Reflections of a beloved son

The first day of the Lunar New Year was on Saturday, January 25, 2020.  It is the Year of the Rat.  Traditionally festivities go on for about two weeks.  So instead of an Octave, we celebrate 14 days!  My family (immediate and extended) family and I had a wonderful, delicious, and fun time at dinner last night.  We had a ten course meal - ten being an auspicious number, the number of perfection.  We were also in a private room (though a bit small) with a TV and a karaoke machine.  My aunts and uncles sang old time favorite Chinese songs and my sisters, cousins, and I relived our younger days with songs like "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys and "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. It was a great evening of family.  Despite the savory taste of the menu or the nostalgic tune of old songs, they did not make the evening great.  It was the " being together"  that made it a wonderful night.  It is times like that that puts things into perspective.

This year we step into a new decade.  We've stepped into the year 2020.  The first thing that came to my mind (and perhaps for many others) when I think of "2020" is 20/20 vision.  So, let us see clearly in this new year.  But much more so than our vision -- let us see clearly through the eyes of faith and the eyes of our hearts. As St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians, may the eyes of our hearts be "enlightened," and as a result we may know the hope that comes with Christ, the identity that is given to us - sons and daughters of the Father.  May this year be about seeing the truth and not clouding it and not dressing it with anything.  Let us proudly live and proclaim the truth, seeing clearly and inviting others to this perfect vision. Like the gift of vision, we do not and cannot do anything to earn this truth, it is simply given. But whether we choose to accept it and how we use it is up to us.  When Jesus saw a man with a withered hand on the S