Every year it happens, the
light of a new year hits us and we make resolutions – resolutions to do better
than we did last year at just about anything: dieting; quitting smoking or any
other vice; getting more exercise; doing more reading; spending more time with
family...the list just goes on, doesn't it?
And then, as if the harsh light
of New Year's Day wasn't enough, we go back to work, the kids go back to
school, and everything "gets back to normal" – whatever normal is.
And that "normal" is usually powerful enough to resist our best
intentions and spoil our resolutions! In fact, some of us reading this may have
already found that we haven't kept our New Year's resolutions for 2012 – and it’s
still New Year’s Day!
What's up with resolutions, anyway?
Why do we make them, and, more importantly, why do we so often fail to keep
them?
Resolutions come from deep
within us. The Church teaches that we are fashioned in God's image but that
that image is marred – covered over and stained, if you will. The Good News is
that it's still present in us. If it weren't still there, we'd cease to exist.
And that overlooked and almost
forgotten image of God deep within is why we're never quite satisfied with our
condition, and why we're always seeking self-improvement, to better
ourselves. The image of God within us causes
this, and it's a good thing.
One of the more contemporary
Fathers, St. Nicholai of Zicha, describes this in terms of memory – a memory of
Paradise that exists in some manner beneath thought and emotion – in the bone
of our bones, if you will – a deep and forgotten memory that both unsettles us
and makes us yearn for more.
And so the problem is not with
our desire to be better. The desire to improve is God-given.
And the problem is not with
making resolutions to fulfill that desire. Taking steps to act upon this
God-given desire – matching our will to our desire – is a good and noble thing.
The difficulty is that our
well-intended and firmly desired resolutions are not enough. It is the
resolution itself – how we respond to that God-given impulse to get rid of the
stuff in our lives that isn't right, or to get more of the stuff that is right
- that is our problem. This is because most
of the time our resolutions only address the surface issues – what professions
refer to as "the presenting problem".
Let's pick just one: theft.
Now, we all know that theft is wrong, but it's
not enough to just decide that we won't steal again. Nor is it enough to just
tell someone to stop stealing. Nor is it really enough to tell me to stay away
from opportunities to steal.
What’s needed is a change on a much
deeper level, at the depth of our - of my - hidden motivations. In the Christian Faith,
these "motivations" are referred to as "the passions", and
they're what rule us, for good or ill, but usually not for good. St. Peter said:
"Beloved, I beseech you as aliens and
exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh that wage war against your
soul." [1 Peter 2.1].
 |
| Bruegel's Seven Deadly Sins |
The reason why our resolutions
so often fail is because we usually attack our "problems" instead of
attacking their cause, the underlying passions which drive us. What we need is not a resolution, but a
revolution – the violent overthrow of the power within us that imprisons and
captivates us.
In many of the writings of the ascetical Fathers of the Church,
it is a violent revolution that is required in order to attain to the Kingdom of God. Good intentions are never enough! The battle within – the war to
quell the passions that govern us – is just that – it's a battle!
The drive to improve, to get
rid of the bad stuff in our lives and get more of the good stuff, is a
God-given drive – part of being made in His image. And the Christian life – everything
that happens after we become Christian – is
all about dealing, in God's Grace and by His help, with the passions, so
that day-by-day, month-by-month, and year-by-year the image of God in us grows
brighter and clearer. St. Paul
declared that
"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have
crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." [Galatians
5.24].
This year, no matter what your
resolutions have been, let's start a revolution, by facing and attacking the things that control and motivate us, so that we can grow back into the image that is ours: the image of God.
“And from the days of John the Baptist until
now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.”
[Matthew
11. 12]
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