In the myths of ancient Rome, the god Janus – from whom we get the name “January” for the first month of the year - has two faces, one looking backward, and the other looking forward. It is an appropriate image for the start of a new year.
We look back on the past year to learn from it, to savour and to give thanks for the many good things we received, and to repent missed opportunities and failings. We can’t change that past, but we can change the future. We look forward to the new year in hope, planning changes in relationships, work, location, making resolutions – to eat better, to do more exercise – resolutions we have probably already broken!
2024 has been a challenging year, with violence, wars, increased cost of living, uncertainties facing migrants and refugees, fire and flood, extremes of heat and cold, and myriad other issues. There have also been happy moments with family and friends, births, weddings, graduations, and new opportunities opening new possibilities. Let us both repent and rejoice.
We do not know what 2025 holds for us. It is an unknown. It will unfold over time, hour-by-hour, day-by-day, week-by-week, slowly revealing its joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties. We must be patient as the passing of time discloses its secrets. But there is one known, one certainty, one surety, that whatever may happen in this new year, God will be with us. The Prophet Isaiah gave this assurance to the ancient people of Israel who were in captivity in Babylon at that time: For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’ (Is 41:13)
As Christians, we confess that this ancient promise has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrated at Christmas. He is Emmanuel, God-with-us, God become-one-of-us, the eternal Word of God entering into time, the second divine Person of the Blessed Trinity assuming a human nature, sharing our DNA, our history, our flesh, our lives, even our death, and being raised to new life and lifting all peoples and all creation with him to participate in his divine life.
This is Good News. We do not need to be afraid. No matter what happens to us, as St Julian of Norwich affirmed, “all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” We can share this good news in our positive attitudes to and relations with others, with family and friends, with strangers, migrants, refugees, and especially the poor and those who are suffering. We can be confident in reaching out to them and accompanying them on the pilgrim path of life, knowing that God is with us in our present trials and joys, God supports and guides us, and God is our destination and our home.
Pope Francis is encouraging Catholics to walk the path of synodality, ordained and lay, young and old, men and women, journeying with each other, with other Christians, with believers in other religions and world views, and with all creatures. He envisions a universal solidarity, where all live together as sisters and brothers, one human family, caring for each other and our common home. May we respond generously to this invitation to discover new life and opportunities for ourselves, our families, our churches, our societies, and our world.
As we stand at the start of this new Jubilee Year of 2025, I wish you and your families every blessing. I conclude with a quote from a 1908 poem by Minnie Louise Haskins, who was working as a missionary in India at that time: I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown”. And he replied, “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That will be better to you than light, and safer than a known way.”
Rev Dr Patrick McInerney
Regional Director of Oceania
directoroceania@columban.org.au
Listen to "From the Director - Trusting in God in 2025"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - January/February 2025
