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SCRIPTURE
READINGS
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Acts |
10:34-
37-43 |
| Psalm |
117 |
| Colossians |
3:1-4 |
| John |
20:1-9 |
The
great event of Easter means that we can reflect
on how badly wrong life went for the disciples of
Jesus. In whichever gospel we read, we are confronted
time and again with the failure of these, his chosen
friends, to actually listen to what Jesus is saying
to them about how he will suffer and die. In the
words of the psalmist, “they have ears but they
cannot hear; eyes but they cannot see”. And who
can blame them? How could the people who loved him
the most bear the burden of knowledge that he was
preparing himself for such an awful fate. Their
implicit and, eventually, explicit denial of him,
when the crunch comes, is all too human as we read
of them fleeing in fear of their lives.
However,
it is these very same men who end up laying their
lives down some years later once they had been given
the knowledge and the strength from heaven to follow
in their master's footsteps, as he said they would.
Between fear and fortitude lies an encounter with
the the Risen Christ and the grace of the Advocate.
We
are used to thinking of our lives where we are trying
to be disciples of Jesus as having a beginning and
an end and we become familiar with that idea, that
of linear time. But there is another and rather
stranger idea of time which requires a change of
thinking. Because, you see, the coming of Christ
is a new start, indeed the beginning of a new time.
We no longer live in relation to the simple passing
of minutes, hours and years but we stand in relation
to the time of communion of Christ's offering of
himself. And to the extent that we offer our lives
to God by our own self-sacrifice, especially
at Mass, so we are truly united with Jesus in his
suffering and death. It is as if we are inserted
into an outer circle with Christ in the centre and
deepest point and our lives are about turning towards
him and being led deeper and deeper into an encounter
with him who is at the centre of our life.
This
dimension of time is one which takes us a while
to get our minds around but which offers us a sacramental
understanding of our lives since it makes explicit
that our most profound relation is to God and the
following of Christ rather than going through the
motions of living according to the simple passage
of time. If you like, we move from a natural understanding
of time to a spiritual one, that is, the deepest
dimension of time itself, from chronos
to kairos.
Time
is given to us by God and it has purpose and meaning
only insofar as we regard it in its sacramental
dimension. St Augustine of Hippo reminds us that
the coming of Christ is the Sacrament of the Incarnation
and because of that, everything, including time
and space itself, is changed forever. The Word who
became flesh changes even time itself. We are reminded:
Stat crux dum volvitus orbis : “The Cross
stands still while the world is turning”, the motto
of the contemplative Carthusian Order.
Let
us then re-orientate our minds and hearts towards
looking at and following Christ, the centre of the
universe which is his body, and let us give him
our time each day and allow ourselves to become
a sacrament of his love to ourselves and to a world
so much in need of it.
Fr
James Campbell SJ
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