NEW YEAR: 1ST OF JANUARY: Gal 4:4-7
The Catholic Church starts the New Year with Mary, the mother of the Lord, so that we may learn from her to live in faith and to accept God’s will and God’s plans for us.
In the company of Mary, we learn to be children, having Jesus as our elder brother. Mary, being full of the Holy Spirit, who enabled her to be fully committed to be a servant of the Lord, will help us to be formed in the image of Christ and to be one with him, thus becoming with him children of God.
In his letter to the Galatians, Paul reminds us that God carried out his plan of salvation, at “the appointed time”, by sending his Son, who was “born of a woman”, in order to “enable us to be adopted us sons”.
As we begin a new year, let us rejoice and give thanks for this great gift of love: “God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father” (Gal 4:4-7). We are not slaves, but children, and with Christ we are heirs of God’s Kingdom.
We end the year of 2013 with the reality of war in several parts of the world. There is civil war in Syria, causing endless destruction and countless refugees; and there is civil war in South Sudan, the newest country and one of the poorest in the world. Governments do not have money for schools, hospitals or even enough food for the population, but they have plenty of money for weapons that bring death, transforming their countries into cemeteries.
In the Catholic Church, the first day of the year is a day of prayer for peace. Jesus said: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9). If we are indeed children of God, then we must work for peace and establish peace in our society. Then, people will not live anymore in fear, and all will live as free children of God.
May God fill you with blessings and grace in the New Year of 2014.
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