How much time do we spend resisting time itself? We try to escape the aging that comes naturally with the passage of time, buying products and clothes that we hope will make us look younger. We cram more and more into less time, and grasp at any time-saving device that might add some of that precious time back into the pot to be used for another purpose. We build faster modes of transportation to take us faster to the places we want to go, so we'll have more time to do what we want when we get there. We grab pre-packaged foods off the grocery shelves to save us time in cooking. Yet, what does any of that really add to our lives? In fact, much of it can harm us in the long run.
I remember being told over and over again when I was a teenager about all the time I would have on my hands for leisure activities in the near future because of all the time-saving devices. Now I laugh. None of that time has materialized. We just keep doing more and more because we have more time. People are working longer hours than ever, sometimes just to make ends meet. We are expected to accomplish more and more at paid work and even in volunteer work. Where is this all taking us?
Sacred time, liturgical time, offers us a very different pace. It is about being rather than doing, loving rather than accomplishing, ebb and flow rather than constant full steam ahead, work and rest and play rather than work alone. In sacred time, this moment now is the moment. We aren't rushing headlong toward some distant future. We aren't looking backward, focussed on what might have been. We are here, now, in the present. For that is what time really is - the now! In this moment, we are loved by God. In this moment, we can smile at a friend or hug a family member. In this moment, we can savour the scent of a flower, the delight in the flight of an eagle, or enjoy the laughter of a toddler. There is nothing we have to do, but be here, now!
Sacred time also teaches us that the landscape of life is not always smooth and easy. We journey through the anticipation of Advent to the mystery of Christmas and glory of Epiphany, then on through the reflections of Lent, before celebrating the joy of Easter and the wonder of Pentecost and then settling into Ordinary Time, and in the midst of that remembering our place in Creation. As we make that journey, we see reflected exhilaration as well as devastation, joy alongside sorrow, hope tempering despair, life triumphing over death. Just as Jesus' life included both wilderness and mountain tops, birth and death, love and suffering, so the landscapes of our lives include a whole range of emotions and experiences. Sacred time teaches us to see the falsehood in advertising that promises we can be happy all the time, successful all the time and young forever.
What if we truly let sacred time shape our lives? What if we learned from the journey we make from Advent through to Reign of Christ Sunday each year? Then we would stop the mad rush. We would be content with less. We would rest more and play more. We would understand that the sad and difficult times of life are all part of the journey, a journey that God makes with us. We would find our delight in this moment, now! It's the only moment we really have and it is sacred.
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