It will soon be 2024. What will the new year bring?

When 2000 turned to 2001, who would have imagined that there would be a horrific attack on the United States that would plunge the United States into a bloody war in the Middle East?

When 2019 turned to 2020, who would have imagined that the world would shut down because of a world-wide pandemic and that hundreds of thousands of people would die?

When 2022 turned to 2023, who would have imagined the appalling attack on October 7 on innocent people in Israel and the resultant attack on Gaza that has taken thousands of lives? 

In our personal lives, much can happen. We can have a healthy prosperous year, or we can meet an unexpected illness or problem. We don’t even know if we will live to see January 1, 2025. 

We don’t know what will happen in 2024. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we can say on January 1, 2025 that the wars in Ukraine, Palestine and Israel ended and that there is peace on earth? 

New Year’s Day used to be called “the world day of prayer for peace”. Pray for peace in the new year. We humans can’t make peace on our own. Only God can assure peace. 

In Matthew’s Gospel, when the angel announced to Joseph that Mary was to be the mother of God’s Son, the angel said that the child would be “Emmanuel”, that is, “God-with-us”. Whatever happens in the year ahead, God is with us. In good times and hard ones, God is always with us. 

We don’t know what 2024 will bring, but we do know for sure that God will be with us in the year that now begins. God is not an indifferent observer to what happens. God is love and his “being-with us” is always for us, for our well-being. Let’s enter the new year in prayer and in trust.