First Sunday of Lent

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022612.cfm

The H-tree behind
Saint Leonard's Church

After John had been arrested, 
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
"This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel."


Just as Saint Luke gave us a rather precise date when the Messiah was born:

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled.This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

so he gives us now the moment when Jesus came to Galilee: "After John had been arrested."  The wise know the time! It appears to those who expect it.
Most people frankly were not prepared and are still not prepared. Many won't even notice when we celebrate Easter a few weeks from now. The opportunity will have passed them by. 


We're speaking here of two kinds of time, chronos and kairos. Chronos is measured by the chronometer you wear on your wrist. (Or used to, anyway.) It is the only kind the Enlightenment understands. It is what astrophysicists speak of when they talk about the space/time continuum. It is what your employer uses to assess your wages. Unlike the three dimensions of height, depth and width, time moves in only one direction, forward. It ticks away hour by hour, day by day, remorselessly at what we can only presume is a steady pace. 


Kairos is time measured by its import rather than its length. How important is Christmas? And Easter? A funeral? A wedding? How important are Lent and Holy Week? How important is the Holy Mass? Does it seem to go on forever or does it seem to touch eternity? Does it drag on and on, or sweep right through you? Have you found yourself caught up in endless time? And of your God who receives glory as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be? 

Several years ago I attended a service in Washington DC that lasted over four hours. Leaving the church and glancing at my watch I realized I had lost two hours, since I had guesstimated the program lasted only two hours. 

When Jesus says "This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand." we must forget about chronological time and enter his time. The clock will keep on ticking -- apparently forever -- but that chronological time means nothing unless we are willing to fill it with meaning. We must drop everything and plumb the depths of this moment.


There is a time and a season for everything under heaven. Jesus tell us what we must do during this particular time of Lent: "Repent and believe in the Gospel!" It may not come again for you or me.