A Time to Mourn, And A Time to Dance
Piety
There is an appointed time for everything,
and a time for every affair under the heavens.
A time to give birth, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to tear down, and a time to build.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them;
a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.
A time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to be silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate;
a time of war, and a time of peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Then he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter said in reply, "The Christ of God." He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. He said, "The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised." Luke 9:20-22
Study
The Byrds introduced my grey-bearded “ge-ge-gen-er-ay-shun” to this passage from Ecclesiastes with the song “Turn, Turn, Turn.” Although not in a spiritual setting, I learned early on that there is an appointed time for everything -- even things we do not want to witness. Today’s first reading was also a passage read at my father-in-law’s funeral – a time to mourn – which came just three months after the birth of our first daughter – a time to dance. Life teaches us these same lessons and has throughout history.
Knowing what the present moment holds for us is a gift. Being strong enough to accept what comes up is a gift. But that does not mean we willingly accept the bad – just like Peter refused to believe or understand Christ’s three predictions of his execution (time to lose) until after the Resurrection (time to heal).
According to Fr. Matt Fish (you can follow him on Twitter @frmattfish), "Ecclesiastes teaches us the limit of what we can see on our own. In all of time's turnings, has man ever discovered what God has appointed? No, it must be revealed. Even Israel's hope in the Messiah must be shown the unthinkable: the cross. After all that time of waiting, we finally had a savior but many did not recognize Him until it was too late."
Action
May our actions today and always be guided by the letter and the spirit of this modern Ecclesiastes prayer.
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent
enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of
saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the Church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an
opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master
builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
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This prayer was first presented by Cardinal Dearden in 1979 and quoted by Pope Francis in 2015. This reflection is an excerpt from a homily written for Cardinal Dearden by then-Fr. Ken Untener on the occasion of the Mass for Deceased Priests, October 25, 1979. Pope Francis quoted Cardinal Dearden in his remarks to the Roman Curia on December 21, 2015. Fr. Untener was named bishop of Saginaw, Michigan, in 1980.
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