Perhaps some of us made New Year’s resolutions this year. Perhaps some of us simply started the year with a hope that some things would somehow improve. What is our guarantee that this year may truly be a new start for us and that our resolutions will carry us through? The saying goes ‘Man proposes, God disposes’. This means that we may have our idea of what needs to happen but what is the place for God’s action in our lives? Are we really aware of what it entails to have a truly new start in our lives and what it would take to maintain all our best intentions?

We could see in the Year of Mercy which the Church has given us, the same time of Jubilee that Isaiah prophesied. In the Gospel Jesus says that ‘today’ we can receive the true help of a new beginning through him. With Jesus it is always ‘today’, whether our new year’s resolutions have held out or not. When we look at Jesus we begin to understand and receive the mercy of the Father. Knowing that Jesus continues to call us ‘today’ to see his presence in our lives and the gift of his life for us gives us the true new start for a better future. We may propose our plans but we are invited to share them with God and to hold them up to the beautiful light of merciful love which shines on them from the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Pope Francis concludes his writing on the Year of Mercy with these words: ‘The Church is called above all to be a credible witness to mercy, professing it and living it as the core of the revelation of Jesus Christ. From the heart of the Trinity, from the depths of the mystery of God, the great river of mercy wells up and flows unceasingly. It is a spring that will never run dry, no matter how many people approach it.’