I was listening to a lecture the other day in which the professor, Dr. Regis Martin, explored the mystery of this thing we call "time." It was an absolutely fascinating 45 minutes or so, and I just thought I'd share some of the reflections he shared along with a few of my takeaways.
Time can be seemingly our biggest enemy, can't it? I mean most of our modern technology seems to have been created for the primary purpose of getting us some time back. But does it work? Now that we have smartphones, tablets, digital calendars synced everywhere we go, and GPS on every device we own, do we really have MORE time? I know I don't. It's funny, the more feverishly I try to save time, the faster it seems to slip away.
But I think the reason why this is true is right in front of us. It's because time IS what it is. It isn't something we can fashion into something else or control in some way. It's a creature. God made time, and God doesn't make junk. So time IS GOOD. Wow... I can't believe I just typed that because usually I treat time like it's my ultimate arch-nemesis! It is through time, though, that we learn to live, to bear suffering, and to love.
God himself plunged wholeheartedly into time itself through the incarnation. Christ swims through the river of time from the moment of his conception through his crucifixion, descent into the dead, and his ultimate ascension to the right hand of the Father. He has, in a sense, perfected time itself by touching each corner of it with his blessed presence.
What does that mean for you and me? Maybe we shouldn't be in such a rush to skip a step all of the time. Maybe we should slow down a bit, "stop and smell the roses" and try harder to focus on the moment at hand. Perhaps we'll start to catch a more frequent glimpse of Christ's face in the people and circumstances around us, no matter who or what they are. Maybe then we will learn to live fully the life we have been freely given through no merit of our own in thanksgiving and with hope.
Much is often made about poll results showing a sometimes staggering percentage of Catholics who disagree with the Church's teaching on human sexuality. Frequently, we are told that because significant numbers of Catholics strongly disagree with the Church's stance on issues like contraception, same-sex marriage, and abortion, the solution can only be for the Church to "tone it down a bit" if not completely change its position and "get with the times."
The more I think and pray about this phenomenon and the more I study it intently, the more I have to scratch my head. At the end of the day, you cannot possibly understand the Catholic Church without understanding that we firmly believe Christ established the Church to proclaim the KINGDOM of God. Christ is the King of Kings. The Church is not a democracy. Now you can certainly make up your mind to reject all of that if you so choose, but what you cannot reasonably do is try to force the Church to completely change its 2,000 year old, well-developed and established understanding of the nature of the mission it received from Christ himself.
"Divine Revelation" is just that - it has been revealed to us. We have absolutely no authority whatsoever to change reality. This is at the core of everything we believe. Confusions happen, difficulties arise to be sure. But to think that the Catholic Church should (or even CAN for that matter) change one iota of the content of the faith left to it by Jesus Christ because members of that Church don't like this teaching or that is just plain absurd. If the God who created everything tells me to my face that a tree is a tree or that a sexual sin is a sin and I sincerely disagree, that doesn't change reality. He's right and I'm wrong!
Now even if we agree that these teachings are difficult and hard to follow, we also should be reasonable enough to admit that the Lord has also given us unbounded mercy through the Church's ministry. There are no sins that Christ will not instantly wipe away if we are truly repentant and turn to him. The problem is that most of us are not humble enough to do so and we never stop looking for ways to justify our sins. Maybe this Lent we'll take a minute and try to give Christ a little more room in our crowded hearts, minds, and wills.
Father Robert Barron has an absolutely fantastic take on some of this in the video below wherein he uses a very strong analogy. Check it out!
http://wordonfire.org/WOF-TV/Commentaries-New/Extreme-Demands,-Extreme-Mercy--A-Commentary-by-Fr.aspx
