Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 453

 

I have considered the task that God has appointed
for the sons of men to be busied about.
He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts,
without man’s ever discovering,
from beginning to end, the work which God has done.

 

I reflected yesterday, rather pessimistically, upon “perplexity” as the human response to mystery. When Herod heard of Jesus’s miracles and signs he was perplexed. I suggested that Qoheleth’s response to the apparent tedium of human life, with its endless cycles of disappointment and frustration, is perplexity.

Finally, I called to mind Jesus’s admonition, “Be alert!” We cannot throw up our hands and say, “It’s too much for me!” Our response will have to be more appropriate than, “Let someone else deal with it.”

Today, we hear Qoheleth’s timeless reflection on time, which begins with, “There is an appointed time for everything.” We hear of birth and death, planting and uprooting, war and peace, and so forth. God knows the time and Wisdom reveals the time to the wise.

Some Christians imagine a vast gulf between religious matters and human affairs. “God’s ways are not our ways.” they say. The Bible’s wisdom literature appreciates the gulf but understands that, for some people, it is not wide. A wise baker knows how much time it takes to knead a loaf of dough, and how long to bake the bread. A brewer adjusts to the change of seasons. A veteran laborer knows when the body is too tired and, to avoid accidents, should knock off for the day.

That kind of wisdom is not very different from the knowledge of “spiritual” things like speaking and silence, love and hate, war and peace. In fact, a master carpenter or plumber will probably be less eager for impetuous action than novices; and also, more ready to strike when the iron is hot.

Christians might recognize Qoheleth’s sense of timing as an alertness to the Holy Spirit. We ask God to show us what to do and when to do it. We may have an intuition of what should be done but no eagerness to do it. “The flesh is willing but the spirit is weak.” We may experience some shame and discouragement as we seem so reluctant to speak or act. But that may be due to our own ego, which is too eager to take charge and set things right.

And then one day something happens and we suddenly say or do what has been on our mind for so long. And it proves to be just the right moment. The word that would have provoked anger yesterday is received quietly, even gratefully, today.

Did I do that? No, the Holy Spirit moved me.

Many Christians recite daily the Prayer of Saint Francis as we ask God to use us as instruments of peace. Does the hammer, the kitchen blender, or the computer know when to act? They’re only tools; the skilled worker knows when and how to use which instrument for what purpose.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.