There’s a saying that has become popular lately: “That wasn’t on my bingo card.” Using a bingo card as a metaphor for life’s expectations, people have even turned this phrase into a New Year’s activity. You draw a bingo card, fill in the boxes with your goals and hopes for the year, and keep it somewhere visible so you can cross boxes off as you accomplish them.
So, did you create a 2026 bingo card? What hopes did you set for yourself this year? Did you set any at all?
As each new year arrives, I find myself growing more and more jaded when it comes to resolutions. I feel like I set the same goals every year, only to watch them fade from my mind as soon as I flip to the next page of my calendar. This quiet discouragement can slowly begin to mark the rest of our lives. As we witness so much brokenness around us—distressing news headlines, family members struggling with illness, people experiencing homelessness on our street corners—it becomes easy to slip into indifference. We tell ourselves, “If I don’t think about it, it’ll be fine,” or “If I care less, it won’t hurt as much,” or even, “Someone else will help. I have too many of my own problems to worry about.” We keep going through the motions, waiting to try again next year—or until something wakes us up.
Today’s Gospel is one we know well: the Beatitudes. We hear Jesus repeat, “Blessed are…” over and over again, and we’ve heard this passage many times. Just like our bingo cards, we may be tempted to simply check the Beatitudes off our list of to-dos. “Hey, I forgave someone yesterday! That counts!” But Jesus isn’t giving us the Beatitudes as a checklist, a bunch of things He would like us to do and be done with. He is calling us to action. He is calling us to holiness. Jesus does not say, “Blessed were you when you were merciful,” nor does He say, “Blessed will you be someday when you become poor in spirit.” He says, “Blessed are.” Present tense.
Holiness is not something we put off for the future. It is not something we achieved once in the past and can now leave behind. Holiness is something we are called to today.
We are called to recognize our need for God today.
We are called to grieve the hurt of the world and wipe the tears of the vulnerable today.
We are called to be patient with one another and quick to forgive today.
We are called to yearn for closeness with Christ today.
We are called to show mercy freely today.
We are called to see the good in others, leading with love rather than judgment today.
We are called to sow seeds of peace where there is division today.
We are called to risk being misunderstood or outcast for the sake of Christ today.
Holiness is a tall order, my friends. It requires constant prayer, hope, effort, and a deep desire for Christ. It is a call meant to wake us from our indifference. The Beatitudes are not items we can simply cross off our 2026 bingo card; they are commitments we must return to every single day for the rest of our lives.
But as our communal New Year’s resolution, let us commit to answering this call to holiness daily—so that when we reach Heaven, we can joyfully say, “This was on my bingo card.”
Peace,
Rianna Edwards
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