Breaking the Tyrannies of Time

Time as a sequence of events has us all in its grasp it seems. Ask people how they are--even in retirement--and their common response is often "busy." Time is too often marked sequentially by events and meaning tied to the number of them in which one is involved.

"Unfilled, time is a threat," Bruce Chilton writes in Redeeming Time: the Wisdom of Ancient Jewish and Christian Festal Calendars (Hendrickson Publishers, 2002), "and under that threat people commonly speak of being depressed." Time thus becomes something to be filled, scheduled, marked by daily calendered events that measure our worth as persons.

Chilton argues that in biblical narrative and the histories of Judaism and Christianity this dominance of time as interval over time as rhythm has been broken. Dark sequential events that often dominate the landscape of our lives are not equal in power to the rhythmic patterns of light that shine through biblical revelation and subsequent Jewish and Christian faith and worship.

In times of terror like 9/11 and the seeming impasses in Iraq and Afghanistan, people of faith are given a rhythm of action that allows them to respond in ways that are not normally seen or even imagined. "The enduring Torah, the timeless Christ--along with their myriad reflections in philosophy and art and belief, and their counterparts in other global religions--have on many occasions shattered the illusions of this world and [its] pretense to dominion over time."

He or she is wise who looks to and for such rhythms in life. For in, with, and under the struggles that mark our lives--the chronological events in which we all too often seek meaning and purpose--are deeper, long-range patterns of divine/human engagement that are far more important and fulfilling.