Time

Have you ever thought about time? Time is one of those interesting things to think about, we all know what it is, but how would you explain it without using itself to describe it. Time is the one thing that we can never get more of or get back what we have used. Objectively, time is fixed, but as quantum mechanics states, the passage of time is affected by gravity. This theory is used in a book called “Genesis and the Big Bang” which shows how that can work in the creation of the universe. Time can also be perceived as relative, as the joke goes how long is a minute, well that depends on which side of the bathroom door you are on. A priest friend of mine said “life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer to the end it is, the faster it goes.” We can also see that, a year in the life of a three-year-old, is one-third of their life, while someone who is 50, it is only two-percent. In our perspective, it can be relative as well. We can see that we are now less than one month from Thanksgiving, and only two months to Christmas and that can cause some anxiety with all of the stuff that still needs to be done. To a child who is anxiously awaiting Christmas, it is so far away. One of my favorite questions about time is attributed to St. Augustine after he wrote his work “On Time”. Someone asked him what was God doing before he created time, and his answer was creating hell for those who ask stupid questions.

So, why am I bringing up the concept of time? With the war in Israel, and other many conflicts in the world, I hear again different theories about the end of world and the end of time. Yes, there will be some point in our future that time will end, for our lives on earth, as well as for the entire universe. Time is not infinite, only God is infinite. A number of different times, I have talked about the end of the world and the predictions of it. The key is to not get too worked up about those predictions, the dozens or hundreds of them have never happened yet! Jesus tells us that we will never know the day or the hour that He will come again. He does tell us that no matter when it is, we need to be ready for it. And how do we make sure that we are ready for it? The same way that we always do, love God above everything else and then love our neighbor as ourselves, and when we fail in one of those aspects, we have the sacrament of Reconciliation to bring us back. Take the time to spend with God throughout each and every day, primarily in the Sunday Eucharist, but also every other day in our struggles and blessings.

God bless,
Fr. Ken