Well, we know that the major celebrations are finished for another year. Only the coming of the Magi, the Wise Men, the Three Kings awaits us on Sunday, January 6th. Surely there were resolutions written down or at least given a few seconds thoughts. A personal opinion: most people really don't take the making of new resolutions too seriously any longer. People tell you that they are too busy to address issues. It is an attempt at a cop out! Those who do not start the new year off ... either at the outset of Advent or January 1st ... with some serious thinking about resolutions are running away ... away from something.
Because we have become such a busy people ... thank you computer world for all the time you were supposed to save us for ourselves that does not exist ... many folks back away from serious reflection or prayer. These two practices, along with the Sacrament of Reconciliation, help us walk the straight and narrow with some intention. Let the prayer and reflection drop: there is one result ... we weaken our ability to fight temptations that come our way.
Thinking about resolutions at the beginning of the year and honestly facing ourselves and determination, the discipline, to work at accomplishing what we down deep know we need to do ... all of this is a part of the journey each of us undertakes. And anyone who has made a change in life knows that transformation is never easy. Once you set out on a journey, you can expect transformation is one of the realities you will meet along the way. Not everyone is at peace with such transformation because fear takes a hold of part of our being. If we are honest with ourselves, I believe we can say that fear underlies the difficulty in making resolutions. What is going to become of me if I really take on the challenge to change? If I determine to abandon habits or relationships that are not good for me, what am I going to become without those habits or people in my life?
John the Baptist was much like the transformation that some might fear in their lives. He was preaching a life that challenged the way many of the Jewish people lived. Who are you to tell us how to live is what the Jews were asking John about himself and his preaching.
John is that voice speaking out, that voice calling the Jews to hear the new gospel, to live the Commandments. John was the enfleshment of the call, the journey that God was inviting the Jews to accept.
It is the same today. Our calling may be enfleshed in a different style. Nonetheless, it is there. Each day of our lives, God calls out to us to follow him, to make the transformations in our lives that we need to make; that we know we should make.
The trees? A picture of the transformation of a tree!!!
