Word to the Wise
Friday, September 28, 2018 - Friday in the 25th Week in Ordinary Time
[Eccl/Qoh 3:1-11 and Luke 9:18-22]There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every thing under the heavens. A time to be born, and a time to die.......[Ecclesiastes]
SEPTEMBER 28 DOMINICAN MARTYRS OF JAPAN
Many of us remember the song with the refrain, Turn, turn, turn...... which is based on today's famous passage from Ecclesiastes. The passage could give rise to the classic debate about determinism. Has everything been already decided and we are only passive participants. Is free will an illusion? Has God set the tracks and we just run along them? Or, for those who reject the reality of God, is everything determined by physical and chemical laws or by chance?
There are considerable variations in this ancient debate. I find the Greek distinction between chronos and kairos helpful. Chronos refers to the human measuring of time into units such as hours, seconds, years, months, etc.. Our words, chronology and chronic come from this. Kairos is a more philosophical notion that might be expressed by the question, What time is it in your life? Or Is this the best time to do this or that? Or This is an idea whose time has come! The expression, "Timing is everything!" catches some of this.
On retreats, I use the distinction to challenge the participants to examine their lives and ask, "What time is it?" In theology, we might see this in asking about the difference between our "time" and "God's time." "In the Lord's sight, a thousand years are as a day; no more than a watch in the night!" Much of the study of history is an effort to understand all of this. Does God have a "plan?"
Our busy lives can benefit from sitting down with Ecclesiastes or even going on a retreat to ask, "What time is it in my life?" AMEN