Dear friends and readers, we are at the beginning of a new year. Let us express to each other our best wishes for the time that will be, for the time to come because time is the gift that contains all the others in the unfolding of our lives.
So let's amplify this wish with what will illuminate it. Let us give our attention to Don Bosco who, when he arrived at the seminary of Chieri, fixed his thoughts on the sundial that, even today, appears on the wall of the courtyard, and said: “On a sundial I read the following verse: Afflictis lentae, céleres gaudentibus horae. [Time will fly, if you are cheerful; it will drag on, if you are not.] 'That's it!' I said to my friend, 'There is our program. Let's always be of good cheer and time will pass quickly.'” (Biographical Memoirs, vol. I, p. 279).
The first wish we exchange at the beginning of this new year is to live this advice in the way that Don Bosco would urge us: Live well, live serenely, and transmit serenity to those around you and time will have another meaning! Every moment of time is a treasure; but it is a treasure that passes quickly. Don Bosco always loved to comment: "The three enemies of man are: Death, which overtakes him by surprise; Time, which keeps slipping by; the Devil, who seeks to ensnare him." (Biographical Memoirs, vol. V, p. 606).
"Remember that being happy is not having a sky without storms, a road without accidents, work without fatigue, relationships without disappointments," recommends an ancient saying. "Being happy is not just celebrating successes, but learning lessons from failures. To be happy is to recognize that life is worth living, despite all the challenges, misunderstandings, and periods of crisis. It is thanking God every morning for the miracle of life."
A wise man kept in his study a huge pendulum clock that at every hour sounded solemnly and slowly, but also with a great rumble.
"But doesn't that bother you?" asked a student.
"No," replied the wise man. "Because at every hour I am constrained to ask myself: what have I done with the hour that has just passed?"
Time is the only non-renewable resource. It wears out at an incredible speed. We know that we will not get a second chance. So all the good we can do, all the love, goodness, and kindness of which we are capable, we must give now because we won't return to this earth ever again. With a perennial veil of remorse in our hearts, we know that Someone will ask us: "What have you done with all that time I have given you?"
Our Hope Has a Name: Jesus
In the new time that we have just begun, the dates and numbers on the calendar are signs agreed upon, symbols and numbers invented to measure time. Very little has changed in the transition from the old year to the new year, yet the perception of a year coming to an end always constrains us to take stock. How much have we loved? How much have we lost? How much better have we become, or how much worse have we become? Time that passes never leaves us the same.
The liturgy has its own way of making us take stock at the dawn of the new year. It does so through the opening words of John's Gospel; words that may seem difficult but that actually reflect the depth of life: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him: and without Him was made nothing that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." In the depths of each of our lives resounds a Word greater than we are. It is the reason why we exist, why the world exists, why everything exists. This Word, this Verbum, is God himself, he is the Son, he is Jesus. The Name given to the reason why we were made is “Jesus.”
He is the true reason why everything exists, and it is in Him that we can understand everything that exists. We should not judge our life by comparing it with history, with its events and its mentality. Our life cannot be judged by looking at ourselves and our experience alone. Our life is comprehensible only if we draw it close to Jesus. In Him everything makes sense and takes on a meaning, even those things that happened to us that were contradictory and unjust. It is by looking at Jesus that we understand things about ourselves. A psalm says this well when it states: "In your light we see light."
This is the way of seeing Time according to God’s Heart and our wish for each other and for ourselves is to live this new time in this way.
The new year will bring with it important events and news for each of us, for the Salesian Family, for our Congregation - everything in the gift of the Jubilee that we are celebrating in the Church.
May we let ourselves be carried away in the spirit of the Jubilee by that Hope which is God’s presence in our lives.
January, the first month of this new year, is dotted with Salesian feasts that lead up to the Feast of Don Bosco. We thank God for this delicate touch of the Lord as we begin the new year. Therefore, let us give the final word to Don Bosco and let us set this maxim of his firmly in our lives so that it may give shape to 2025 for us: My children, treasure time and time will conserve you in eternity.
