From History to Here: Honoring the Sacred Mystery of Time
I am writing this two days after the Feast of the Holy Innocents in the octave of Christmas in the year 2024. These words will be published days later when the octave is over and while I am away on a retreat, starting the spiritual exercises. The words will hang on this page for months– possibly years– meaning that the weaving of words offered here come from history into this time when you gaze upon the page, a time I can’t yet know or name.
Past-Present-Future: time is a mystery, a sacred mystery, deserving of our reverence. As Christians, we are called to reflectively integrate the lessons learned from the past into the current moment and co-create the future with God and community. We are meant to make and remake the sacred moments as we give our “yes” to God’s Big Plan of Love, God’s Providence.
Five years ago, I wrote about the horror of the Feast of the Holy Innocents and the mystery of time for my friend Carl McColman’s blog:
As children of God commissioned to build a reign of peace and justice, we often forget that we are people of kairos time. We are instruments in God’s mysterious time, not linear but layered. Yes, chronos time establishes the elements of our minutes and contributes to the designs of our to-do lists and schedules. Chronos time is felt in the shifting of light and ticking of seconds, minutes, hours, days. But as children of God, we are people of now and not yet, of anticipation tangled with arrival — we are in God’s time, kairos. We are designed to trust in the power of providence. We are invited to awaken to the sacredness of moments and the opportunities offered to us to respond, love, serve: to discern the signs of the times.
In this energy of kairos time, we are people of waiting and longing for the fullness of God’s goodness, for the decline of injustice and the arrival of peace, while being people who know God is intimately near. Emmanuel: God with us. Now, here. In your breath. In my heartbeat. Yesterday, today, tomorrow: the energy of Emmanuel is in the ordinary and the momentous, in the sorrow and the joy of salvation. It’s the paradox of pain and beauty together, the death with the birth.
(from “The Goodness of Gray, the Holy Innocents, and the Kairos (Time) of God” at Carl Mcolman Blog (December 27, 2019) by Julia Walsh)
As 2025 begins, we have a chance to notice how 2024 (and everything else leading up to now) is vibrant with both horror and goodness. We can exert our resolutions into the coming year, yes, but I believe that there’s an even deeper power in pausing to pray with what’s happened, what’s been, and where that could take us. Our hopes and goals are flimsy unless they are rooted in a reverence of reality.
Here’s how we can honor the sacredness of time and collectively co-create the future that God hopes for all.
First, let’s start with where we are now: in this current moment. Let’s allow our bodies and breath to reveal to us the truth of time: all we have is the Holy Now. Let us meditate and notice the sensations and emotions bubbling through our bodies and brains. Let us consider how God with us–Emmaunel– is present to us, tending to us, making and and remaking us. God is here and God is Now. I am referring to The Power of Now that Eckhart Tolle names and what Fr. Richard Rohr calls The Naked Now. To know the path ahead, begin with the Holy Now.
Then, ponder the past. There are lessons to be learned from our experiences. Lessons to be learned and integrated. When we consider our personal and collective experiences it is valuable to notice that we are probably telling ourselves some stories about what happened. It’s OK to tell stories (storytelling is sacred too), yet it’s neccessary to discern the difference between stories, opinions, and facts as we remember what’s happened. What is reality?
One way to contemplate the Truth and discover what’s real versus our own view is to take in the perspectives of others. And this is what we offer here at Messy Jesus Business: many perspectives on the current realities of Church and society. Throughout the past year, the fanstastic writers here at Messy Jesus Business have offered many rich essays that can inform us as we reflect. All of our blog posts are definitely worthy of re-read, yet for this duty to honor the sacred mystery of time, permit me to uplift a few examples.
In Sifting through the Fragments (May 8, 2024) writer Rebecca Bratten Weiss states:
“The past, after all, is part of who we are, which is why we cherish personal anecdotes and family stories, why we pass down tokens and heirlooms. Often, it is why we write: to leave a true record of what happened so that future generations, or future selves, can learn from both our mistakes and our successes. Forgetting the past, the real past, makes us more likely to fall for the seduction of revisionist history.”
And, in Sitting in Circle as a Synodal Church (April 11, 2024) writer Emily Cortina describes the difficulties of restorative justice and community building:
“The Sunday Mass experience at my home parish is unusual. Before walking through the front doors to encounter the smiling faces of our greeters, we are met by a loyal handful of protestors who line the sidewalk and carry posters bearing accusations towards the parish of stealing, lying, and sacrilege regarding the closing and attempted sale of another neighborhood church. It’s an uncomfortable, unsettling encounter that makes my stomach churn.”
Writer Joanna Arellano-Gonzalez connects the social movements of our time to the Christian call to allow our faith to inform our actions in Solidarity is a Way of Making History (August 29, 2024):
“Solidarity is an invitation to act. When we remain passive or silent on issues of extreme injustice, our hearts and spirits remain closed, unable to exercise empathy or compassion. At times, the silence and passivity can leave an unshakeable imprint of guilt and remorse.”
In Book Review: Prasanta Verma Takes Us Beyond Ethnic Loneliness writer Angela Paviglianiti reminds us how healing from the past requires a lot of consciouness about the layers of history:
“For Verma, the path beyond loneliness and toward healing begins with explaining that loneliness accompanies being perennially othered by majority white culture while simultaneously being estranged from one’s culture of origin. This separation and loss is not unique to recent immigrants, but also a result of the enduring impact of colonization, enslavement, continued pressure to assimilate, and devaluation of what is not white.”
The last steps neeeded to honor the sacredness of time and collectively co-create the future that God hopes for includes wondering and action, informed by love and hope.
In Justice and the Freedom to Move writer Sister Eileen McKenzie demonstrates how:
“I listen to families share what factors into their decision to pack up and leave behind their home. They let go of who and what they know to journey into the unknown. In my experience, it is usually a choice for life, often motivated by violence and poverty. Mostly the choice to remain is questionable and it becomes non-negotiable when their children are involved. I sit in awe of such pro-life courage. I think of the bravery needed and faith witnessed in such a pilgrimage. I wonder…how would our communities look if we opened the doors wide to people with so much resilience, endurance, fortitude, and capacity to adapt?”
Each of us, no matter where we are in time, are given a holy opportunity. As we revere the awesome mystery of time and say yes to the goodness possible in the year 2025, let us stay open to the Holy Now, ponder the past, be alert to our storytelling, take in the perspectives of others, wonder, and act with hope and faith.
When we do, we are saying yes to Love.
If you want to go deeper than this, become
the love you desire, and risk saying Yes to love
in the midst of the injustices of this world
and in the face of the troubles that overwhelm
you. This is not the whole point of your life,
but it's a good place to start--again.
(from Meister Eckhart’s Book of Secrets by Mark S. Burrows and Jon M. Sweeney)
