Homily for 25 September 2020, Friday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Luke 9:18-22
Today’s readings are about TIME. In the Gospel, Jesus makes a resolute decision to go to Jerusalem because he knew that HIS TIME HAD COME. In our first reading, we heard from the Book Ecclesiastes one of the most famous passages in the Bible. It is also about TIME. It begins by saying “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. “ I counted the number of times it used the word TIME, I was able to count 30 in just eleven verses!
Allow me therefore to share a brief reflection on the meaning of TIME. It happens to be one of the big challenges for modern people who lament about not having time for the many things that they wish they could do. Sometimes, in order to excuse themselves, some people would say, “I will try my best if I find time for it.” And yet they know TIME IS NOT FOUND; IT IS MADE. If you don’t make time, it means you have chosen not to. Remember that line in the book THE LITTLE PRINCE where the fox consoles the Little Prince with the thought that, “It is the time that you spent for your rose that made your rose important.”
You know, in the Greek language, there are two different words for time: CHRONOS and KAIROS. In English, they are both translated as TIME, but they don’t exactly mean the same thing. CHRONOS, that’s where the term “chronological” comes from. It refers to the time we quantify as in HOW MUCH TIME DO YOU HAVE? WHAT TIME DO WE START?
On the other hand, KAIROS refers more to time in the sense of “TIMING”, such as when we discern whether or not something is OPPORTUNE. (Sa Tagalog ito yung mga bagay na nasasabi nating NAPAPANAHON.) It is not about the length or quantity but the QUALITY that we give to the moments that we spend with each other. Like, we can spend many hours or days and be wasting our time if we don’t really give our hearts and souls to what we do.
The passage that we heard today from the book of Ecclesiastes ends with the following line, “He has made everything appropriate to its time and had put the TIMELESS into their hearts.” When we invest love, care, generosity, and thoughtfulness in what we do, it is then that we are able to put the TIMELESS into our TIME. The memories that go with them become TIMELESS.
In my younger years I remember a song by Jim Croce entitled TIME IN A BOTTLE. It says,
“If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day
Till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you.”
“If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like a treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you.”
It is a song that regrets not having spent more time for his beloved because he got busy with many other things and found it too late when he finally decided to make time. He realized that there was no way he could turn back the clock because time flies very fast. You wake up and the moment is gone.
In the song of Jim Croce, the realization comes in at the refrain part where he says,
“But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them…” Sometimes, the very desire itself to do everything we want makes us unable to do what we really need to be doing.
How much time do we really have in this world? Yesterday I called your attention to the ending of Psalm 90, which is a prayer. You can replace DAYS with TIME and it still captures the same thought that Ecclesiastes is trying to impart to us. I would paraphrase it as, “Teach us to use our TIME as we should, so that we may gain wisdom of heart.“
It is not really the length of time or the number of days, months and years but the quality that we give to it that makes life worth living. Look at Jesus, he stayed with his disciples for only three years. He was crucified at the age of 33. But what a profound impact those three years had, not just on his disciples but on the whole world!
As we come to terms with our mortality, we get to realize the vanity of many of our human pursuits. We realize that life is a journey and our destination is not here in this world, that we’re only passing through. We were created not just for this brief and fleeting moment of mortal life, but for eternity. That is why we are in a constant search for meaning and purpose, for that which will truly last, and we discover that it is about LOVE. It is only Jesus who can teach us how to spend our time well. But first we have to be like candles that do not mind burning as long as we give light. We have to be like loaves of bread that do not mind being consumed as long as we are able to give nourishment.
Like I said yesterday, death should make us appreciate life even more, and teach us not to waste our time in this world. Life is grace; no one can ever claim any entitlement to it. And so what matters most is to live it as grace, meaning, in utmost generosity.
St. Augustine was himself a young and restless soul who spent his time recklessly until he found God in his life. It was then that his whole life’s purpose changed and he wrote in his in his immortal book entitled CONFESSIONS, “You have made us for yourself, O God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
