LIVING IN THE NOW:
A REFLECTION FOR THE NEW YEAR
Sr. Regina Bechtle, SC
At the dawning of a new year, thousands of people brave the cold to gather in Times Square and lots of other places around the world, in a kind of communal ritual of saying good-bye to one period of time and bidding welcome to a new one.
Christians and reflective people in general often set aside time around New Year’s to review the year just past. We are grateful for God’s blessings. We straighten our spiritual shoulders and set our face toward the year ahead. Maybe we choose to make resolutions, or perhaps we simply pray to be more in tune with God’s leading, wherever that may bring us.
We have just finished Advent, a season of WAITING, a season where we constantly feel the gravitational pull of the future, of what is coming. The beginning of a new year is traditionally a day of LOOKING BACK and reviewing the past.
Yet this time of year also brings us face to face with the mysterious power of NOW. God has come among us! The God of the ages, the God of all creation, has so longed to be with us that we have been given the mystery and the wonder of God-become-one of us. And so the Church’s liturgy invites us to spend an extended time as we move into the Epiphany season in this magical moment – the “magnum mysterium” – pondering God’s gift given to us in this blessed baby, contemplating the NOW.
Over and over, wise ones tell us that yesterday is over, and tomorrow is not a reality. NOW is the only moment that we are given. NOW is the only time when God can meet us. And we spend our lives learning to be present to the now, to be grounded in the now, and to trust that it will give us all that we need.
| "...focus not on the past, nor on the future, but rather reflect on how to LIVE IN THE NOW." |
At this “crossroads” time of endings and beginnings, I suggest that we focus not on the past, nor on the future, but rather reflect on how to LIVE IN THE NOW. In that reflection, let’s call upon some of the figures we’ve met in the Scriptures during these recent weeks of Advent and Christmas: the prophet ISAIAH - the SHEPHERDS - the MAGI - MARY - SIMEON & ANNA.
And of course, our own Elizabeth Ann Seton, one of whose favorite devotions was “the grace of the moment.” She often said: “I look neither behind nor before but only up!” Isn’t that just another way of LIVING IN THE NOW?
First, we listen to the prophet Isaiah, with his ringing words and radiant
images. Over and over during Advent, he said to us:
NOW is the moment to see with new eyes, to see beyond
appearances, to see the light that lives in the darkness.
Look at the wasteland, the desert, the places that seem barren, lifeless and without hope. In the very midst of this bleakness, light shines. Your God comes with power to save you! No need to think about the past or to fear what is to come: God is acting, God is doing a new thing, HERE AND NOW!
Next, let’s focus on the Shepherds. Luke tells us that these poor,
working folk heard the angels’ message loud and clear: “THIS DAY is born to you a Savior!” And they responded: “Let us go NOW to Bethlehem and see.” They went “with haste,” without planning or thinking or forming a study committee. The shepherds tell us:
NOW is the moment to drop everything that holds us back, and respond wholeheartedly when God’s sign is revealed to us.
“UNRESTRICTED READINESS,” we call it in our Charity lingo.
What about Mary? After 9 months of waiting (and worrying, surely), the
time came for her to give birth. It was the most inconvenient time; she was far from her home, there was no one but Joseph and strangers and animals. But she was learning to move according to God’s time, not her own, and God was saying: NOW! So Mary teaches us something precious about living in the NOW:
NOW is the moment to put our agendas aside and bend down to
the other person, especially to one who is vulnerable, needy, helpless.
I’m reminded of the words of the late Tim Russert (whom we came to love as if he were a member of our own family): “No exercise is better for the human heart than bending down to pick up another person.”
And in this time of Epiphany, we encounter the Three Sages. The story of their steadfast seeking, their diligent searching, their open-handed gift-giving, gives us inspiration and courage on our own life journeys. But the message that captures me, as I think about LIVING IN THE NOW, is the line from their story that tells us, “They went home by another route.” It says to me that:
NOW is the moment that changes everything,
and makes all the next moments different.
Lastly, we turn to Simeon & Anna, two figures who symbolize all the long years of waiting: Israel’s waiting for deliverance, our personal stories of waiting, longing, never giving up hope. This day, they come to the Temple, as they have done for countless years. But this day is different. They see new faces, and feel new stirrings. A light shines around this child. The promises of long ago are coming true. A doorway opens into a new future.
Simeon speaks what Anna feels in her heart, too. “Master, NOW you are letting your servant go in peace….”
These two icons of leaning into hope over a lifetime show us another facet of LIVING IN THE NOW, as they savor the joy and fulfillment and blessing of this special moment. From them, we learn that living in the now brings us into a place of ABIDING GRATEFULNESS.
NOW is the moment to recognize Christ, the One for whom we wait,
and to let our gratitude become a dwelling place.
The Scriptures are filled with the power of NOW. The Psalms keep NOW before our eyes: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice!” (Ps. 118) “If today you hear God’s voice, harden not your hearts. “(Ps. 95) And St. Paul reminds us: “Now is the day of salvation.” (2 Cor.6)
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton understood the challenge of living in the now. She
knew the healing power of simple presence, of paying attention, of being fully present to each moment. To a friend she wrote: “I am . . . going as you know to meet everybody in the grace of the moment, which we never can know till we find the humor and temper of the one we are to meet with.” She practiced what we today call “mindfulness.”
Mindfulness can be described as:
- a quality of presence to one’s life and to the people and events that are given to us;
- a way of making space within us to meet the surprising presence of God in those people and events;
- an attitude that helps us to pay attention;
- an awareness that all is gift – all is grace.
As this New Year begins, we pray that we may neither look back with regret nor look forward with fear, but that we may stand balanced in trust and awareness that our loving, provident God is here with us NOW.
Here is a simple practice that can foster mindful presence to the NOW.
The next time you check your watch or a clock to see what time it is, stop for a brief moment. Take a deep breath in; let it out slowly. In your heart, pray a simple prayer such as:
“Loving God, thanks for the gift of this moment. Help me to meet my grace in it.”
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