Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas (as it is the Christmas season until Epiphany on January 6th)!

Well, 2013 is now among us, and I can’t help to think that we get a brand new and fresh start. Everyone is packed in the gym, trying to lose as much weight as possible, only to stop going and give up within the next couple of weeks. Diet books and plans are selling like crazy, only to doom those who have purchased them to failure (mostly).

Why is this? In reality, New Years is just an arbitrary date where the entire thing resets, and the number at the end FINALLY gets to grow by one. Compared to the entire life of the world and universe (whether you go by 6000 years or several billion years), and even compared to eternity, one year is minuscule. It is like celebrating every time a new minute begins in a day.

Now, no, I have not grown cynical (at least I don’t think I have), but, more or less, there is a much better way for us to start new beginnings. How is this so?

Confessional in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome

Every time you walk into the confessional as a sinner, confessing all of your sins, you walk out as a brand new person, free from all the sins that were weighing you down. No need to wait an entire year for the year to begin a new in order to start over, but ANY TIME.

We are human beings, we will fail as it is part of our fallen nature. But alas, Jesus Christ died for us and instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that you CAN start over.

“[Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” -John 20:21-23

I’m sure there are things in your past that you want to get off of your chest and receive forgiveness for. So, I urge you, go to confession. There are no sins that are too heavy to confess that Jesus Christ can’t forgive, for He took on all of your sins, including yours!

Haven’t been to confession in awhile? Not a problem. Tell Father when you enter that it’s been a long time. He’ll walk you through it. After all, that’s his job.

The only unforgivable sin, is the sin that you don’t confess. So go! Begin the New Year with a clean slate, a clean soul. And if you fall, pick yourself up, and get back to the confessional. Where a new beginning awaits you.