“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“It is a great art to succeed in having your soul sanctified. A person can become a saint anywhere. He can [even] become a saint in Omonia Square [or the center of Athens’ commercial life], if he wants to. At your work, whatever it may be, you can become a saint through meekness, patience, and love. Make a new start every day, with new resolution, with enthusiasm and love, [with] prayer and silence” (St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia, Wounded by Love; italics mine).

“A person can become a saint anywhere… at your work, [in] whatever it may be… make a new start ever day.”

It is the beginning of the New Year, brethren, that is, the new civil year. And what better distinguishes the timbre of the new year than “New Year’s resolutions.”
“I am going to lose weight!”
“I am going to pray more regularly!”
“I am going to attend the services more often!”
“I am going to be a better husband, father, friend!”

Yes, we commit ourselves to these spiritual—and some physical!—exercises each and every year, and inevitably, by January 4th or 5th, we have experienced a degree of failure.
“I am going to lose weight! But oh my, those brownies look good. Mmm… .”
“I am going to pray more! But oh my, look at the time; busy, busy, busy!
“I am going to be a better husband and father! But oh my, all my wife and children do is argue with me! Why can’t they see it my way.”

Yes, year after year, we resolve ourselves to improve, by the grace of God; through great spiritual effort; through blood, sweat, and tears, and… we succumb to sin, temptation, discouragement, and eventually, despondency. “Well, I tried,” we tell ourselves, “And there is always next year.”
It is true, brethren, temptations whirl about us. We know the virtues—thank God! We know, through the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit of God that we are to pursue wisdom, pursue truth, pursue justice, moderation, temperance, peace, charity, patience, meekness, humility, joy, thankfulness! But in our pursuits, we encounter many pitfalls, many potholes, many strangers along the road encouraging us down a wayward and thorny path. Sometimes this stranger is as evident and explicit as a harlot: and we flee from her! Sometimes… this stranger is a jelly donut (and how dangerous could a jelly donut be?).
When we fall, brethren, and inevitably—or rather, in all likelihood—we will fall, the Church encourages us with a singular, pastoral rule: GET UP! Get up; dust yourself off; tend to your wounds and mend the tears in your clothes, and make a new start. Next year? No, not next year. Next month? No, not next month. Next week? No, not next week. Tomorrow? Yes, certainly tomorrow, and better still: now! In this very moment!
Make a new start every day, with new resolution, with enthusiasm and love, [with] prayer and silence,” says our father, St. Porphyrios, and the Apostle adds,
“[For God says], ‘In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.’ Behold, [brethren], now is the accepted time; behold, today is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2).

It is this same Apostle, who, perceiving the “ripeness of the time,” the total dispensation of God’s grace in the present moment, also spoke these words in today’s Epistle Reading,
[B]e watchful in all things, endure afflictions… . I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Tim 4:5, 7-8).

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” How, brethren, does one end one’s life in the confidence—in the confidence—of a life well-lived? Surely, it is not in despair, and despondency, and self-pity. It is not in second-guessing our decisions, or wishing for a past that never was and cannot ever be. No, it is in making a good and new start each and every day. Did St. Paul sin? Yes! We know his life; he persecuted the Church! But he repented, and in humility and faithfulness, he is able to say confidently—encouragingly—to his son in the faith, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Did the Apostle tire in his course? Did he ever stumble? Certainly. But the Christian “race” is not a sprint, but a marathon. And when we do stumble, trip, or fall, we cannot (we mustn’t!) be discouraged; we mustn’t quit. But we must pace ourselves, ready our feet, and make a new start,
“… with new resolution, [even… a New Year’s resolution], with enthusiasm and love, [with] prayer and silence” (St. Porphyrios).

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, O Lord, Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!