ACCEPTING OUR TIME
(Friday, September 1)
“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.’ Then He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.’” (Lk 4: 16-21)
In the Old Testament, the “acceptable year of the Lord” was the year of Jubilee, which was a kind of reset, when all slaves were set free and the land and people rested, – but it occurred only every fifty years. Now, ever since the Son of God became One of us, in our midst, the “acceptable year of the Lord” or “of the Lord’s favor” is always *today*. It is all our time, with all its changeability or monotony, but which we no longer need to fear or dread. Time is now our friend, insofar as we choose to befriend it. How do we do that? We accept it, nay, we cherish it, walking in faith and hope through it, – because Christ stepped into it, “accepted” it, and looks upon it with His “favor.” With Him in our midst, making Himself accessible to us at any time and any place, in His liberating Spirit, we can always *reset*; we can change our mind or change our focus, taking pause to turn away from the self-inflicted bondage(s) and fears that hold us back from following Him in the unique way He calls each of us, and re-embrace communion with Him.
