The New Year threshold might feel something like a raucous homecoming after what we have all just lived through in 2020. Perhaps like the Prodigal Father of Luke’s famous parable, known for his outrageous welcome and embrace of the Younger Son who has disgraced himself and his family, enraged his righteous Elder Brother, dishonored his magnanimous Father and wasted himself in excess, it is an opportunity to throw all caution to the wind and feast on the fatted calf because our Beloved is finally home. But what happens after the party?
I have often wondered what it was like for everyone in the family when the Younger Son returned. Did the Father continue to weep for joy the rest of his days, or did this Younger Son bring further grief and heartache? Did the Elder Son ever forgive his little brother, and did his jealousy eventually transform into something like gratitude or forgiveness? Did the three find a way to heal and forge something totally new, or did the old wounds continue to fester and create division?
For those of us steeped in religious and spiritual traditions that value the chance for redemption, the resolve to begin again is a profound act of faith. For each of us hardened and wearied by the onslaught of 2020, subtle or overt Scrooges who have been haunted by our own Jacob Marleys and embraced by our own insuperable Freds, 2021 represents a new day, a fresh slate, starting over, turning over a new leaf, turning the page, setting things right, seeking and offering forgiveness, however we might put it. It doesn’t matter, does it? What really matters is that we have a new day, a new opportunity, a new hope that we can begin again.
Whatever it is that haunts and beckons, whatever embraces we may resist, whatever is broken and aching, whatever seems lost and hopeless, we can begin again.
“I’ll Begin Again”
by Leslie Bricusse, from the musical ScroogeScrooge: I’ll begin again
I will build my life
I will live to know
I fulfilled my life
I’ll begin today
Throw away the past
And the future I build
Will be something that will last
I will take the time
That I have left to live
And I’ll give it all
That I have left to give
I will live my days
For my fellow men
And I’ll live in praise
Of that moment when
I was able to begin againI’ll begin again
I will change my fate
I will show the world
That it is not too late
I will never stop
While I still have time
‘Till I stand at the top
Of the mountain I must climb
I will start anew
I will make amends
And I will make quite certain
That the story ends
On a note of hope
On a strong amen
And I’ll thank the world
And remember when
I was able to begin again
I’ll begin again!
Listen as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs this inspiring piece, arranged by Richard Elliott, with its hundred-voice choir and full orchestral accompaniment: https://youtu.be/0wlfRhtdpzA.
May this New Year 2021 be the moment we can ALL begin again!
—Laura Weber, Prairiewoods associate director and retreats coordinator