Sunday, January 19, 2024 – The Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
I realize I may be expressing very idealistic and Pollyanna-like thinking, but as we brought in the new year of 2025 on Wednesday, January 1 at midnight, and I was up at that moment, I had renewed hope for a great new and improved year in my spirit. I, and perhaps many of us, had the same vision of a new and improved tomorrow as 2025 opened. That was my mindset as I went to bed about 1:00 A.M. that morning. I awoke to the contrary. There were ten dead and many more injured on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. No more celebration and a postponed Sugar Bowl Game. I remember reacting with a Nooooooo!!!. It appeared that nothing had changed and my rose-colored dreams of hours before were an illusion. We were still in the same muck that we experienced in 2024.
During the day as we celebrated Mary, Mother of God at our parish eucharist and spending time with family later that afternoon, my demeaner changed and I felt compelled that we need to remain steadfast that change can happen, and as Jesus says in the Gospel, keep knocking, keep praying. The prayers will be answered. The bottom-line is don’t give up, even in the darkness we experience around us. I found myself hearing in my head the rock song sung by Steve Perry and Journey: “Don’t stop believin,’ hold on to that feelin’…Don’t stop believin’ hold on.”
In these reflections, I have often made the reference that we have “a great calling.” I would suggest at the outset of this new calendar year, the great calling is to be people of light in word and deed. This year will have its rollercoaster times of highs and lows. Our calling is to promote the Christmas theme that the light of Christ as come into the world, and that light, which we have and share, can and will make a difference and be a source of great transformation. Faith calls us to that.
The Gospels have many references to the doubt and disbelief of the Apostles. They were a slow lot to believe in Jesus’ words and actions. Jesus responded to their disbelief with “O you of little faith.” In this new year, let us not allow Jesus to say the same to us, but on the other hand, have his words to us mirror his amazement to the centurion’s faith in Matthew’s Gospel: “Truly I tell you, in no one in Isreal have I found such faith.” (8:10)