Last Updated:Friday - 09/24/2010

The New Year's resolution

With the Christmas presents all unwrapped and the turkey all eaten, the minds of men and women now turn to the next challenge - the New Year's resolution. Such resolutions often take the form of resolving to exercise more, eat less or quit smoking. As such they point to a basic need of the human condition - we are improved by controlling our impulses and overcoming our laziness.

Pope John Paul has occasionally talked in passing about this need for self-mastery, both by society and by individuals. In doing so, the pope has raised self-discipline from the drudgery of stoicism to the transcendent glory of the royal priesthood of God's people.

In his first encyclical, The Redeemer of Humanity, the pope spoke of "a spiritual self-mastery that can properly be described as 'reigning.'" The New Year's resolution, properly framed, can be seen as fulfilling our baptismal call to share in Christ's kingship over creation. "If we are to serve others worthily and effectively, we must be masters of ourselves and possess the virtues which make possible such mastery" (no. 21).

Self-mastery, then, can be about striving to overcome our physical entropy; far better if it is on the moral level where we make the effort to eliminate vice and produce virtue in ourselves. Where do we begin? We might start by closely examining how we use our time and our tongues. Are our minds cluttered with jealousy, greed, pride, lust and other "deadly sins"? If they are then we need to replace them with corresponding virtues - praise of others, gratitude, poverty of spirit, chastity, etc.

And our tongues . . . Do we use them to build up or to tear down? Do we gossip or are we discreet with our opinions about others? St. James wrote, "Among all the parts of the body, the tongue is a whole wicked world in itself: it infects the whole body; catching fire itself from hell, it sets fire to the whole wheel of creation" (3:6).

Pope John Paul, in his 1981 encyclical Centesimus Annus, again spoke of self-mastery, noting that each person's "capacity for self-control, personal sacrifice, solidarity and readiness to promote the common good" is crucial to the adequate formation of a culture (no. 51). To the extent that people in a society are undisciplined, that society degenerates; to the extent that they have brought their own impulses under control for the sake of others, the society will be enriched.

This self-discipline is God's gift. We need to ask him for it. The great spiritual writer Blessed Josemaria Escriva noted, "Men are forever 'making peace' and forever getting entangled in wars. This is because they have forgotten the advice to struggle inside themselves and go to God for help." Likewise, the psychotherapist Scott Peck says, "If we seriously listen to this 'God within us,' we usually find ourselves being urged to take the more difficult path, the path of more effort rather than less."

In the life of Pope John Paul himself, self-mastery is evident. He is always fully attentive to those who are with him and always attentive to the needs of the world. In prayer, his attention appears to be given fully to God. Such attentiveness is a sign of his having mastered the impulses and cravings that scatter one's attention and leave one's life without focus.

The lowly New Year's resolution has great potential for transforming us from self-centred sinners into saints for Christ. We need to take it seriously, hunting out the weak points of our inner selves, asking for God's help to overcome them, examining our progress regularly and using the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist to keep us strong in the battle.

Most New Year's resolutions are abandoned within two weeks. But our new year begins on the feast of Mary, the Mother of God, the immaculate one who has shared our struggles. With her to intercede for us, we cannot give up or become discouraged. The New Year can become our occasion to more fully become a new creation, ever more ready to walk in the ways of the Lord.

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