Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Rather than make New year’s resolutions to accomplish certain things in 2021—skip dessert, keep a consistent bedtime, read more spiritual books--my starting point for 2021 is to rule out the things I have no hope to accomplish— skip dessert, keep a consistent bedtime, read more spiritual books. Sigh.

The list of what we cannot do for ourselves despite our resolve is depressingly long. You can scratch yourself, but you cannot tickle yourself. Ever notice you cannot hug yourself? It looks like you are shivering.

We cannot change someone’s mind about Donald Trump. Either one thinks he has been a great president or terrible president, and nothing but nothing changes one’s conviction about him. Same with climate change. Try as we might, we cannot convince another that climate change is either a sky-is-falling government boondoogle or humanity’s future collapsing in a five-alarm fire.

More things we cannot do for ourselves: we cannot make another person like us. Nor can we go back in time and undo the dumb selfish things we did or seize the distant day that we passed by. Our culture would have us believe that we can do anything if we just apply ourselves. But in truth, what we cannot do for ourselves is a long, long, long list.

The good news is that God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Anyone in a 12-step recovery program knows what St Paul meant when he wrote that God has ransomed us from slavery to sin. The resolve to kick smoking, porn, overeating, or drinking must first surrender to a higher power. Freeing us from slavery to sin, God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

St. Paul told the Galatians that we have been ransomed from sin “so that we might receive adoption as sons… So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God” (Galatians 4:4-7). The divine adoption Paul had in mind was like the Roman practice of adoption. Wealthy noble families without an heir or competent son would adopt a young man from another family to be the heir and carry on the family name and honor. For example, Julius Caesar adopted his eighteen-year-old grand-nephew Octavius who became the emperor we know better as Caesar Augustus. God, doing what we cannot do for ourselves, frees us from slavery to sin and makes us by adoption his children and heirs to his kingdom.

The virgin birth of Jesus reveals God’s power to accomplish what we cannot do for ourselves. Never in the history of humanity had someone accomplished a virgin birth. Yet we sing, “Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright. Round yon Virgin Mother and Child.” Or again, “Sing of Mary, pure and lowly, Virgin mother undefiled.” Every Sunday we proclaim the virgin birth in the creed when we say, “for our sake and our salvation, he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.” As with other holy paradoxes such as “by his wounds we are healed” and “by his blood we are washed clean,” the virgin birth ticks the box that God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

God’s saving work takes the pressure off our selves. Yes, for decent health we must still break a sweat daily, eat moderate portions, and skip dessert. Yes, we must do our part for justice in our society from abortion to racism to xenophobia. We must make every effort to reconcile with one another. In the paradox of the spiritual life, we must act as if everything depends on us yet pray as if everything depends on God.

Most Precious Blood Catholic Church in Oviedo has a statue of the Blessed Mother in its rosary garden. Unlike most statues of Mary, she is quite pregnant. The statue captures the reality how God bestowed on the human race the grace of eternal salvation. Through the Virgin Mother, we receive the author of life. The Theotokos, the God-bearer, has a rounded tummy.

For a New Year’s resolution, how about this: make a socially-distant field trip to the rosary garden. Rub her belly. Make her words your own. “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Let God do for you what he has done for the human race.