Hope in the Present Moment
A familiar cycle repeats itself as another year ends and a new one begins. While the cycle may be the same, we are not. The experiences of the previous year have transformed each of us in various ways, and the coming days will likewise do the same. We look back and we look ahead. However, it is important to recognize that it is in the present moment that we live. The past and the future funnel into the present moment.
While the new year brings with it renewed hope for the future, especially during this Jubilee Year of Hope, it also brings a more definite sense of reality. The holidays are over and our lives get back to a certain routine. Business that was put aside during the past weeks faces us again. Bills from the holidays also appear in our mail! We realize that most of us have probably not kept any of the resolutions we made last year. However, today is the present moment. Whether we look back or ahead, it is now that we live. Pope Francis reminds us during this special year that, in the words of St. Paul, “hope does not disappoint.”
The new year began with the person who knew how to live in the present moment. The Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, placed before us a woman who could look back and look ahead but who lived fully in the present with great hope. As we reflect upon the events in Mary’s life, we can see how she relished the present moment as the time to encounter God. When she gave birth to Christ in Bethlehem, surrounded by all the wonders of that miraculous but ordinary event, she “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). She cherished the present moment and knew that it would become a significant part of her future.
When Jesus and Mary were attending a wedding feast with friends at Cana and the wine for the celebration ran short, Mary was present to the moment with unwavering hope. She considered the matter to be an important one because it was the one that was before her at the time. Because she always pondered events in her heart and because she could look to the future with hope, she asked the Lord to do something about the situation. Mary’s presence to the moment seemed more intense than that of the Lord, who responded, “How does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). It was His mother’s presence to the moment which caused the Lord to make that moment His hour and to work His first miracle as He changed water into wine. Being fully present to every moment she lived had great significance to Mary.
The beginning of the new year also placed before us the Solemnity of the Epiphany. This radiant feast is associated with the journey of the Wise Men to Bethlehem through the guidance of a star. We do not know very much about these three visitors from the East, who are referred to as magi, meaning astrologers. Most of what comes to us about them is from tradition. What we know about the Wise Men from the Scriptures is that they were not Jewish but were familiar with the expectation of the Messiah. Through the guiding star, the Messiah was manifested to these Wise Men, who symbolized the entire human race. Epiphany precisely means revelation, and the feast signifies that Jesus came as Savior not just for one race but for all people.
While the Gospel of Matthew associates the Wise Men with their journey and their bringing of gifts to the Messiah, they were men who lived in the present moment. Although they were not Jewish, they paid attention to the prophecies concerning the Messiah and were attentive to the presence of the Bethlehem star. When they arrived at the scene of the Nativity, they were filled with hope at the sight of the Christ child and of Mary. They looked away from the star, which was the focus of their attention, and focused on the true star, which gives light to the world. As men not part of the tradition to which they were now present, their presence to the moment opened a new horizon for them, and indeed for all people.
This weekend we will celebrate the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, after which the Christmas season will conclude. We will begin what the Church refers to as Ordinary Time until we come to the season of Lent, which will begin on Ash Wednesday. Our baptism should remind us that there is no ordinary time. The Church reminds us that all time is extraordinary as we were reborn in baptism to the life of God. Baptism gives us the true hope that does not disappoint and keeps our eyes open to the wonder of the present moment in which God exists.
It always seems that we want to be in another moment. However, we cannot even live that desire except in the present moment. The new year does remind us that we have nothing before us except the present moment with all of its difficulties as well as its joys. In many ways, a new year reminds us to take the present seriously. Like Mary, who wisely treasured the present moment in her heart, and like the Wise Men, who took the present moment seriously, the present year reminds us that the grace of God is alive only in the present moment. While we learn from the past and look to the future, to live in them is to live in graceless moments.
St. Paul tells us, “Now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). As we begin the familiar cycle of another year, these words are good ones to keep before us. The Mother of God lived them well, and the Wise Men of the Epiphany knew what they meant. We cannot be lost to the moment. The wonders we have celebrated at Christmas remain all during the year in time that is called “ordinary” but is anything but. It is the individual present moments that matter and will transform us. Let us not ignore them.
May the new year be filled with the Lord’s grace and peace, found only in the present moment, for you and for your families! May it be a year of hope which does not disappoint.
Most Reverend Gerald M. Barbarito
