Are New Year's Resolutions Helpful? Why?
As we approach another New Year this coming week, I wanted to reflect for a moment on the common modern practice of New Year’s resolutions. Are they helpful tools for self-improvement or wasted effort? Doing so brings us to the heart of Catholic liturgical and moral theology and the topic of worship and habits.
New Year’s resolutions (though not in name) have existed since the ancient Babylonians 4000 years ago. During a twelve-day festival coinciding with the spring planting season, the Babylonians made solemn promises to the gods, often repaying debts and returning borrowed farm equipment to make sure the gods look kindly upon them. Ancient Romans who switched the new year to January 1st had the same focus on worship, sacrificing to the god Janus (depicted with two faces, one to the past and the other to the future). In each case, the resolution was to be a more devoted worshipper of the gods and a more just neighbor to their fellow man. By making these sacrifices each year, pagans who knew little to nothing of the God of Israel understood that divine powers ruled their world and rewarded pious and just behavior.
Early Christianity generally condemned the Roman New Year (January 1st) as a day of debauchery and excess. Their new year began with Advent and included periods of fasting, increased prayer, and moral conversion in preparation for Christmas. These penitential phases like Advent and Lent built on Christians’ existing daily and weekly practices like prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and Sunday worship. When the Empire adopted Christianity (or Christianity co-opted the Empire), the Church shifted the meaning of January 1st away from pagan excess and toward the Circumcision of Christ. This feast, celebrated eight days after Christmas, commemorated Jesus’ humanity, the first shedding of his blood, and his naming, connecting it to themes of spiritual rebirth and new beginnings. Tweaking the themes of the Roman New Year allowed Christians to live in the two calendars simultaneously, the Julian calendar for public events and the liturgical calendar for their worship.
So, after that ‘brief’ history, what’s your take on New Year’s resolutions, Fr. Stephen? Briefly again, while ancient and Christian practices surrounding the New Year emphasized worship of God (or the gods), most modern resolutions focus entirely on self and its improvement. More fitness, saving money, learning a new skill, you get the picture. These desires are the vestiges of Christian moral teaching on the importance of growing in virtue by repeated habitual actions toward that virtue. To become more temperate (moderation toward earthly pleasures), we must practice repeatedly denying ourselves the piece of cake, the TV show, the nightcap. To grow in prudence (right reason in action), we must practice prudent decision-making repeatedly. New Year’s resolutions can build on this dynamic by encouraging us to take up beneficial activities habitually and grow more into the best-version-of-ourselves. But if they’re not aimed at higher things like the worship of God and the love of neighbor, the amount of time, money, and attention we pay to them far outweighs their importance.
-Fr. Stephen