Pope reflects on the meaning of time

Advent, which opens the new liturgical year, "invites us to reflect upon the dimension of time", Pope Benedict told pilgrims during his Angelus address on Sunday, the First Sunday in Advent.

Speaking from the window of his study overlooking St Peter's Square the Pope said: "Many people in our own day, complain of a lack of time, because the rhythm of daily life has become so frenetic for everyone. Yet even on this subject, the Church has 'good news' to bring. God gives us His time. We always have little time. For the Lord, especially, we do not know how, or sometimes do not want to, find it. And yet God has time for us. ... He gives us His time, because He entered history with His word and His works of salvation, opening it to eternity and making it a history of alliance.

"From this point of view time is, in itself, already a fundamental sign of God's love: a gift which man ... can either value or waste, understand its significance of superficially ignore".

The Pope then went on to identify the three cardinal moments of time which mark the history of salvation: creation, incarnation-redemption, and 'parusia' which includes the final judgement.

"These three moments, however, are not to be understood in mere chronological succession", he said. "Creation is, indeed, the origin of everything but it is also continuous and operates over the entire span of cosmic development, until the end of time. Incarnation-redemption too, although it took place at a specific historical moment, the period of Jesus' time on earth, nonetheless extends its range of action to all time that preceded and followed. And in their turn the second coming and final judgement, decisively anticipated in the Cross of Christ, exercise their influence on the behaviour of mankind in all ages".

"The Lord comes continually into our lives. ... On this first Sunday we are again powerfully presented with Jesus' call to "remain vigilant" because "at a time that only God knows each will be called to account for his or her life. This means", he concluded, "detachment from worldly things, sincere penitence for one's errors, effective charity towards others and, above all, humble and trusting abandonment in the hands of God, our tender and merciful Father".

Source: VIS