Friday of Week 25 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
Saint Pius of Pietrelcina
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 | Psalm 143:1-4 | Luke 9:18-22
Ecclesiastes 3 (“To everything, there is a season”) has long been one of my favourite Bible passages, mainly because I’m rather philosophical about life matters. It’s also the passage that first illustrated to me the concept of kairos, or “the appointed time when God acts”, as opposed to chronos, the ticking of the seconds that we humans are so obsessed with.
When we count the years of our lives, etched in the aches and pains of our ageing bodies,
when we stare at the office clock, waiting for this lousy day to end,
when we fume in a traffic jam,
chronos is in charge.When we celebrate each birthday with friends and family, taking joy in our communion with others,
when we focus on and complete each task at hand,
when we pray the rosary while waiting for traffic to clear,
we admit kairos, and time as we know and feel it slips away.
God, of course, is the master of kairos. When it is His will that we should receive it, He will give it to us…whether or not we asked for it in prayer, and always at the time in which we can most benefit from it.
I didn’t ask for our coach captain to play some Irish pub songs while I was drafting this entry, but he did, and one of them became the central theme.
We in turn need to be open to kairos, to look beyond the wearying and relentless march of days, to find and act upon the simple and refreshing God-given moments.
Yesterday, the weather at the Knock Shrine went from sunny to Singapore-like windstorm in an instant. Despite all that, I decided to continue exploring the extensive shrine grounds, and chanced upon a small chapel tucked away in an obscure corner. I ducked in to get out of the freezing rain…and came face to face with a Blessed Sacrament exposition. After half an hour of communing with Christ, I emerged to even more freezing rain, but it didn’t affect me that much any more, and it directly inspired this entry.
Lord, we thank You for giving us life-altering moments and gifts, but always in Your time rather than ours. Help us to tear ourselves away from obsessing over the advancing years, and always remain open to Your loving works as and when You deem it right to bestow them on us. Amen.