DO NOT BE ANXIOUS - GOD HAS A NEW YEAR PLAN
Smitten By Faith Issue Number # 000079 6th January 2024
I wish HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my readers !
We have just started a new year. A new beginning.
The Christian Gregorian Calendar which was first introduced in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII has become the internationally accepted civil calendar with New Year’s Day being always on January 1st of each year. For those who live in Asia, the interesting New Year greeting designed above includes a dragon winding its long tail through all the numbers 2 0 2 4. This is a clever interpretation of the upcoming ‘Chinese’ Lunar New Year of the Dragon which will take place in February 2024 based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases. The Islamic New Year based on the sighting of the new moon each year also changes and in 2024 will occur in April.
Whether it be the Gregorian, Chinese or Islamic Calendar, a ‘new’ year is always significant and meaningful. This new year of 2024 will provide us a second chance to move away from our weaknesses, problems and bad tendencies. Refresh and reboot.
Just a few days ago, on the last day of 2023, my husband and I were at a party energetically ( in my case ) dancing away the remnants of 2023 as the clock struck midnight. A very good friend of mine decided to ring in her new year differently. She went to a midnight service where she prayed together with hundreds of the faithful and she was able to celebrate the new year with, as she so eloquently put it , ‘fire in her soul’. Indeed, she chose a beautiful way to glorify God; all that He has given us in the past year and to be thankful for this.
So, today, inspired by my friend, I would like to write about God’s New Year Plans for us.
Above : Sistine Chapel, Vatican Palace at the Vatican City.
Above : Michelangelo Buonarroti’s ‘Prophets and Sybils’ and other incredible frescoes filling the entire curved ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Above : The same Sistine Chapel ceiling but this picture has been artistically modified to show a flattened impression of the curved ceiling. In this modified picture above, the entire ceiling frescoes are in black and white except for Michelangelo’s gigantic figures of the 7 prophets ( all seated on huge thrones ) and the 5 classical Greek and Roman Sybils - all left in their original colour so that you can see them more easily. Can you now spot the Prophet Jeremiah at the far right of the ceiling’s west wall ( bottom of the picture ) ? In the case of the Prophet Isaiah, Michelangelo has placed him second from the left at the ceiling’s east wall (top of the picture). The enlarged details of Jeremiah and Isaiah are below.
ABOVE : DETAIL from the ‘Prophets and Sybils’ Frescos by Michelangelo ( 1509 )
Right : Jeremiah - This visually compelling fresco depicts the Prophet Jeremiah - one of the 4 Major Prophets of the Old Testament, portrayed with an anguished expression, lost in profound thought.
Left : Michelangelo’s Isaiah, another of the Major Prophets exudes both strength and elegance and is prematurely grey and thoughtful. Michelangelo paints him with a strong muscular body to show Isaiah’s energy and quiet strength.
The above monumental frescos ‘Prophets and Sibyls’ dotted all around the entire ceiling of the Sistine Chapel are by the great master Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. The Sistine Chapel of the Vatican Palace was built by Pope Sixtus IV in the 1470s, a moderately sized chapel made ginormous by Michelangelo’s magnificent and gobsmackingly beautiful frescoes. In 1508, Pope Julius II commissioned the artist, Michelangelo to paint the ceiling vaults and side frescoes of the chapel. By the time Michelangelo finally completed his gargantuan task in 1512, working mostly alone on a high scaffold, this rare artist so obviously touched by God, had painted more than 300 different figures in the Sistine chapel!
The magnificent panels of his ‘Prophets and Sibyls’ show 7 prophets of Israel including 4 of the so-called Major Prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel – and 3 of the 12 Minor Prophets: Joel, Zechariah, and Jonah. These prophets are alternated with the 5 Sibyls or pagan oracles of ancient Greece and Rome – to show that the Christian faith is for all of humanity. Each of the male prophets are depicted seated on thrones reading manuscripts, books or scrolls followed by various female sibyls or Pagan oracles : a Persian Sibyl, an Ezekiel, an Erythraean Sibyl, a Delphic Sibyl, a Cumaean Sibyl and a Libyan Sibyl.
With the Prophets so beautifully depicted by Michelangelo, it is fitting that I try to look for the words of some of the Prophets to understand God’s new year plans for us.
So, here are 2 of the prophets – Jeremiah and Isaiah.
Their words resonate and sing and dance for me. You can see how the words of Jeremiah and Isaiah, written so many thousands of years ago, are still very apropos for us today giving us a window into God’s new year plan for us - that He wishes to prosper us and not to harm us.
“'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’”
( Jeremiah 29:11)
“ Remember not the former things, nor consider things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it ?”
(Isaiah 43:18-19 )
DO NOT BE ANXIOUS
Of course, each new year, I make fresh resolutions and I make plans. Lots of them. This year, I am trying to set my new year goals with God in mind.
In St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he speaks of the ministry of reconciliation. He writes that a new beginning awaits anyone who is willing and wanting to make Jesus Christ the lord of their life.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.”
( 2 Corinthians 5:17)
And, according to the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament, God will give us a new beginning :
“ Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing ?
Look at the birds of the air : they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they ?
… Therefore, do not be anxious, saying, ‘what shall we eat’ ? or’ what shall we drink’ ? or ‘what shall we wear ‘?.
…But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.”
( Matthew 6: 25-34)
Above : Two beautiful Chinese paintings featuring the birds of the air by Fr. Joseph Tham LC; Rome. Fr. Tham is a former physician and now a priest, scientist and artist.
Right : Autumn Stillness by Fr. Joseph Tham LC
Left : African Bird and Flowers by Fr. Joseph Tham LC
The above passage from the Gospel of Matthew comforts us; it surely puts fire in my soul ! God tells us not to be anxious; not to fret over such temporal things like food and clothing. He assures us that in Jesus and eternal life, all things will be made new. God forgives and provides us with a brand new beginning. But as Matthew writes, first we need to seek the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness. It means that we need to know God more; we need to have a more personal relationship with God. We need more faith to discern God’s plan for us - to be abundant and prosperous. That we not merely subsist but have good things in abundance.
“ So God created Man in his own image… male and female he created them.And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it’…”
( Genesis 1:27-28 )
Everything that God wants for you will happen. You just have to trust in Him and let Him guide you in fulfilling it. So, do not be worried. Set your 2024 goals with God in mind. Be patient and wait for God’s perfect timing !
I wish my readers a very BLESSED AND HAPPY NEW YEAR !
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