“ Time meant nothing to him,” a penitent explained about St. John Paul II who as a parish priest would spend up to an hour hearing a single person’s confession. Do you ever feel like life is a race against the clock? As though your to do list weighs down the scale compared with the time you have to accomplish said tasks on a daily basis, even good and noble tasks? What is time?
In the Catholic world we identify two aspects of time – chronos and kairos. Chronos is the present reality, seconds ticking, factual historical moment pinpointed. Good Friday happened in a chronological reality – at a given day, in a given place, at a given time. The event of salvation, which took place on the cross, also exists in Kairos, the other measure of time. Kairos refers to the eternal reality as each specific event exists outside of time. Therefore on the cross, the merited graces extend before and after the event itself.
It’s easy to get caught up living in a linear fashion. And in some ways it is necessary, the parking meter needs to be paid. Rent is an important thing as is the paycheck that comes in to allow us to pay it. All this is true and necessary. Therefore this statement is an invitation to expand our vision solely from the monomaniacal focus of calendars and to dos to a myopic vision that includes seeing the present in light of eternity.
St. JPII lived his belief of the personalistic norm, which he articulated in Love and Responsibility. He stated, “the person is the kind of good which does not admit of use and cannot be treated as an object of use and as such the means to an end (Love and Responsibilty, 41). He articulated his understanding of the value of each person not only in his writing but as he encountered individuals by bestowing on them the gift of his time. Do you know the gift of your presence, which you can freely bestow on others? Do you just show up or are you present to the present?
Let us be mindful and aware of the presence of God at all times and through all seasons for the giver of all good things yearns to captivate your heart and to animate your schedule. Let us give thanks for divine appointments, free time, and summer time.
“[The Rosary is ] our daily meeting which neither I nor Blessed Virgin Mary neglect.” – JP II
Verso l’alto,
KGRC
“No human sin can erase the mercy of God, or prevent him from unleashing all his triumphant power, if we only call upon him.” (JPII, Veritatis Splendor).
And it's two bare feet on the dashboard
Summer Loving had me a BlasT
The drum beats out of time -
What time is it? SUMMER Time
(Oh if only real life included breaking out into choreographed song and dance!)
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