THIS is, after all, God’s time for us. It is the place where all that has gone before culminates, and all that is in front of us starts showing its promise.
Through our faith, we also intimately know that it is the time of God’s incarnate Word still with us, the Spirit breathing in and through us. It is a time of hope and to make real our dreams.
Pope Francis, I believe, thinks like this. He has said: “I dream of a missionary option”, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelisation of today’s world, rather than for her self-preservation. (Evangelli Gaudium #27)
But how would we specify our time? There are many paradoxes. As part of our society, we are living the progress and the regression, the abundance and scarcity of our time.
We are surrounded by wealth and masses go hungry; we are trying at all costs to prolong life, and destroying life in many ways; we advance in human dignity and freedom while enormous numbers are victims of modern slavery caused by unjust systems such as human trafficking; we know such medical advancement and are faced with new or old diseases, more resistant to known drugs: we are in an era of much social communication but a lot of biased information.
We are in an interconnected world, yet often we do not notice those near to us; we are in an age of interculturality and, at the same time, an age of ultra-nationalistic ideologies.
We are in an age of great hope and a lot of despair; where we talk of love and practise indifference.
We acknowledge that we are stewards on our planet and yet we act as owners.
We know many beautiful families, yet the values of long-term fidelity and commitment, the basics of relationship in human life, are put into question.
We are at a point of expanding consciousness on our universe, its origin, its way of functioning, and we try to understand what this means for us, for our story, our faith.
We are at an era of continual movement of peoples, bringing with it a mixture of culture and religions, yet we often fear each other for our real knowledge of each other is often superficial.
All these many changes, it seems to me, transfer to our church. In an age of medical advancement, our church community live longer.
Fewer young people identify with the church, so the effect of aging is greater. Our church is becoming more intercultural with the challenges that brings.
Within the church there are different currents of thinking, in ways of praying and in the understanding of authority and obedience. Pope Francis tries to keep this all together and every parish must grapple with the task.