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O Lord, be gracious and bless us
This is our prayer as we come into the new year 2019. It is taken from Psalm 66.
We know that all that we are comes from God, therefore we entrust ourselves to Him once again at the beginning of the new year.
We ask God's blessing because the new year is not really “new-from-the-box”. It is born with not so good news from the previous one: a critical financial situation, constant news of gender based violence, drug and alcohol abuse and other “unresolved” issues that affect our dignity.
God will certainly bless each one of us, our families, country and world. He never denies his blessing. God never gives up on us. God is faithful.
The challenge is not with God. It is with us. We tend to expect miracles. We tend to expect God to solve our problems without our commitment or without having to change in the way we think and behave. We tend to think that his blessing means waking up and finding things different from how they were yesterday.
The familiar parable of the good samaritan suggests taking a different path.
To the lawyer who asked “and who is my neighbour?” Jesus – at the end of the parable – asks in return: “Which (of the three) proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the bandits' hands?”.
May the new year bring our personal commitment to proof ourselves neighbours to all those lying at the side of the road, victims of any type of bandits.
May God's blessing make each one of us be moved by compassion and not by the indifference that makes us cross to the other side of the road and think it is someone else's problem.
As Christians we do not really have a choice. Jesus, in fact, ends by saying: “Go, and do the same yourself”. It is not a request. It is not an invitation. It is a command. Like the one we find at the end of the Gospel. He sends you and me – with His blessing and in His name.
May God bless you all
