Kairos

"What time is it?"
Five minutes left to brush the honey on the rolls, place the last pecan on the pie, and turn off the lights.

The kitchen clock said 6 1/2 minutes left but everyone knew we operated by chapel time. The little digital clock in the chapel announced the beginning of our Evening Prayer and Eucharistic Adoration. And time to pause.

Early civilizations kept track of months, seasons, and years for the sake of harvesting, hunting, and celebrations. Thousands of years later, humans began to invent ways of dividing the day up into increments for societal and bureaucratic needs. In 1878, Canadian Sanford Fleming divided the world into 24 time zones as we know it today.

Some of our sisters will be traveling up to Springfield early for meetings.
And so, it was time to celebrate Thanksgiving this past Sunday.
It was also November 21st, the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple.

Time to renew our vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience.
In the quiet stillness of an ordinary Sunday.
Unlike the day of our First Profession or Final Profession, with family and friends gathered, the chapel overflowing with flowers, and majestic music rising to the heavens, it is a hushed moment.

Time becomes stationary.
We remember the stirring of our hearts when the Beloved beckoned.
And we vow what the world considers nonsense: chastity, poverty, and obedience.

Why waste your time with what cannot be measured?

Time.
The ancient Greeks had two words for time.
Chronos denoted sequential time, as in chronology.
Kairos speaks of the opportune moment, the indeterminate period where something unimaginable happens.

Chronos can be scheduled with dinners, meetings, and prayers.
Kairos is God's beckoning.
And our RSVP.

Perhaps the most daunting RSVP accepted was by a young teen girl.
Beckoned to be with child without a husband (Luke 1:32).
A child promised to be a king without an army.

The eyes of her heart knew.
Kairos was upon her, not chronos.

She is known as Queen not because royal blood coursed through her veins.
Or that she was chosen by the King of Heaven and Earth.

Because she recognized time.
Time as gift, as unfolding, as nonsense to eternity.
And chose to live it as kairos.

Queen of Insight, pray for us.

ps. Sources about history of time-keeping.
http://www.nist.gov/pml/general/time/world.cfm
http://www.christianodyssey.com/gospel/time.htm