|
January 2012
 What
will this New Year bring?
Who of course can tell? Some will answer, "Que sera, sera",
"Whatever will be, will be." While that is undeniably true,
at one level, it can be remarkably fatalistic. Do we really
just want to acquiesce, let events take their course and do
to us what they will?
When we contemplate the momentous changes that have taken
place in the world during 2011, including the "Arab Spring"
and the Eurozone Crises, we are very acutely conscious that
each one of us is enormously affected by international events
well beyond our influence, let alone our control. We may well
think that we have little enough say in what happens in our
own country without worrying about other ones, but our "global
village" world makes us all the more conscious of our inter-connectedness.
A recent social survey showed that as a nation we are more
ready than we were to take responsibility for the events effecting
our own lives, such as health care, and show greater "self-reliance",
but the down-side of that is that we do it in a more individualistic
and selfish way rather than a corporate, social one.
We do not need much of a crystal ball to know that economic
hardships are going to continue and that, as always, this
will be felt most acutely by the poorest. The need for us
to take responsibility for ourselves and our future in the
right kind of way must also include our taking seriously also
the needs of others, especially the most vulnerable. Economic
hardship can make some less generous, while others respond
in the opposite way, even more aware of the sufferings of
others, and the need to reach out to them.
As we begin this New Year, however much we are subject to
forces outside our control, we are also able to make choices
and decisions which shape who we are becoming, how we are
reaching out to others, how we are serving them and God. These
are not areas to leave to "chance" but to act upon, using
for good the free-will and responsibility entrusted to us.
May your decisions and choices help to make your New Year
and that of others a happy one!
|
