Readings: 1 Sam 2:18-20, 26; Ps 148; Col 3:12-17; Luke 2:41-52

Today is the last Sunday of 2009. It is appropriate that we take leave of the year in a Christian way. Today is an opportunity to size up 2009 – to rate the year. It is appropriate that we start thinking about this together in our congregations in the community of faith, in this one body of grace. For it is in this context that we can say that each of us is different from the other because God walks with each of us by our own path. If God loves each of us as though there were only one of us (as Augustine says) then God never treats two people precisely alike. And so, before we take leave of 2009, let us, indeed, size it up as a spiritual exercise, both for ourselves and for the good of our family of faith.

We’re leaving 2009 behind us – and I think of those moving farewell songs: John McCormack’s Terence’s Farewell to Kathleen: ‘O Kathleen my blessings go with you every inch of the way that you go’; The Leaving of Liverpool and the words of the Irish ballad, ‘Let’s drink to the company and to the lass, let’s drink together all out of one glass; let’s drink together all grief to restrain, for we may and might never all meet here again.’

2009 with its many days, its work, its cares, its disappointments, its bitterness, its plans that came to little or nothing, 2009 is going, going . . . both with its achievements and with everything that our begrudging heart has made of the year. Day by day, hour by hour, we’ve lived through 2009 and we made our choices and decisions throughout those hours and days.

And as we take leave of 2009, is it possible for us to give it to someone? Or is it simply gone? Does it no longer exist?

How do we answer these questions in a Christian way? If we take God into account, if we recognise that we are spiritual beings of eternity (when Pope John Paul II was in Australia, he said, ‘My dear young people, when God made you, it was forever), if we recognise this, we must conclude that 2009 is yet another year which has been gained and retained. 2009 is not lost, it is an irrevocable, enduring year. For each of us present today, 2009 is our year.

Yet who keeps 2009 for us? Like the Irish song, Mother Machree, God blesses you and keeps you – and God keeps all your years. St Patrick’s Breastplate says, ‘Christ before me, Christ behind me’. Christ keeps eternity before you and your particular and uniquely lived-out finite years behind you. All the years you have lived, and 2009 is fast becoming one of them, are indelibly stamped in that spiritual substance, that spiritual essence that is you.

At this point, I want to say something very important. From a Christian point of view, you can take leave of 2009 in deep gratitude to God, so that 2009 may become what it ought to be: the free gift of the grace of God. We must never become distrustful or brooding when we think of God. God continually justifies you; God continuously sanctifies you, forgives you and keeps you in God’s grace. And though we are poor, burdened and at times afraid, though we found 2009 hard in many ways, we can now come and stand before the face of God, and both of us, God and me, can bless 2009. As Christians we may do so and we must do so.

Let me go back to the words of St Patrick’s Breastplate prayer: ‘I arise today through a mighty strength; Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me . . . Christ where I lie down, Christ where I sit up, Christ where I arise, Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me; Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me.’

Let me comment on just a few phrases of this magisterial prayer:

Christ with me – this is not a plea, it is a fact. Whatever you are, whatever you do, Christ is with you.

Christ in me – Many people spend their lives seeking Christ. Yet Christ’s message is, ‘I live in you as you live in me.’ The goal of prayer is not to contact the missing God but to allow the present God to fill our minds and hearts.

Christ before me – Christ is on the road we tread. Wherever our life is leading us, Christ has gone before. Like everybody, we do not know what is ahead of us, but as Christians, we know who is ahead of us.

Christ behind me – There is Christ walking in your past in 2009: those hours, those days of 2009! Christ walks in all the dark rooms you pretend are closed. There he brings light. Indeed, invite Christ into your past, offer him all that you are ashamed of, all that you wish to forget, all that still pains you and hurts you, all the hurts you have caused others. Walk there in those places you are afraid of, knowing that Christ walks with you and will lead you on.

So let us take leave of 2009 and take heart for 2010, even just as we are, for we are beloved daughters and sons of the ever living God, we are the work of God’s own hand. God made us, we belong to God, we long for God. God takes responsibility for his own actions; God answers for the life of each one of us. And even if we take into 2010 some of our cares and weaknesses, we see in our lives during 2009, know also that God walks with us; know too that the burden we carry is not greater than we can bear. Let our prayer be this:

I take leave of 2009. It was a year of the Lord, a year of God’s grace, a year of spiritual growing. Yet most of the year I did not see this. Indeed, the true spiritual lesson for me now as I take leave is that in my weakness God’s strength triumphs.

And so, my loving Creator, my father, my mother, my God, I praise you, I thank you and I glorify you for you are good and your mercy endures forever.