Saturday of Easter weekend
I have noticed with myself that there are times when I am so focused on some future event that I completely miss today. That is certainly often true of holidays or other occasions when there is an event to which I am looking forward or when I am grieving a deep loss.
I was thinking of that this morning when I listened again to the podcast of the conversation Krista Tippett had with Father Richard Rohr this week.
Father Rohr reminds the listener that there are two words in Greek for time. “Chronos is chronological time, time as duration, one moment after another, and that’s what most of us think of as time. But there was another word in Greek, kairos. And kairos was deep time. It was when you have those moments where you say, “Oh my god, this is it. I get it,” or, “This is as perfect as it can be,” or, “It doesn’t get any better than this,” or, “This moment is summing up the last five years of my life,” things like that where time comes to a fullness, and the dots connect, when we can learn how to more easily go back to those kinds of moments or to live in that kind of space.”
I understand Kairos or deep time as those times when not only do the dots connect but one experiences oneself as an integral part of the universe. One is, in other words, a tiny, but necessary part of what is connected.
When a loved one or even someone we admire and depend on at some level dies we have a difficult time integrating this new reality. No matter how much one might have prepared oneself for the obvious fact that we are all going to die/to end this life journey, or the fact that nothing is permanent, the event happened and one feels lost or out of sorts. One may not want to accept the reality or feel able to do so. One may not be able to envision a future without this person or this job or …
I have previously talked about the fact that a component of PTSD is that the traumatic event(s) has not been integrated into the mind and life experience of the individual. The person may feel it is disloyal to move on with life and, thus, actively resists integration.
I can well imagine that the mother of Jesus along with the disciples and others on the day after the crucifixion not wanting to accept that Jesus is dead and not being able to imagine a life without him. I can also imagine that the families of those Christians in Egypt who were killed this week or even the families and associates of those allegedly killed by the use of our (the USA) big bomb not knowing how to emotionally accept these deaths. Even though both groups of people might passionately believe that there is an afterlife or that their loved ones and associates died in the service of Allah/God, they are not immediately going to emotionally experience kairos time.
During this three-day period when Christians have chosen to commemorate the death and eventual resurrection of Jesus we come to the day after the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Easter – the resurrection – is yet to occur. No matter what one’s believes, it does not see possible that in fact there will be new life; that there will be a time when one can live in the midst of kairos; when one can again breathe in rhythm with the universe. All the dots are connected. One no longer has to label the events as good or bad. They just are. One just is.
This is the challenge of this life journey. At least it is the challenge for me. In the midst of “boys” posturing with nuclear weapons, in the midst of seemingly rampant addictions to drugs, power, sex, gambling and other people, places and things, in the reality of the massive number of shootings in Chicago, in the midst of an attempt to retreat into nationalism, and in the midst of the knowledge that the false Gods are indeed false we are invited to experience kairos time. We are invited to be present even before all the Easter dinner preparations are finished; before the eggs are dyed or painted, before the house is sparkling, and before we have integrated the events of Good Friday.
As Father Rohr points out we are invited to assume our role as elders – to set aside the frantic search for material or physical success – to be quietly present without knowing or having the proof of East Sunday.
This is the challenge of going forward in this spiritual journey – to be fully and lovingly present as ourselves – as one dot in the universe.
Last night I attended a 12-step speaker meeting with some people I know. The speaker was a mature woman who has been in recovery from her active addiction for many years. She spoke of going into recovery out of desperation without being able to “know” what awaited her. She had only the knowledge of the excruciating pain of her active addiction. She was invited to quit looking outside of herself for contentment while paradoxically placing herself in the arms of a program which made no sense to her. This was her Saturday after Good Friday. Today she is living in the mist of Easter. Easter is not instead of the crucifixion. Easter does not arrive as one end of the duality. It arrives because of the crucifixion. That is the mystery and magic of what Father Rohr calls kairos time or deep time. One leaves behind the simplicity of the duality of one’s youth and accepts the invitation to that which is both X and Y and neither X or Y.
Welcome to Easter weekend Saturday.
Written April 15, 2017
I have noticed with myself that there are times when I am so focused on some future event that I completely miss today. That is certainly often true of holidays or other occasions when there is an event to which I am looking forward or when I am grieving a deep loss.
I was thinking of that this morning when I listened again to the podcast of the conversation Krista Tippett had with Father Richard Rohr this week.
Father Rohr reminds the listener that there are two words in Greek for time. “Chronos is chronological time, time as duration, one moment after another, and that’s what most of us think of as time. But there was another word in Greek, kairos. And kairos was deep time. It was when you have those moments where you say, “Oh my god, this is it. I get it,” or, “This is as perfect as it can be,” or, “It doesn’t get any better than this,” or, “This moment is summing up the last five years of my life,” things like that where time comes to a fullness, and the dots connect, when we can learn how to more easily go back to those kinds of moments or to live in that kind of space.”
I understand Kairos or deep time as those times when not only do the dots connect but one experiences oneself as an integral part of the universe. One is, in other words, a tiny, but necessary part of what is connected.
When a loved one or even someone we admire and depend on at some level dies we have a difficult time integrating this new reality. No matter how much one might have prepared oneself for the obvious fact that we are all going to die/to end this life journey, or the fact that nothing is permanent, the event happened and one feels lost or out of sorts. One may not want to accept the reality or feel able to do so. One may not be able to envision a future without this person or this job or …
I have previously talked about the fact that a component of PTSD is that the traumatic event(s) has not been integrated into the mind and life experience of the individual. The person may feel it is disloyal to move on with life and, thus, actively resists integration.
I can well imagine that the mother of Jesus along with the disciples and others on the day after the crucifixion not wanting to accept that Jesus is dead and not being able to imagine a life without him. I can also imagine that the families of those Christians in Egypt who were killed this week or even the families and associates of those allegedly killed by the use of our (the USA) big bomb not knowing how to emotionally accept these deaths. Even though both groups of people might passionately believe that there is an afterlife or that their loved ones and associates died in the service of Allah/God, they are not immediately going to emotionally experience kairos time.
During this three-day period when Christians have chosen to commemorate the death and eventual resurrection of Jesus we come to the day after the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. Easter – the resurrection – is yet to occur. No matter what one’s believes, it does not see possible that in fact there will be new life; that there will be a time when one can live in the midst of kairos; when one can again breathe in rhythm with the universe. All the dots are connected. One no longer has to label the events as good or bad. They just are. One just is.
This is the challenge of this life journey. At least it is the challenge for me. In the midst of “boys” posturing with nuclear weapons, in the midst of seemingly rampant addictions to drugs, power, sex, gambling and other people, places and things, in the reality of the massive number of shootings in Chicago, in the midst of an attempt to retreat into nationalism, and in the midst of the knowledge that the false Gods are indeed false we are invited to experience kairos time. We are invited to be present even before all the Easter dinner preparations are finished; before the eggs are dyed or painted, before the house is sparkling, and before we have integrated the events of Good Friday.
As Father Rohr points out we are invited to assume our role as elders – to set aside the frantic search for material or physical success – to be quietly present without knowing or having the proof of East Sunday.
This is the challenge of going forward in this spiritual journey – to be fully and lovingly present as ourselves – as one dot in the universe.
Last night I attended a 12-step speaker meeting with some people I know. The speaker was a mature woman who has been in recovery from her active addiction for many years. She spoke of going into recovery out of desperation without being able to “know” what awaited her. She had only the knowledge of the excruciating pain of her active addiction. She was invited to quit looking outside of herself for contentment while paradoxically placing herself in the arms of a program which made no sense to her. This was her Saturday after Good Friday. Today she is living in the mist of Easter. Easter is not instead of the crucifixion. Easter does not arrive as one end of the duality. It arrives because of the crucifixion. That is the mystery and magic of what Father Rohr calls kairos time or deep time. One leaves behind the simplicity of the duality of one’s youth and accepts the invitation to that which is both X and Y and neither X or Y.
Welcome to Easter weekend Saturday.
Written April 15, 2017
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