Christmas is not over! Our celebration continues as we celebrate the Christmas Octave. For eight days straight, the Church rejoices that our Savior has indeed come to us.
Now as we near the new year, our days and nights are still filled with the joy of family and friends. Christmas has brought into focus the gift of life.
First and foremost, the gift of the Incarnation — God coming to us as a small, helpless baby; Emmanuel, God with us.
Christmas also reminds us of the gift of each of our loved ones, both those living and those who have passed from this life.
Even as a baby, Jesus shows us the tremendous gifts of earthly life and eternal life.
Starting the year
Each new year, we begin the year with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on January 1.
Through this Mother, the Son of God comes to us. Mothers understand in a profound way the true gift that life is.
For nine months before their children are born, they ponder the mystery of life within them. Mary was no different.
ary pondered the mystery of life within her — the life that would become the way to eternal life for each of us.
The Collect for Mass on January 1 recalls that through Mary we are “found worthy to receive the author of life”.
Through Mary, our Father gives us the gift of eternal life by sending his Son into the world.
January 1 also brings the secular tradition of setting New Year’s resolutions.
This tradition is also a reminder of the gift of life. Resolutions are an effort to take care of the life that has been given to us.
Frequently, these resolutions focus on efforts to take care of our bodies — diet or exercise. Our faith tradition also calls us to take care of our souls.
New Year’s resolutions, like other times in the liturgical calendar, can be a time to renew personal prayer or a commitment to regular Confession.
Our spiritual need for change and conversion is just as important as the need to take care of our physical bodies.
The two go hand in hand — our physical and spiritual health are interconnected since we are a union of body and soul.
Resolutions, not only at the beginning of a new calendar year, are an important part of human life.
As the new year gets going, the Church celebrates the Epiphany of the Lord and the Baptism of the Lord on the Sundays following Christmas.
In the Collect for the Epiphany, the Church prays, “May the splendor of your majesty, O Lord, we pray, shed its light upon our hearts, that we may pass through the shadows of this world and reach the brightness of our eternal home.”
With the light of Christ, we are able to navigate this world to reach eternal life.
Without Jesus, the shadows of this world present a bleak outlook. Jesus illuminates life so it becomes a gift.
On the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord, the Collect for Mass is a prayer asking for the grace that we will live out our Baptismal calling. “Grant that your children by adoption, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, may always be well pleasing to you.”
The Baptism of Jesus reminds us of the divine life we have received through our own Baptism.
Sharing in the divine life of the Holy Trinity calls us to live differently than the world.
Our lives should always witness to the great dignity of all human life.
A return to ‘Ordinary’
As we return to Ordinary Time after the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord, we find the gift of life in the ordinary, day-to-day aspects of interacting with family and friends.
Later in January, the Church in the United States calls all Catholics to pray and fast on January 22 for the legal protection of the unborn.
The United States Supreme Court recently heard the Dobbs v. Jackson case that could potentially place the abortion decision back in the hands of the states.
We will know the Supreme Court decision in the summer of 2022.
Yet, prayer is outside of time, so we are still called to pray and fast for this historic case.
In 1999, in his apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in America, St. John Paul II said, “America you are beautiful . . . and blessed . . . The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless. If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life.”
Not only are we called to pray and fast for life, but we are called to action as well.
What are we doing to support women with unplanned pregnancies? What pro-life organizations are we financially supporting? To be authentically pro-life, action must accompany our prayers and fasting.
Life is always a gift! We are reminded of this frequently.
Pondering Mary, the Mother of God, and baby Jesus during their time in the manger, we see the joining of human and divine life.
This is the essence of what Jesus reveals to us and what He offers to us.
Jesus desires to share divine life with us so that we can witness to the world that life is always a gift!
May our prayers, fasting, and actions be a daily witness to life.
Sarah Pandl is a member of St. Christopher Parish in Verona. She works for The Evangelical Catholic and loves
living in tune with the liturgical calendar of the Church.