A List of Resolutions

Homily for Thursday after Epiphany

It is January 7. Almost a full week of the New Year is complete. Around about this time, the resolutions that so many made at the beginning of the New Year are beginning to fall by the wayside.

Making resolutions should be a regular part of our lives. After all, every time we celebrate the Sacrament of Penance, we resolve to sin no more, to do penance, and to avoid the near occasions of sin.

Each evening, we are asked to make an examination of our consciences as we pray the last hour of the Liturgy of the Hours. A natural outcome of such examinations is a resolution to make tomorrow a better day.

The passage that Jesus read from the Prophet Isaiah in today’s Gospel contains a list that I believe can help me to revive and revise my resolutions. I can do my part in my own way for those who struggle, whether it’s being kinder to family and friends or doing more to help make the world a better place. The question I am asking myself is how do I proclaim my own year acceptable to the Lord? What changes do I need to make? What small changes can I make that will build on love and faith and justice? How can I live my life according to the commandment in the first reading: “Whoever loves God must also love his brother and sister”?

Perhaps the best advice about resolutions is this: start with the small things. Breaking old habits and trying to form new ones is best accomplished by taking things slowly. One has to learn to walk before one can run.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator