Understanding Time

TIME

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Vol. XVII × No. 1

JANUARY 2005

World Mission Home

Editorial

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by Corrado De Robertis

This month WORLD MISSION ushers the new year binging to you some timely issues like the ‘hidden treasure of our baptismal priesthood’ (see special pages 20-27) calling on everyone to consider and reflect on the shared responsibility that each baptized is endowed with in the Church and in the World by stressing the uniqueness of each person and the valuable role that each person plays in the course of history.

The beginning a new year definitely makes us think of the meaning of time, of history, of the present and the future. While time is defined a ‘nonspatial continuum in which events occur in apparently irreversible succession from the past through the present to the future’ we perceive it uniquely with our unique lives and experiences. Often we address time with some sentences like: time flies - time is money - take your time – I have no time or don’t worry you have all the time you need!

That last one is the one I prefer most but is luxury that an editor of a monthly cannot always afford. One thing for certain is that time is always changing and moving. Time never stands still it is continuous, and not stationary. Time changes our perceptions, and our perceptions of time change continuously. So we also change with time as physically we grow older, and hopefully mentally grow wiser, spiritually deeper, and emotionally more mature. Change is brother of time, while we cannot change the course of time or reverse it we can make a difference about the kind of change we make in us and the world around us. Being conscious of time passing should lead us to make sure that positive change takes place in and around us. In that way we may be sure that we are making the most of our time. Time is after all a gift as it is a gift this New Year that opens before us. Using our time wisely by making true progress, developing constructively and advancing in goodness is the best use we can make of such a gift.

The New Year that begins reminds us to make the most of life, that is a life richer in meaning and purpose as God - the Lord of times - works through each one of us in imaginable ways through history.

Truly wish you a happy new year.