LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD

January 2023 is here. I cannot honestly say “At last!” since it seems like we’ve been moving forward at a drag-racer’s pace. But here we are. Is it a “new beginning”? Do we think our “New Year’s resolutions” will last to Epiphany? We try…

Even though the names of our days come from Norse mythology, the names of our months are Latin/Roman. This brings us to the Roman god Janus. I want to explore a bit of who and what this god was and represents.

His name is cognate (= related to) the word janua, or gate. Doors swing in and out; Janus, then, is a two-headed divinity who looks both ways—backward and forward. We can easily see his association with the month at the head of the annual calendar. There was also an association with peace—if the doors of his Forum’s temple were shut, war would end.

What can we learn for ourselves from this ancient cultic theme? I think there are many things, actually.

First and foremost, how will we in this new year shut the “temple doors” of our own hearts to war and anger and hatred and bitterness? We will not, by ourselves, end the terrible factions of politics and the evils of war (especially in Ukraine). But we can make ourselves and therefore the environment around us more peaceful. It’s a choice—not automatic, not easy, but still a choice. And if we slip and let the doors crack open, we always have the opportunity to close them again.

Second, if Janus looked backwards and forwards, we can, as well: looking to the past to see our successes and failures; looking to the future to see how we can embellish the former and avoid the latter. Learning from the past can make us that much better in the present.

Finally, as Janus was regarded (according to some Roman writers) as “god of gods,” we can look to the true “God of all,” the Father/Son/Spirit. We can pray to be better disciples, more faithful followers, more ready to embrace the new life of the Lord Jesus. Do we want a new year? How about a new and everlasting year, an eternal “year”?? How about bringing others to have a taste of it today?

“Time is short, eternity is long,” wrote John Henry Newman at the end of his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. But this is not quite true—time, surely, is short, but eternity is NOW—an everlasting NOW. Are we ready, as we are, for an everlasting NOW? Newman also famously wrote in that essay, “In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.” What kinds of changes are we open to, in this new year of looking backward and forward? We don’t need mistletoe and eggnog; we simply need openness and commitment. Happy New Year! -Fr. David