Lenten Lights C
Lent is one of the church’s two extended seasons of preparation and reflection. Advent is the other. Time in the church’s liturgical calendar is not merely chronological time (or chronos) with one hour following another, one day following another. Time on the church calendar, particularly in holy seasons like Lent, is governed by a different and special kind of time (kairos). Whenever forty (days or years) appears in scripture, it signals a season of kairos time. The forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness, the forty days of Lent, are a special kind of time, when past and future break into the present moment.
Kairos time shows up in the photo I took today in my yard. Chasing the evening light and shadows, I remembered last autumn when this tree was aflame with fiery leaves. I also stood in hope and expectation that new leaves will appear soon. Past and future broke into the present offering more than meets the eye alone. Lenten light shines in a fullness of time, and we live not just the moment, but in a time full of ‘more’ … for those with eyes to see.
Ironically the two photos also mark the beginning and end of Daylight Savings Time.
Your thoughts remind me of something I read last night: that we truly live when we’re aware of deathlessness.