Word to the Wise
Monday, January 13, 2025 - Monday in the 1st Week in Ordinary Time
[Heb 1:1-6 and Mark 1:14-20]In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he spoke to us through the Son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe. [Hebrews] "This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel."
"In times past..." "In these last days...." "This is the time of fulfillment..." TIME has a way of occupying our way of being. We are subject to it whether we like it or not. We speak of "times" to recall memories or "eras" and have buildings to help us recall those "times," which are called MUSEUMS! The bible is filled with reflections on the subject. There is the famous passage from Ecclesiastes [Qoheleth]: "There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens..." [Ecc. 3:1-8]. The ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos - the measure of time in successive moments, and kairos which is what Ecclesiastes points to. We use kairos in ordinary speech when we say, "It's about time we did..." or "His/her time has come...."
The New Testament authors believed that time (kairos) was in God's hands, no matter how we might measure it. On a day to day basis the passage of "seasons" governed human activities - "planting time or "harvest time." But the story of Jesus is placed within a larger scope. His arrival is seen as a decisive intervention by God in human affairs that began with creation and continued in "partial and various ways" until the coming of Christ. The sense of urgency that appears in St. Paul's first letters [1 and 2 Thessalonians] expresses the idea of "the time of fulfillment" that the Gospel According to Mark expresses. In today's first scripture from Hebrews, there is a calmer reflection but the sense of decisiveness is there.
In telling the story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection, the biblical authors place Him in the larger context of "time." But they were mistaken in thinking Jesus would return "soon." That is in God's hands. For each of us, every day we live, there is the "present" moment in God's time that we are called to live faithfully. One of the psalms says, "Our span is seventy years, or eighty for those who are strong!" People lived without wrist watches and clocks in Jesus' "time." Could we? AMEN