A New Year’s Message

Text File

 

2025, A New Year! May We Achieve Wisdom & Hope!

Text File

All New for a New Year

 

TEXT FILE

In The New Year

Text file

New Year and Hope

 

Text file

A 2021 MADE “NEW” BY ALL

Click here to access text version.

 

A New Year to Rejuvenate Ourselves and Renew

"New year, new life," the familiar saying goes. The start of a new calendar year is a great opportunity to review, evaluate, adjust, straighten up, heal, move on, forgive ourselves and others, forget and rid ourselves of the old and what hinders us, reinvent, undertake, and begin anew... An opportunity to feel that we can renew and start again with new courage, hopes, and energies on the road we are driving toward the realization of our best hopes and ideals ... a new opportunity to build hope. A new year, in short, is an auspicious occasion to make us “new” like the year that’s beginning.

And this hope for the "new" has never been as necessary as it is now in our current social, national, and global circumstances. Every minute, the media gives us news riddled with bad news, discouraging news about the lives of men and peoples: senseless news of life, suicides, crimes, family conflicts and breakups, corruption in the lives of political leaders and the religious, corruption in the administration of public affairs, neglect and poor quality in the administration of essential public services  (health, housing, education, etc.), impoverishment of the majority versus the scandalous enrichment and excesses of some elites, national internal conflicts and the threat of conflicts and wars between nations, the arms race, electoral and political disappointment in many nations about the poor performance of their leaders, hopelessness, injustice, a thousand forms of violence and death.

What can be said amidst this anguishing panorama that, in the daily reality of the world and in the news, seems to suffocate the signs of goodness, truth, justice, righteousness, and honesty that also survive— who can deny it—in many men and women in every corner of the earth?

We all have to rethink each day and with great seriousness and honesty: What is the individual life purpose we want for each of us? What type of society do we want to build for ourselves and for those who come after us? What type of society do we want to live in? What type of political system do we yearn for, choose, and want for our people? In what type of economic system do we want to live and enjoy the gift of our human existence every day? And, very importantly, what is the planet that we want to inhabit in order to deliver it, with the best possible conditions for human life, to future generations?

The overwhelming, worldwide failure of political and economic plans is resounding and undeniable. The uprisings, demands, and justified social protests among so many peoples and in so many nations are also obvious. The divide between the few who have so much and the many who have nothing has not been reversed or overcome. Still, there are threats to world peace that remain dormant. The excessive macro-economic growth of large corporations and multinationals in the face of the misery of so many. The suffering of the millions of men and women who, emigrating from their homelands in order to seek a better future, is approaching us and beckoning to us from all parts of the world. The hunger of millions against the indifferent comfort of a few. The dishonest and corrupt management of propaganda, elections, and the agenda of politics and politicians. The inequity, injustice, and violence scattered across the globe demonstrate our failures, selfishness, and social frustrations and, at the same time, point out our greatest challenges.

And at the bottom of all this lies, in praxis, in daily life and in the relationships of our individual lives, the absence of the most basic and profound values of human beings and a lack of authority, transparency, and consistency between what we believe and what we practice, between what we live and what we aspire to. A hypocritical inconsistency that translates into institutions and social structures that have been corrupted by the unbridled selfish and hedonistic pursuit of pleasure, greed, and ambition at all costs for possessing and the desire for the power to crush and repress the best ideals of humans.

What do we have to do? Where do we have to walk together and join the best efforts and hopes of all? The time has come to change stereotypes and social models that no longer work because they produce the adverse, inhumane, and catastrophic fruits and circumstances aforementioned. The time has come to put the common good before the individual good. To prioritize the common goals and objectives (environmental, social, and governmental) of all before the individual profits of large companies and financial corporations. The time has come to say yes to life and abundant life against a culture of death. It is time to say yes to solidarity, freedom, truth, honesty, dialogue, participation, peace, respect for different cultures, and for nature and to turn our backs to selfish individualism, consumerism, intolerance, injustice, discrimination, marginalization, moral and administrative corruption, and all forms of inequity and violence.

If we want to overcome the abundant and very serious evils that assault today’s human community, we must aspire to live a new year where respect for the person and for human life supersedes any other value or interest, in order to achieve the construction of a new society and a better world in which ethics prevail over technology, service trumps power, the worker is more important than the capital, and the transcendent supersedes the immanent and ephemeral.

I wish you all a happy new year 2020, which will be happy as long as we, all of us, want it and build it!

New Year…New Life and a Better World

The end of one year and the beginning of the next is a time of goodbyes and hellos. It is a time of good wishes and of wishing for the prosperity of loved ones and for all of humanity. But, above all, it is a time for balance, good purposes and intentions. ...

When the year ends, we evaluate what has been achieved and what has not been achieved with respect to the objectives and goals that we set for the ending year ... goals that range from the merely individual and very personal to those that transcend family, social, racial, ideological and cultural boundaries, to open ourselves up to the best intentions and purposes for the good of all of us who inhabit the earth.

We all live, even he who ignores it and he who doubts it, through times of profound changes and crises that affect us all, anguish us and fill us with uncertainty regarding the immediate future in each of our lives, in the lives of those closest to us, of our compatriots, and of the world. ...

Changes and crises that touch all strata of human life in society and throughout the planet. Crises and changes that involve all spheres of society: political, economic, religious, cultural, social, etc. ... crisis in social frameworks, crisis in institutions and in social organizations. There are crises and changes in the traditionally known and established. ... If anything characterizes our time, it is the uncertainty about what is to come ...

Nobody, no one among us, is or can be a passive or foreign spectator before what is happening in this stage of man’s life on earth. We all share responsibility for the history that we are building or destroying. We are profoundly united in good and in evil. None of our words and deeds, our actions or omissions ceases to have an impact on the daily human task of building better personal lives, better families, a better society and a better world. ...

A brief analysis of our current reality at a micro or macro level, on a personal, family, social, national or global level, allows us to recognize great advances and, at the same time, enormous and very serious problems.

The advances involve, mostly, the growth in the material and financial, the world of markets, of science, of the technical, of technology and of telecommunications. But, unfortunately, it seems that as we grow materially, we regress morally and spiritually. Evidence from the news and daily events alerts us to the decrease in the world of the deeply human values and ideals that sustain and promote the construction of a better world, one that is more just, more equitable, more supportive, more compassionate, more fraternal: a world like a great table in which everyone has the right to a seat and to share in peace and prosperity.

I wish, at the beginning of this new year 2019, that we all become aware of the importance of each of our very personal and individual intentions, decisions, actions or omissions for the construction of social frameworks and institutions. That we understand, once and for all, that our daily life and being is not insignificant to the destiny of all humanity. That our contribution and our grain of sand counts, a great deal, in the mountain ranges of good and well-being that we must build as we search for a better present and better tomorrow for all. That, daily, we are not spectators, but protagonists of our own story and the stories of our neighbors.

Because if our biggest and most serious problems and crises involve social frameworks being eaten away by corruption, this is due to the crisis of the men who create them, shape and sustain them and, more than that, to the deep crisis of values inside each of us: a crisis in the spirit of man, of men; a crisis in the human spirit.

Therefore, I invite everyone to evaluate, honestly, the principles, values, goals and ideals that govern our attitudes and actions. I invite everyone at this time, as one year ends and another comes, for which we are so hopeful, to fill ourselves with the best wishes, to make the best resolutions, and to work to make 2019 a year of better successes in the pursuit of the common good and for peace for all men and all peoples of the world.

There is much we have done, but much more that we still have to do. Our story and our destiny are in the hands of each one of us. And our work and daily actions depends upon who we are, morally and genuinely, as individuals, and on our values and interests. And because our deeds reflect our values, I wish that every day of 2019 will reveal each one of us as better human beings and better citizens of the world. The song says it well: "New Year, New Life, happier days are coming... HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!”

New Year…New Life!

For time immemorial, the arrival of a NEW YEAR has served as a catalyst for our renewed commitment to fulfill unfulfilled resolutions and to realize our unrealized hopes and dreams. This annual cycle of reflection and optimism is an engine of personal, family, and social history. 

The arrival of a NEW YEAR is like a balm, an oasis in the hustle and bustle of personal and social stories. It is an opportunity to pause and evaluate, reconsider, strategize, and redirect the path of one’s life with new fervor, insight, and motivation. 

Clearly, our view of history is not a fatalistic one predicated on a belief that human history is an inevitable succession of events that are recycled and repeated because nothing changes and everything -- as in a whirlwind, as in a whirlpool -- cyclically and spirally returns to the beginning. 

No. Our view of history -- heir to the philosophical conception of Heraclitus of Greece -- is one in which, as the philosopher himself said, "Nobody bathes twice in the same waters of the same river." In other words, we understand history as a succession of events that, linearly, reflect the unforeseeable decisions of human beings who, with their intelligence and freedom, shape and determine their personal history as well as that of their communities, organizations, institutions, and society at large. 

The fate of humanity, then, is not determined by hidden forces (the gods or the stars) that manipulate and control the course of events to an irremediable and immutable destiny – fatal and pre-determined. The story of every human being is constructed, freely and intelligently, in our daily decisions, in the anonymity and silence of our smallest tasks as well as in the grander narratives of our lives, be they noble or petty, generous or selfish, personal or civic. 

Our view of history is neither naively optimistic nor fatally pessimistic. It is true there are many reasons for confusion, sadness, and pessimism in the form of inequalities, inequities, and injustice, in the hunger and misery of so many in stark contrast to the abundance of the few. These shortcomings are evidence of a world in which human beings have not achieved solidarity, equality, trust, compassion, or even developed ways of relating to one other to envision the world as a great fraternal table in which each one of us has a seat. 

And yet, it is the hope of a better world that gives us strength, sustains us, and pushes us every day into our daily lives and being. We are men and women who live in the hope of a better tomorrow; it is this hope that marks our present. The belief in a better humanity refuses to die. 

Faced with reasons for pessimism and sadness, we need optimism to build a better world, a better society, better families, and better personal stories through our decisions both big and small, with our activities and daily tasks, starting with better values and better ways of interacting with each other. 

Inspired by a CELAM Document from the year 2000, For the Construction of the Civilization of Love, I propose that we start 2018 by saying NO to individualism, to consumerism, to the absolutizing of pleasure, to intolerance and injustice, to discrimination and marginalization, to corruption, and to all forms of violence. 

Instead, I invite you to say YES, with your words and in your deeds, with your attitudes and behaviors, to all forms of life, to love as a human vocation, to solidarity and to freedom, to truth and to dialogue, to participation and integration, to the permanent construction of peace and to respect for others, for differences, for cultures, and for the environment.

I invite you, at the beginning of this NEW YEAR, to prioritize human life over any other value or interest, to give primacy to the person over material things, to give priority to ethics over technique, to the testimony of life over discourses and doctrines, to service over power, to the worker over the job, the company or the capital, to the transcendent over all attempts to absolutize the here and now of the human being. 

I invite you to build a New Year that is NEW for the NOVELTY of our lives. There is much we have done, but much more we need to do to build hope in the midst of the despair that challenges us daily.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - NEW YEAR, NEW LIFE!

2017: But, make it “new”

A "new" year, a "new" beginning. The beginning of a new year soothes and refreshes us all. A new year means having the possibility to forget and restart, to erase and renew, to forget, forgive and rediscover the way. ... The beginning of a new year places us at a crossroads where we learn from the past and plan a better future. 

But the illusions incorporated into our promises for a better future do not prevent us from ignoring the present reality, marked by a deep crisis that manifests in the most varied conflicts of our natures: personal, family, labor-related, economic, political, social, cultural, religious, etc. ... 

The lives of many men and women with neither sense nor direction that are reflected in higher rates of suicide, drug use, alcoholism ..., families destroyed by a wide range of circumstances, deep economic crises for which nobody seems to be responsible and that most affect the poorest of the poor, war fronts in different nations, abysmal relations with the rest of the world, a conflictive coexistence among the different groups that make up American society, etc. … These put before this nation the need for the new year to be truly novel and new. 

To preside over the newness that confronts the United States - in the face of past and present failures - Mr. Donald Trump was elected President of the government of this great nation. 

The election of the first president who has never held public office is already a novelty in our nation’s history. It is very novel if it is considered that this election takes place in a society where signs of discrimination and racial segregation persist and in which minorities continue being, and leading the lives of, minorities. 

Even though we have our highest hope in God, people have put their earthly hopes in the leaders of the people and in the good and correct management that they have over their governments. Thus, for the immediate future of American society, we place our trust and hope in the government that, starting on January 20, will be led by President-elect Donald Trump. In it, we have the hope that, as promised in the election campaign, his government will put an end to the irrational, unjust and inhuman bellicose confrontations that not only bleed the economy and the social welfare of the nation, but also the young blood of our young soldiers and that, in addition, while well-surrounded by his immediate advisors, will succeed in a national and international management of the economy that, in the short term, will return us to the prosperity for which this nation has come to be known by its citizens and for the rest of the world. 

But, we are confident that Mr. Trump’s government will have a "new", handling of the immigration issue in which all immigrants and, especially, Hispanics and other ethnic groups established in this nation, who have arrived from different continents without documentation, obtain treatment that is more dignified, more solidary, fairer and more humane and fitting for a population that has put the best of itself and its efforts into contributing to the greatness of the entire American society that he flaunts before the world. 

In the same way, the Hispanics living in this nation and in all our countries of origin expect from the incoming government better and more adequate international relations with all countries, as is required between nations that share the same planet and the same destiny to which all humanity is called: to make this world a more livable place, more fraternal and, therefore, more human. 

Upon beginning a new year, let us leave behind the bad news and let us jointly launch ourselves into the construction of more and better good news with the certainty that if the small or large crises that affect us now have as their ultimate cause a crisis of humanity, that is to say, a deep crisis in the spirit of the human being will be a process and a "humanizing" growth inwardly for each person and the emergence of new and more honest relations between men and the people that offer us a new year and a better future. 

This joy for a new year and these hopes in a new government are grounded in the faith that always invites us to renew ourselves, to leave behind the old man and build in each one of us the new man. The new year will be new to the extent that everyone: both those who participate more directly in the mission of government and also all the citizens who are building the novelty we so need with our deeds, words, behaviors and attitudes. Let us now offer a new year, a new society, a new government for a better nation and a new world. 

I wish all of you, together with your loved ones, a new, blessed and happy 2017.

2009: but let it be “new”

2009: It is a “new” year . . . a “new” beginning. We are all refreshed and renewed by the beginning of a new year. A new year means that we have a possibility to forget and to start anew; to erase and to renew; to forget, to forgive and to find again the way . . . The beginning of a new year places us at a juncture where we can learn from the past and project to a better future.

However, the promise of a better future does not stop us from recognizing our present reality, which is marked by a profound crisis. This crisis is manifested in all types of conflicts of a personal nature: family, labor, economic, political, social, cultural, religious, etc.

The lives of men and women, seeming senseless, lacking direction and purpose is reflected in the high index of suicides, drug consumption, alcoholism…families destroyed by all types of circumstances; and a deep economic crisis which no one seems to be responsible for, while the poorest among the poor are the most affected. There seems to be two nations at war in one, with bad relations in the rest of the world, and a conflicting coexistence among the groups that form the North-American society. . .etc. All these circumstances require that a New Year for this Nation be truly new and novel.

To preside over this urgent NEW time in the Unites States –while facing the immediate past and present failures— the Senator for Illinois, Mr. Barack Hussein Obama was elected to lead the government of this great nation.

The election of the first president of African-American descent is, in itself, a historical milestone for this nation. It is even more of a milestone if we keep in mind that this election took place in a society which still has traces of discrimination and racial segregation, where minorities still live as second class citizens.

Even when we Christians have placed our hope in God as revealed in His Son Our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of Abundant Life, the earthly nations have placed their hopes in the Leaders of their nations for the sound and correct handling of their governments.

So, for the immediate future of the North-American society, we have our hopes and trust placed in the government that, starting on January 20th, President-elect Barack H. Obama will head. In him our hope is placed, so that, according to his promises during the electoral campaign, he will put an end to the irrational, unjust and inhumane wars which not only drain the economy and the social well-being of the nation, but also shed the blood of our young soldiers. We trust that the President, surrounded by his trusted staff will do right in his management of the national and international economy, so that, in the short term, we can go back to the prosperity which this nation has represented for its citizens and for the rest of the world.

Beyond that, we have our trust placed in that the government of Mr. Obama will have a “new” way of handling the immigration issue; that so many immigrants, especially the undocumented Hispanics who live in this nation, will received a more dignified, more solidary, more just and more humane treatment. This is befitting of a population that has given its strength and its best effort to contribute to the greatness of which the entire North-American society boasts to the world.

Also, the Hispanic residents in this Nation, and in all their countries of origin, hope that the new government improves and forms better international relations with the Latin American Countries. This should be expected among nations that share the same continent and the same destiny calling out to humanity: to make of the world a more livable, more fraternal and therefore, more humane place.

At the initiation of this new year let us leave behind the bad news; and in solidarity let us begin to work in the creation of good news. All this with the certainty that, if the small or big crisis which at the present moment affects us, is caused by a crisis in humanity, it is worth saying that a deep spiritual crisis for humanity would create a process of “humanizing” growth of the inner soul of each human being; and that the beginning of new and more honest relationship among men and nations will afford us a new year and a better future.

The happiness we feel for the new year and the hopes we place on a new Government have their foundation in the Christian faith which invites us always to renew ourselves, to leave behind the old man and to re-construct in each one of us the new man who is Christ himself, made in the image and likeness of the Father.

This New Year will be new in the same measure that all: those who participate directly in the mission of government, as well as the citizens, can construct with our behavior, words, attitudes and works, the newness that we need so much. Let us toast, then, for a new year, a new society, a new Government for the creation of a better Nation and a new world. I wish that all of you have, together with your loved ones, a new, a happy and a blessed 2009.

Making This a Truly “New” Year

According to our calendars, our way of measuring time, one year ends and another begins. This is always a propitious occasion on which to pause in order to evaluate and reflect on what lies behind us in life, so as to weigh our present and calculate and foresee our future, both as individuals and as a community.

It is also a time of celebration: We celebrate the life we leave behind. We celebrate everything that we are and everything that we have in the present. But above all, we celebrate our fondest aspirations for the human race as a whole.

Each year arrives with its own novelties and surprises at an individual, family, social, national and worldwide level.

In the case of those of us living in the United States of America, New Year 2008 involves a presidential campaign and election. We are not unaware of the fact that the results of this political race will have a marked influence not only at a local and domestic level, but also on an international and worldwide plane.

The coming electoral process is characterized by a degree of political and social erosion that is unparalleled in the recent history of this Nation. The presidential campaign has begun early and will be long. And it is a campaign that – misguided and mishandled like so many others in so many other places on earth – could well undermine politics and the political process, social values and the common good, democracy and public service, and may end up exhausting the voters already overwhelmed by the millions upon millions of dollars squandered on deceitful, pernicious advertising and on the kind of degrading and defamatory advertising that only serves to distort reality.

Despite all of this, and without ignoring the major problems currently facing the United States and the grave institutional and economic crisis in which it finds itself, and without forgetting the institutional and economic crises that the rest of the community of Nations is facing, and remaining fully conscious of the fact that the country we inhabit is the most influential Nation on earth, we cannot elude the historical, political and social responsibility of asking ourselves – on the eve of yet another New Year – what our deepest and fondest aspirations are and which among them are the most urgent and advisable for ourselves and for the future of mankind as a whole.

There is an urgent need, then, to take part in the public debate, and for these elections to be active, aware, discerning, reasoned, reasonable, democratic and responsible. Participation should be free from political intrigue, demagoguery, falsehoods and the skewed vision of vested interests and should champion a constructive attitude at the service of public welfare and for the good of everyone.

The Hispanic Community, as a growing presence and in ever greater numbers in this Nation, can and should break with the traditional mindset that, up to the present, has balanced and shared out the workings of politics between left and right, between conservatives and liberals, between the blue and the red, and between Democrats and Republicans. The Hispanic Community has, here and now, a political responsibility to participate, in order to suggest, lead, demand, reinvent, innovate on, promote and choose political alternatives that are different from and better than the present ones. Within the current situation and under current circumstances, the Hispanic Community of this Nation has the urgent, unavoidable and inalienable opportunity to make a difference.

Through the political participation of the Hispanic Community, it is time to clarify and bring to a close the shameful process of immigration policies by which political manipulators and pettifogging shysters have played with the public and made a mockery of the hopes and just claims of millions of people. It is time to end the humiliating and ignoble situation in which millions of our migrant brothers and sisters live without proper papers in this Nation and beyond our borders as well.

Decades after the apparent end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the overthrow of dictators and despotic political systems that are today a shameful stain on the annals of the history of civilization, we find ourselves shamed once more as spectators of war, as observers of hostility on the US-Mexican border, of the construction of new physical walls and walls too in the hearts of men, of persecutions, exclusions and marginalization, of the exploitation of individuals and whole peoples, of racism and discrimination fostered by the Social Communications Media, and of so very many other forms of injustice that impoverish the human spirit.

Those of us who root our lives in our faith in a Semitic and biblical mentality, know that it is within the meantime of the afterlife, in the here and now of historical space and time, that the pages of our calendars (kronos) inexorably turn and our days pass, and in which comes the time for the action, intervention and salvation of Almighty God in the history of Man (kayros). That it is in this time (kronos) that we build the Kingdom of Heaven among us (kayros) by doing His will.

The end of one year and the start of another provide a propitious opportunity for us – through the political participation of the Hispanic Community – to tear down the walls and myths erected against Hispanic migration, and for us to demand the noble place – past and present – that we deserve in the building of this Nation’s future. Only then shall we truly have a prosperous and blessed 2008!