Rector’s Reflection 2022.01.07

Well, here we head into a New Year.  So, Happy New Year!  At least I hope and pray that it will be a happy new year.  By most measures, this past year was a difficult one for many of us.  So many have lost so much in the span of so little time. And while we can never forget what or who we have lost this past year, there is a real danger that we become enslaved to our losses.  A new year is an invitation for a new start, and I pray that new start is, for all of us, characterized by freedom.

You see, our shared life in Christ is about freedom.  Freedom from sin, freedom from bondage, freedom for goodness, freedom for abundant life.  It is not about ignoring hardship or all the small deaths that we suffer in our lives.  Rather, our life in Christ is about allowing death to be transformed into the stuff of new life. That process of transformation is about shattering the chains that hold us down and freeing us to live into the dream that God has in store for us.

So, my prayer for each of us and all of us is that we may use this year as an opportunity for a new start.  Allow God’s Spirit to transform hardship and death to life.  Embrace beauty this year.  Seek truth this year.  Commit to be an agent of love this year.  And this year, watch for signs of God’s presence and love all about us.  So, Happy New Year!  May it be to us a sacred new start.

~Father Art