A.D.

Happy New Year! I am very sure you have welcomed the New Year in your very own way, carrying on with the annual family traditions that you have been practicing—most probably with the midnight mass (which others have put earlier so as not to endanger themselves with the firecrackers that climax at the coming of the New Year at 12:00 midnight) and then the Media Noche, the beautiful midnight meal celebrated after making noise or listening to noise, the herald of the coming of 2008.

I was sorry to have welcomed this year from my bed as I was down with fever, cough and colds. I did wake up at the strike of midnight and rose to greet my parents and my brother who were in the house with me. I went back to bed shortly after and rose up the next day to celebrate mass with my family.

The days before and even after the First of January, the television shows were featuring what was special for this coming year. Psychics came to their annual appearance and gave predictions. Much was about 2008 being the “Year of the Rat”. Among many other things, they were saying who was lucky and who was not. One show even featured rodents—big and small—taken from a zoo, with a zoologist giving a scholarly exposition of what rats are all about: from the different species to their habitat to their nutrition and smell.

I was born on the year of the rat and so I was interested a bit. Year in and year out they present all these animals that take turns in being the highlight, as is presented in the Chinese calendar.

My apprehension in all this is that Christians might be too taken up by all this talk about the Year of the Rat (or Pig, Dog, Rooster, etc.) that they forget that every year is actually a celebration of the Year of the Lord—for this is what A.D. means: Anno Domini ("in the year of the Lord"). We give little importance to that short phrase that is even present in our diplomas. The coming of Christ has split history into two: what came before him and what came together with his coming. As we are still enjoying the novelty of writing 2008, let us not forget to dedicate our year to Christ himself. After all, it is the Year of the Lord.