FERIA QUARTA CINERUM
14 MARCH 2018
Ash Wednesday
AB ILLO USQUE AD TEMPUS
UNTIL AN OPPORTUNE TIME, the devil left Him – that time destined by God to be the fullness of time, when creation held its breath as God Himself was betrayed into the hands of men, and all the forces of the Evil One were unleashed upon Him. The evangelist was careful to use kairos instead of chronos, as this time of which he spoke, though it occurred in time and space, is that time for which all time was created.
The Church’s liturgical year leads Her faithful from chronos into kairos, from the time-view of man who is dust and who unto dust will return, to the time-view of the eternal God, Who in the same breath calls into being and into the consummation of perfect communion with Himself. So it is that our forty days with Christ in the wilderness, which we call Lent, must be more for us than the passing of time, even if this time is passed in penance and reparation. It must take us deeper into kairos. We must immerse ourselves in the history of salvation and see ourselves there, emerging, as we once did from the waters of Baptism, to become partakers in no mere history, but in the mystery of salvation – that we, though born in time, were destined for eternity, because we were born of a love which sin and death could not overthrow, and which pierced chronos with kairos so that we live, until today, no longer just in time but in God’s appointed time.
So, fast if you will, give alms until you have nothing. But think not that these things save. Let your fasting remind you to hunger only for the food of eternal life. Let your almsgiving remind you that ultimately you have no need for wealth, for you are princes and heirs to the Kingdom of God. And whatever you do or cease to do during these forty days, let it not be bound to chronos: for we fast for no purpose when we forgo that which is only superfluous to our needs, or is of benefit to our figure; and we help the poor to no purpose if we have only sustained their bodies and not their souls. And all manner of things will amount to nothing if they have not as their source, prayer, and as their summit, communion with Christ.
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as the unwise but as the wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15-16). The wilderness of time to which the Spirit has led us as He did Christ is indeed evil, but we must face the temptations of hedonism, materialism, and egoism head on. And not as the unwise, but as the wise, know that we walk not just in time but in the fullness of time where the only bread we need is the Body of Christ; the only power, His Cross; and the only kingdom, His, where He lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.