In today’s reflection on the daily mass readings, Fr Richard considers the importance of seizing the opportune moments that God provides to serve him, rather than wasting time on things that don’t really matter.
Readings for Friday of Week 29 of Ordinary Time: Romans 7.18-25a; Luke 12.54-59
Whenever the conversation dries up and we are not sure what to say next, we can always turn to discussing the weather. “Isn’t it mild for the time of year?” “What a miserable day!” “Cold out today, don’t you think?” “Looks like it’s going to rain!” These are all things we might say; the weather in Britain is so changeable that there is always something to comment upon. The same, it seems, was true of first century Israel, if Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel are anything to go by. People, he says, were expert at predicting the weather by recognising what was going on in the atmosphere. Jesus contrasts this with people’s inability to “interpret the present time”.
To understand what Jesus means, we need to remember that there were two words for “time” in the original Greek of the New Testament. The word “chronos” was used to refer to the general passage of time. The word “kairos”, however, which is used in this passage, means something more significant. “Kairos” refers to an opportune time, a key moment when God is doing something important in the midst of human history. It is this “kairos” moment that people are failing to recognise and respond to, instead wasting their time talking about the weather.
Sometimes we fall into the same trap as Christians today. We spend our time arguing about internal church matters, or worrying about structures, rather than seeing what God wants us to do to advance his kingdom and seize that “kairos” moment. Like Paul in today’s passage from Romans, we know what we ought to be doing, but somehow fail to actually do it. Paul, however, does not despair at this state of affairs. “Who will deliver me from this body of death?”, he asks, then gives the answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord”. May Jesus lead us from the blindness and sloth of inaction to the joy of serving him at the opportune time.
South Cardiff Ministry Area 