As we draw closer to the conclusion of the Church’s liturgical year, we might rightly ask ourselves how we have progressed spiritually during the last twelve months. 

 

With another year of life, prayer and experience behind us, we have once more lived through the Advent story of God’s preparation of the world for the birth of Jesus. We should have fasted and prayed during the Lenten season and once more walked with Christ as He carried His cross on Good

 Friday. As well, we had the chance to reflect on the joy and gift of Easter Sunday and the resurrection.

And with the Church, we passed through the annual commemorations of various saints and the rereading of the Gospels at Mass.

 

At the same time, the cultural pressures against public expression of faith have been unrelenting. The media and many of the elites of our culture have spared no efforts in highlighting any shortcomings of people of faith and the Church Herself whenever possible. 

 

Most especially, the practice of the Catholic faith is regularly portrayed as being out of touch, an anachronism to the modern world that limits personal freedom and the self-fulfillment of the individual.

 

These are some of the competing elements about living faith in our day. And they are the backdrop for us to ask how well we fulfilled, in the last year, the command of Jesus to all the faithful just before His ascension; “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Mt 28: 19-20).

 

At the heart of the struggle in the contemporary culture in which we live is the very understanding of the human person. What is the meaning and value that I bear and that I must learn to recognize in every other person? 

 

That question is becoming increasingly a dividing line that tests our faith and our reason. And associated with that question is the understanding of the final purpose of the human person and our place within creation itself.

 

Recently, Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the bishops conference of the United States said that the secular answer to this question is the proposal to build, “a global civilization, built on a consumer economy and guided by science, technology, humanitarian values, and technocratic ideas about organizing society.” But in our secularized time, this proposed civilization has no real place or room for God or religion.

 

By contrast, our faith teaches us that every person bears the image and likeness of God. We have been redeemed by the death of Jesus and are offered a place in God’s Kingdom if we willingly accept it.

 

How different this world and our lives will be according to the role or the absence of faith in our lives.

 Each of us is called to choose and then to witness. We witness about our faith first to God in response to His love. Then we witness to ourselves as we put our Catholic faith into practice. Finally, we witness to the world seeking to serve others and to bring them to Christ.

 

The end of the year is a time to take stock of our progress or our back sliding in faith. But we do so in confidence. Christ calls us. He walks with us. And as long as we are in this life we have the time and the grace to prepare our souls.

 

None of us knows how many more liturgical years we will live through. But each year is a gift. And we should live it to the fullest.