Image: Carl Bloch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Nathan Walton and Anastasia Marambos
What is a good year? Is it, as our modern society would maintain, defined by the pursuit of material benefits (whether wealth, power, or pleasure) and the utmost avoidance of pain and suffering? Or are these mere vanities, and “a striving after wind”? (Eccl 1:17). Is the good year, perhaps, defined by something more enduring, something altogether greater and nobler?
For a Christian, as a follower and servant of Christ, a good year – and, indeed, a good life – is measured by the extent to which one participates in the good; the highest and ultimate good, He Who is Goodness itself, is God our Lord and Creator, as we learn from St Augustine. And the King in His infinite and benevolent wisdom has devised for us a Divine Law, which He promulgated for our sake. As part of this law we have received, we are told in the Gospel of Matthew that “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Mt 5:7).
Of all the many places in which humans show mercy, the family home is unique. In the Christian family home, day after day, time after time, seventy times seven, we love, forgive, and provide. Parents are constantly being called upon to feed the hungry and give drink to the thirsty; as they raise their children, they instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, bear wrongs patiently, and forgive all injuries. Together, the family prays for the living and the dead. The very vocation of parents is a vocation of love and mercy.
It is easy to be selfish in an office; it is easy to be impatient in a traffic jam; it is easy to be irresponsible at a party. Is it just as easy to be selfish, impatient, or irresponsible while attending to the needs of the crying child in the darkness of the night?
The family is a fruitful field for works of mercy; it is also the teaching ground for mercy. For, before a child learns to speak, he has heard his parents pray for the living and the dead; Almost before a child opens his eyes, he has been the hungry being fed; a few years later, he might help to feed a younger sibling. Indeed, the merciful God Who died on the Cross for sinners, was born into a family, lived in a family, and sanctified the family. No other institution can boast that God blessed it like this.
As 2025 ends, ask not “how much work have I done?” nor “how much success have I enjoyed?” nor “how much work can I do and how successful can I be in 2026?”; rather, slowly read Matthew 5. For the family which has prayed together, forgiven each other, and come closer to God this year, I say unhesitatingly that 2025 has been a very good year indeed.
