By Pat Haggerty

I don’t consider myself a movie buff, but I do enjoy watching a classic movie now and then.  One of my favorites is The Bells of Saint Mary’s starring Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman.  For those unfamiliar with the film, it is about a parish priest and the sister superior who is in charge of the parish school, St. Mary’s.  One of their students, Patsy, writes an essay about the five senses.  The clincher of her essay was her explanation of the sixth sense---the sense of being or “to be.”  This, to Patsy, was the most important sense.

It seems to me that Patsy may have been onto something.  As I reflect on the end of the Christmas season and the beginning of Ordinary Time, I realize how important it is “to be.”  We have experienced the beauty and simplicity of Christ’s birth.  We have been given a lesson in humility.  We have seen the persistence of the Magi as they followed the star.  We have heard the voice of God as the heavens opened and He said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Now it is time for us to be good Christians.  We have been given a clean slate.  Not only have we been given a new year but we have been given a new liturgical year.  Like the resolutions made at the start of each year, we have the opportunity to make our own spiritual resolutions.  We can open our hearts and renew our determination to follow Christ.  During the Christmas season we opened our hearts to prepare for the coming of the Messiah.  Now it is time to open our hearts and renew our sense of being Christ-like.

We have put away our Christmas decorations; we have packed up our remaining Christmas wrapping.  Our Christmas celebrations are now cherished memories.  What do we do now?  Do we experience a post-holiday slump or a January depression?  There is no need for that!  We can move forward with renewed energy and renewed hope.  We can resign ourselves to live the gospel message---to follow Jesus and not just wait for Him.

We have the opportunity “to be.”  In being, we can strive to reach out to those in need.  We can make Christ the center of our lives and the center of our families.  We can make evangelization a part of who we are.  We can strive to align our daily lives with our spiritual lives.

This can be an exciting time for us.  Let us make our own spiritual resolution “to be”---to be the hands and feet of Jesus and bring Him to others.