Word to the Wise
Saturday, November 17, 2007 - St. Elizabeth of Hungary
[Wisdom 18:14-16; 19:6-9 and Luke 18:1-8]When peaceful stillness compassed everything and the night in its swift course was half spent, your all-powerful word, from heaven's royal throne bounded.....
Each year I get at least one Christmas card with this quote on it. Of course, the whole image is rather warlike, but the Christian community has continued to see a figure of Christ in the expression. The theme is one of deliverance. But there is an underlying notion that is worth pondering. The ancient Greeks had two words for time: kairos and chronos. The second of these words means time as we read it on our clock - hours, days, minutes,etc. The first refers to the biblical expression, "the fulness of time," or "my hour." Kairos might be said to refer to God's time. By that I mean that God does what God does when God does it. The "when" may show up on our calendars and clocks, but has no meaning for God. The opening lines to the Letter to the Hebrews illustrates the meaning: " LONG AGO, God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but IN THESE LAST DAYS he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the word...." Long ago and last days are expressions of "times" as we understand it when we say, "in days of yore!" They are not calendar days or hours, but "event time." When I give retreats to clergy, I ask them to consider what their kairos time is. What "time" is it in your life? Is it the "fullness" of time in which great or sorrowful things are happening? It is a question we could profitably ask ourselves. AMEN .T
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