10, 9, 8, 7, 6,…It’s New Year’s Eve and as the countdown to the new year draws near you may be thinking that you should make a resolution to change your life. We’ve all heard it before, and usually the resolutions are aimed at growing in the life of virtue. To desire to grow in the virtuous life and rid ourselves of our vices is inherently good. However, do these resolutions help us grow in the life of Christian perfection or are they simply a way for us to take credit for all of our efforts and achievements? Is the achievement of these resolutions our work alone or the grace of God helping to restore our fallen nature?
What if you don’t make a resolution? We all know how making resolutions usually goes: you make one, you keep it for about a month, and then you lose interest only to try it again next year. What if you made a resolution that you could actually keep? What would that resolution be? Perhaps it would be to rely on God’s grace. His grace is a powerful gift that is given to us; when sin distances us from him, grace brings us back to union with him.
Instead of making resolutions that depend on ourselves, why not consider making no resolutions except to rely more on God’s grace? By putting Christ at the center of everything, we will grow in the way of Christian perfection. We need nothing more than him alone, and when we realize this, we begin to see the real change in our lives that we truly desire.
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Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)