By Sister Mary Roy Weiss, SSND
There is a season … a time.
Time and again we gather as a community to reflect about our purpose.
We are surrounded by time whether we wear watches or not.
We’ve got time on our hands. What time is it?
Consider the feelings and emotions concerning time when we hear these phrases:
Once upon a time. Be on time! You’re just in time! It’s about time! Time’s up!
Take your time. For old time’s sake. How much more time do you need?
How many times must I… By the time you arrive… Remember the time when…
If you are as old as I am, you may remember Howdy Doody Time!, or The Byrds’ 1965 hit rendition of Pete Seeger’s song Turn Turn Turn (There is a Season), based on the Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 reading which begins, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”
Jesus of Nazareth had issues around time.
He took his time to pray alone when he needed it. He took his time to get to the tomb of Lazarus—three days after Lazarus died. “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
He told his mother Mary at the wedding feast that his time had not yet come. He almost blew the time of his first miracle of changing water to wine. But what caused him to turn around and change his course was his mother’s compassionate plea for the bride and groom who had run out of wine. Mary’s kind observation moved her to tell the waiters: “Do whatever He tells you.”
As we move “to and fro” in our daily lives, will we take time for such thoughtfulness and compassion?
Will we take time to notice that we are all involved in the activities mentioned in Ecclesiastes?
Today, we take time to break apart old concepts; tomorrow, we take time to build new concepts. Today we take time to embrace new people we encounter; tomorrow, we take time to heal broken relationships.
Will we try, time after time, to offer a helping hand, to offer a kind word to someone who has lost a loved one, to smile, to change our course, to turn around and to be present to each other?
In short, will we pass the test of time?
Some say God is above time and beyond time. I’m not sure what that means because I sense that God is with us in the present time. God is with us always. I believe that God will not measure our goodness by Olympic parameters of hundredths of seconds, but will notice the times we are good to ourselves and to one another and will reward those actions.
(Remember the former SSND custom that when someone says a kind word or does a kind deed, the person experiencing it says, “May God reward you.” The response to that, in turn, is “God bless you!”)
One thing is for sure…we have been given the gift of time. We can use that gift to give honor to the past, to give hope for the future, to give the utmost care and tribute in the present.
Whenever someone asks you, “What time is it?”—how will you answer?
Let us continue together to take time to be thankful, to go deeper in relating with one another in friendship, to be joyful in these times of transition in our lives.
Let us trust God’s timing and say as in Psalm 34: “At all times, I will bless the Lord.”
This essay was adapted from a reflection written for NDMU in 2012.
