A new year's resolution?

So, we are starting a new year. And it has been a very cold beginning here in Toronto and in much of eastern North America. Thinking about this, I found my mind turning to what, if anything, the beginning of a new year means to the men and women who live on our streets - and there are many; or to the families who are living in cold housing. Does this seem a grim way to think when for so many of us it is the time when we look forward in hope, believing in the possibility of good things? 

Maybe I am thinking a bit more about this right now because recently I heard once again, one of the most powerful passages in the Christian gospel. This passage, found in Matthew 25 has Jesus saying to some people:  'I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me'. Almost every time I read these verses with their opposite verses which say things like 'I was hungry and you gave me no food'..have always made me feel badly. I feel badly I think because I understand the truth and the life-giving power of what is being said and I am very aware of my own many failings. 
   

I believe this passage outlines the key to human happiness. We are indeed meant to take care of one another. If I take care of you and you take care of me then we are both well and happy. If my city and my country also live by these words, then our world will be well on the journey to the wholeness that we are called to. It isn't of course a free journey or an easy one, but I am absolutely certain it 'works'.

The other thing that is being said here is that for those of us who are Christian - and I am pretty sure each other faith has had its own way of saying the same thing - Jesus is saying basically - this is what it means to be a follower of mine and when you do these things to and for one another, you are in fact, doing it to me. I believe that Jesus is also saying (though not in words) that this is more important than remembering dogma or rules. It is, he says, living faith.
   

I don't explicitly make New Year's resolutions but I do hope that this year to come will bring me and all of us closer to the realization of this costly gift of love.