Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 21, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/012124.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, each of our readings speaks to us of time.

The concept of time has always fascinated me. I remember being aware of the fascination as a very little girl walking beside my mother and aunt along the Wildwood boardwalk arcade.

Some of you who live locally may remember the spot, an extension of the seaside boardwalk at Oak Avenue. Its main attractions were bumper cars and a booth where little piglets ran along a path, picking a random door that, for a nickel, might earn you a stuffed animal.

On that particular summer day, about 1950, there was a new booth – Miranda, the Fortune Teller. Miranda read Tarot cards, an exercise Mom and Aunt Peg were unfamiliar with. Nevertheless, they decided to try it, and each went separately into the tiny veiled room to learn her future as I stood completely entranced by the piglet race.

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Later, as the three of us sauntered side-by-side in the salted air, I heard Aunt Peg ask Mom, “Did she tell you how old you will be when you die?”. My ears leaped to attention! What? My mom could die???? And that lady knew when????

I heard my thirty-three year old mother answer, “She said when I am seventy-two.”

“Oh, God! How soon is that?”, I wondered. My little five-year-old mind tried to calculate the expanse of time but failed. However, the prediction planted itself inextricably in my heart.

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Decades later, when Mom did pass away (just before her 72nd year) the memory returned to me. And the nearly forty years in between seemed compressed into an incomprehensible moment that had passed as quickly as that sweet seaside breeze.

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How many times do we ask the Universe this unanswerable question, “Where did the time go?” It is a question that has a thousand answers and no answer, much like the question, “Who is God?”.

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In our readings today, Jonah, Paul, and John the Baptist want us to think about time in relationship to God.

• For Jonah, time is captured in the forty days of grace to seek repentance.
• For Paul, time – in the worldly sense – is running out, requiring us to turn our attention to eternity.
• For Jesus, it is the time of fulfillment – a fulfillment that can be achieved by living the Gospel.

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Praying with today’s readings, we might ask ourselves, “What time is it for me?

• Are there places in my life requiring “repentance“, a turning of my heart away from selfishness and toward the mercy of God?
• Do I need to widen my perspective with a deeper awareness of eternal rather than worldly values?
• Am I making a choice every day to live a life patterned on the Gospel?

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Poetry: Endless Time – Rabindranath Tagore

Time is endless in thy hands, my lord.
There is none to count thy minutes.

Days and nights pass and ages bloom and fade like flowers.
Thou knowest how to wait.

Thy centuries follow each other perfecting a small wild flower.

We have no time to lose,
and having no time we must scramble for a chance.
We are too poor to be late.

And thus it is that time goes by
while I give it to every querulous person who claims it,
and thine altar is empty of all offerings to the last.

At the end of the day I hasten in fear lest thy gate be shut;
but I find that yet, with you, there is always time.

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Music: What’s It All About, Alfie? – written by Burt Bacharach, sung by Dionne Warwick this modern song seems to deal with the timeless questions.

What’s it all about Alfie
Is it just for the moment we live

What’s it all about
When you sort it out, Alfie
Are we meant to take more than we give
Or are we meant to be kind?

And if, if only fools are kind, Alfie
Then I guess it is wise to be cruel
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie
What will you lend on an old golden rule?

As sure as I believe there’s a heaven above
Alfie, I know there’s something much more
Something even non-believers can believe in

I believe in love, Alfie
Without true love we just exist, Alfie
Until you find the love you’ve missed
You’re nothing, Alfie

When you walk let your heart lead the way
And you’ll find love any day Alfie, Alfie