most people's resolutions have joined that litany of unfulfilled plans from losing weight to whatever.  Resolutions are not bad but living what we believe is much better.  As much as we want to believe we have changed because of Christmas the all too sad truth is that we are incapable of changing ourselves alone.  Whether we are a twelve stepper dealing with addiction or need a buddy with whom we can jog or walk, we do better.
 

Rather than getting depressed about our lack of "stick-to-it-iveness" we need to focus on the reason for the Incarnation.  It is just because we are incapable  that God chose to become man so that by doing so God would raise us out of our morass using Jesus Christ.

The readings after Christmas seem to reiterate the same message and guide us along a path  to wholeness and holiness.  The Lamb of God is he who came into the world to take away its sin, its estrangement from its creator.  God could have accomplish this in many ways yet he chose becoming part of human history and human life in the most concrete way possible. 
 

To call us to holiness and wholeness he gave himself to us in a most special way.  So together we call to mind the death God's son endured for our salvation, his glorious resurrection and ascension, we make ready to greet him when he comes again into our lives in the breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup which is him.  His eternal "reincarnation" which helps us keep our resolutions to grow closer together and by that grow closer to him.

As we being this new year filed with hope and promise, let the Lord work our resolution to love better and more deeply come to fruition by working together and through him.
 

You've probably at least heard the following phrases if not uttered them yourself:
 

"I could never forgive myself if..."

"I can never forgive him/her for doing this or that..."

One of the great misconceptions about forgiveness is that we need to forget whatever hurt caused a separation in our lives.  I don't know anyone who can forget an injury and most often we are unwilling or unable to forgive the person(s) who has caused that hurt, even when we are that person.

Forgiveness requires reconciliation   It requires us to take the steps necessary to re-establish our relationship with others and repairing the damage.  It goes beyond saying "sorry," it requires us to look inside our hearts and find the stumbling block that causes us to hurt ourselves and others.

We often find that we care our own worst enemy.  We are so committed to our version of truth that we fail to see truth from another person's perspective.  One technique marriage counselors employ in helping couples work through their issues is to have each person switch roles and speak to the issues from that person's perspective.  It can be an eye opening experience.  Even when we are our the cause of our own hurtful experience we need to stop and talk it through with someone else and hear others tell us what they hear us say about ourselves. 

While forgiveness should be something that is a two way arrangement, we must sometimes not only be the first to forgive we may be the only person in the arrangement to forgive.  Through forgiveness we are able to move forward and cease being caught in a mobius like eddy.  The movie "Groundhog Day" was a a great analogy of being caught up in a seemingly never ending vortex that depresses and angers.  It isn't until we begin to make some type of change in our lives that we become free.  Freedom is what Jesus preached, a freedom from the prison of sin, hatred and hurt that comes through forgiveness.

Forgiveness does not come easily if at all unless we realize that we are incapable of doing it alone.  We must turn to the one who mastered forgiveness, Jesus, bringing him into the equation.  Holding his hand and letting him lead us we can become capable of truly letting go.
 

Reconciliation occurs when we find that we can understand the other and know in our hearts that we have done not only all we could have but continue to do all we can to redress any hurt.  When we have been hurt, we must let go of that hurt and refuse to build walls around our hearts.  The bonus is when the person we have reestablished communication whether it be with the other to whom we have become estranged.

As St Augustine once said: "My heart is restless until it finds its rest in You."  We cannot rest our hearts until we have reconciled with others through Christ. 

On the 23rd of January we celebrate the founding of the Catholoic Apostolic Church in North America (CACINA).  Perhaps this is a good time to consider what church really means.  I must first warn you that you are dealing with a church with a very strange God and an even stranger people.  This is a God who calls us out of ourselves and while you are too small to understand this, your parents and others will help you understand its importance.  The Christian community in which we are members is also strange because we freely take on the responsibility for others.

Perhaps it is best to talk about the church as a mnemonic.

Cis for Christ who is not only the head of the church he is its core and its body to which we are members. 

H is for healing, the process Christ uses to mend our hearts and souls in a riven world.

U is for us, for Christ comes not only to us as individuals but to as a community.  Christ uses us to make his kingdom a reality.

R is for Real.  We need to be real, to be authentic in our approach to our faith, to live it out not just play lip service.

C is for community, for this triune God is community to which we strive to emulate.  Community is where we live out the message and become more than ourselves, where the whole becomes greater than the collection of individuals.

H is for help.  Our role in church is to help Christ by being is eyes, ears, hands and heart to a struggling world. 

St Charles of Brazil was one of those individuals who, born to position and wealth, came to understand what it meant to know Christ, let Christ heal him, Use him to make a difference, become a real, authentic Christian standing up for the poor and fighting injustice, building and sustaining a community of faith and allowing that community to reach out to help bring Christ to the world.

The founding of CACINA in the US 62 years ago marks a point in time when a new part of the faith journey began.   However, we cannot be simply a group of believers who pay lip services to our faith nor can we become a social service agency however laudable that may be.

There was an old woman who lived in a hut who strove to reach the Buddhist Nirvana.  She was known for her holiness and many came to seek her advice.  She was asked what her life was before she was enlightened and what it was now.  Without pause the old woman related that before enlightenment she would rise every morning, fetch water, chop wood, make a meal and clean the hut.  After enlightenment, she would rise every morning fetch water, chop wood, make a meal and clean the hut.  Being a Christian does not exempt us from the daily tasks but requires us to do them with the same diligence as always. 

We should use this happy feast to remind ourselves to Christ's heart and hands and lips to a troubled world. Together we are church in the best sense of the word.