Again, we find ourselves at the last day of the year. Already our thoughts are drifting in hope for tomorrow, the birth of the new year, and what is to come. This hope for the morning beyond the end of day, where does it come from?
We find refuge in the light, which is fitting, for “God is light” (1 John 1:5). And for the Catholic—indeed, any Christian—the simple hope for morning is tied to the rising of the Son, the Resurrection. But oddly enough, as we look today with hope towards the new year, the liturgy seems not to notice. As far as it is concerned, the new year began with Advent over a month ago. Today is not even the last day of the Christmas Octave! In fact, rather than New Year’s Day being a new beginning, it is the Octave’s last day as we celebrate Mary, the Mother of God. The liturgy does not shy away from pointing to ends and new beginnings, and even though the liturgy seems to ignore the new calendar year, this new year and our anticipation of tomorrow cannot but be steeped in the liturgy.
This is typified every night at Compline (the final hour of the daily Divine Office commonly known as Night Prayer), which does not just look to the end of the day but also the end of life. Every night the Church has us repeat “Into your hands Lord, I commend my spirit.” Taken from Psalm 31, Jesus himself takes up these words on his cross (Luke 23:46). And indeed we too must take them up, for we who have been baptized have been baptized into Christ’s death (Rom 6:3).
This is not the only element of Night Prayer that calls death to mind. Quite explicitly, the final blessing of Night Prayer is “May the all-powerful Lord grant us a restful night and a peaceful death.” Our hope in Christ ought not just come once (or maybe twice) a year but should be renewed every single day. A prayer like Night Prayer keeps us prepared for our death. But as we think of death, we need to remember our destiny: life! “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Rom 6:8). We approach death in Christ full of hope, waiting for new life promised in the morning.
Today, at the dying of the year, the rest of the world seems to take notice of this. Everyone today watches the sun set in hope of what will happen in the morning. They may not know who it is they are hoping for in the new year, but they do hope, “for creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God . . . and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:19, 23). As Christians, our hope in the morning is resurrection with Jesus Christ. So, in this new year, let us resolve to die with him as we give ourselves more deeply in prayer in order that we might live with him.
✠
Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P. (used with permission)
