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Ca eli enarrant
onsider, for a moment, the paradox of time, which marks the basis of all of history the life cycle. New life is made possible by and depends on aging and old life. By definition the two cannot stand alongside one another, since their relation depends upon precedence and succession. The young do not catch up to their elders, but remain ever after. I will never be a middle-aged peer of my father; my children, should I be blessed with them, will not have known me in my 30s. All pass time together concurrently but at different stages, according to a common, unrelenting schedule. This, it turns out, is the pattern of both nature and grace. The end of one year yields the dawning of another; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (2 Cor. 5:17). The grammar of our season proposes a rich theological understanding of this passing of time: Advent, that is, coming or happening. The French avnement and avenir neatly illustrate the small semantic distance between arrival and future, bound up with the Advent of their common source. Here is the start of the Church year, marked by Gods own historical arriving: when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman (Gal. 4:4); and marked, simultaneously, by our anticipation of the Lords terrible and triumphal return as foretold in Scripture. In between come patient markings of the outworking of providence, as in St. Lukes early prophecy after the finding in the temple: His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor (Luke 2:51-52). Here, as in all things, our Lord and his mother prove exemplary. e follow behind, in our various ways, by Gods grace. We gratefully place our fragile lives and ministries within a larger pattern of obedience and promised fulfillment. We pray for healing and generosity,