As we stand at the threshold of a new year, permit me to share some personal reflections.
We measure each succeeding year as Anno Domini: the “Year of the Lord.” That name is a powerful statement about how—and to whom—we should dedicate our time on earth. To the extent that we fall short of making every year live up to that name, we have reason for regret.
But we also have abundant reason for gratitude about what this year brought us. During this time many of us—I think all of us—as Armenian Christians have become more sensitive to pain and joy. Perhaps the experiences of 2022, both good and bad, will inspire us to live the Gospel more deeply, more consciously, in the New Year.
The many blessings in our lives are of course reasons for the greatest gratitude to our Lord, for He is the generous author of them all. But humble thanks is not the only proper response to His loving generosity. We must also, like Him, be creators. We must enter 2023 with a bold, firm conviction to build the City of God within the human city in which we live. We must enter the coming days with the hopeful intention to realize the full meaning of the “Year of the Lord.”
Let us enter the coming year with this spirit. And if success seems elusive at first, let us not give up. Christ showed us on the cross that the power of God is revealed in human weakness; but He also proved that what is impossible for men will be made possible by the power and grace of God.
This is the prayer we will hold in our hearts throughout the coming year. It is the prayer we will offer, again and again, for our people in Armenia and Artsakh. And it is the prayer that will sustain us no matter what the coming year brings.
Let us give thanks, then, for the old “Year of the Lord” and the new one, and ask God to crown our bold courage with His strength and His blessing. Amen.
