1st Advent 2015
Fr. Robert VerEecke, S.J.
What time is it? How many times a day do you ask yourself or others that
simple question? What time is it? Our lives are dominated by time. Time
controls us. Time to wake up. Time to go to school, to work. Time to eat.
Time to play. Time to run. Time has us in its grasp. Children think they have
all the time in the world. They hope that time will fly by so that Christmas
will be here sooner and vacation will begin. And the older you get, as time is
running out, you feel the pressure of time. There is so little time left.
There are 26 shopping days until Christmas. Do you feel the pressure of
time? At this time of year, the pressure of time seems to be greater than at
any other time of the year. So much to do, so little time to do it. Of course
the time of which I speak is “chronological time”. Time we can measure in
seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years. It’s chronological time that
holds us in its grasp. But there is another kind of time.
It’s called Kairos. Kairos is the opportune time, the right time, the decisive
time for something to happen. That’s why it’s called “God’s time”. It’s
God’s inbreaking into our time constraints and saying: Now is the hour. No
more procrastination. Act now. Speak now. Love now. Now, now. Now.
Kairos is the way God enters our time and claims us for his own.
If there is ever a tension between Cronos and Kairos, measured time and
timelessness, it’s this Advent season. We are so aware of how little time we
have to get things done, to prepare for the holidays. Everything around us
shouts Christmas Time. On the radio, on TV, in the stores, Black Friday,
Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday. Wherever we look and whenever
we listen, Christmas is in our ears and before our eyes. At the same time, we
are just beginning the Advent season with its waiting, its stillness, its
darkness and glowing light. The Kairos of this season is patience, letting go,
finding God in the quiet, stripping away the décor, and focusing on the
simple, spare, bare.
So let’s admit there is tension in the season. Tension between all that we
have to do “in time” and the invitation to let God be Now for us.
It’s the tension that’s reflected in the Gospel today. We hear about the “end
times”, the disintegration of all that we know. Time comes to an end, even
the central symbol of time, the sun, is no longer shining. There is cataclysm
in the world as we know it. But then there is the Kairos. As time
disintegrates, God’s Now enters with power and majesty. You will see one
like a Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven.
If you want an example of the tension between Cronos and Kairos, look to
Pope Francis. He’s 78 years old. His chronological time is running out. He
knows it. How many more years will he be with us? And so he becomes an
example of Kairos, letting God’s voice be heard. Isn’t it Kairos that urges
him to speak about Climate Change and the moral imperative to take care of
our earth in Laudato Si, especially as leaders of nations gather in Paris for
the UN meeting COP21. Isn’t is Kairos that urges him to speak about
corruption and injustice in the lives of the poor in the slums of Nairobi? Isn’t
it Kairos that will urge him to speak of religious understanding between
Muslims and Christians in the Central Republic of Africa?
For many in the world today Francis embodies this tension between our No
and God’s Now.
And what about us? How do we balance Cronos/the time of our lives and
Kairos/the time of our love? As St. Paul says, “May the Lord make you
increase and abound in love for one another and for all.” The great mystery
is that we have to make time, so that God’s time can happen in us. That’s
what’s lovely about Advent. There are all these reminders to make time and
space for God.
So since this is New Year’s Day and we usually make “resolutions” as the
new year begins, will you resolve to make time for God’s advent in you?
Will you make the effort to come to Taize on Monday evenings? To the
parish day of reflection next Saturday? What can you do to let God’s Kairos
fill your time because after all, “All time is God’s time”?
"The Advent Mystery is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet
Christ." (Thomas Merton)