New Year's Resolution

In an anticipated Mass, I overheard two different responses while waiting for the Liturgy to start. At the back, the father was gently talking to her little daughter about her resolution. The fondest father goes this way, "Starting today you should not quarrel w/ your cousins anymore,' "You should leave food for Mommy & Daddy," "You should eat fish & vegetable so you could already go to school." As the father continued, the daughter noticed the nun. He asked the child, "What do you want when you grow up?" "Do you want to be a nun?" She replied, "NO!," "Do you want to be a doctor.....teacher...lawyer?" The father shifted again to the resolution, "When Mama & Papa arrive, you should bless their hands." Why, the daughter asked. As a sign of respect, the father replied.

On the other hand, the other father beside me was also conversing w/ his companion. The man was clamoring because of long waiting for the mass to begin. He would complain & made assumption to answer his impatience. Good thing, at a split second after the clamor, the commentator started the introduction.

How many of us who have hasted to go to the church taking the opportunity to be generous in our time than to think of waiting as a waste of time? Are we like the father who would maximize the time of waiting on helping her daughter for a resolution or are we like the other father that instead of praying as a privilege for quiet time w/ the Lord makes use of the time idly through complaining & impatient waiting.

As we enter into another new year of challenge towards holiness, everyone may have wished a good life along w/ good career & happy family. A good life will remain as a wishful thinking if it's not accompanied by a virtue. Getting into it takes patience & waiting before reaping the best we expected; patience towards the people who are parts of our success; patience to endure the pains that we may experience in the process, patience to cope up the indifference of the instruments behind our success, & waiting for the ideal time.

Let's not be confused between wish & resolution because wish is only an illusion while resolution is our work plan that we should labor w/ perseverance & endurance. It could not be a resolution by just saying, "I'd like to be holy this year." This wish would be granted when we take a resolution by making a plan, "I'll quit smoking, drinking & womanizing as respect to my body w/c is the temple of God," "I will not enter into a secret place anymore to resist the temptation," "I will stop my participation in any gossip to be in harmony," "I'll be conscientious in all my actions to be at peace w/ myself." Our resolution shall determine our plan. Our plan shall determine our work. We will plan our work & work our plan & our work shall determine our destiny; a kind of destiny that is glorious in the sight of God, a destiny that will correspond to the name given to us by the Divine Mercy long before our conception, the name whose destiny is reconciled to the Will of the Father.

Luke 2:16-21 So they went in haste & found Mary & Joseph, & the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned glorifying & praising God, for all they had heard & see, just as it had been told them. When eight days were completed for His circumcision, He was named Jesus, the Name given Him by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.