New Year message: Fr Jeremy Tayler

ONE of the great perks of being a priest in the Church of England is a strange but flattering perspective on age: I am still regularly referred to as “young”.

At 47 I am, of course, a good two-thirds of the way through my biblical “threescore years and 10”; even in the context of contemporary life expectancy I am likely to be well past my life’s halfway point. I suppose most of us by the time we reach middle age will have managed to do some things that we feel good about, but will also have managed to rack up a fair few mistakes, failures, disappointments and nastiness along the way.

The sense of the future as a blank canvas on which we can paint any picture we like was probably a fantasy, even when we were young. But in middle age we learn to recognise that a big part of the time ahead of us will be learning to live as graciously as we can with the consequences of our past actions.

The turn of the year is a very natural time for taking stock, for reflecting on the past and for drawing from our experiences such lessons as we may be able to put to good use in the year to come. In the practice of Christian faith we often talk about self-examination and repentance, and that of course is important and helpful. But gratitude — a positive, active practice of gratitude — is no less important.

Many years ago I knew an elderly lady close to the end of her life. And, as she reflected on her long life, the things that stood out for me in her story were that she had lost a beloved brother in the war, that her husband had left her for another woman, and that she had been unable to have children.

At the end of all this she told me that she was so grateful to God that she had enjoyed such a good life! She was right. Despite the sadness she had endured, she had been given many good things too, the best of which was surely a warm and grateful disposition that was quite free from any trace of self-pity.

St Paul in his First Letter to the Thessalonians instructs his readers to “rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”.

Perhaps this “always”, “without ceasing” and “in all circumstances” seems like a tall order; but if we think of it in terms of our disposition and the orientation of our lives it might start to make sense. Whether we are closer to the beginning, the middle or the end of our lives, and whatever the weight of our accumulated mistakes, I hope and pray that we can move forward into the New Year with joy and gratitude, and that we may learn to look with compassion on one another and on ourselves, because that is how the Lord Jesus looks on us.

A happy New Year to you all.