St. Pius of Pietrelcina
Ecl 3: 1-11
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.
What gain have the workers from their toil? I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
God’s Love is Constant
Hearing this reading as a child often left me feeling uneasy. I found consolation in the cadence of the text and the duality of the imagery, but I couldn’t understand why or when there should ever be a time for killing, hatred, or war. The easier message was that nothing is permanent. Seasons change. Good times come and go. There was a sense of solidarity, as if the good or bad times were visited upon us as a collective – a family, a community, or even a nation all experiencing a challenge together. Reading this as an adult, however, I recognize that each day brings a different experience to every individual. Each day is someone’s best and someone else’s worst. Babies are born. Loved ones die. The sun rises and sets. God has indeed “put a sense of past and future” in our minds, and only God’s love is constant.
—Karen Wuertz is the Boys Division Head at Regis Jesuit High School.
Prayer
Loving God, as I meet others along my path today, may I bring laughter to those who weep, healing to those in pain, and peace to those in conflict. Let my heart be grateful for all the ways you are working in me and through me. Amen.
—Karen Wuertz