Do you live in Chronos or Kairos? Homily for Sunday, December 7, 2025

The readings challenge us to seek out God’s presence in every aspect of our lives, and to hope for the new life to come. But today there seems to be so many more distractions than ever. It is so much easier to find comfort in our phones. To fill our lives with our work. To live in Chronos, when God calls us to live in Kairos. Readings for Today.

Table of Contents

Do you live in Chronos or Kairos?

The gods confound the man who first found out

How to distinguish hours! Confound him, too,

Who in this place set up a sun-dial

To cut and hack my days so wretchedly

into small portions!

These lines from the Roman playwright Plautus document for us the complaints of people about the sundial. It began almost immediately. Fast forward to the first public clock in thirteen seventy and Edison’s invention of the light bulb.

We moved away from our lives being guided by nature, the rotation of the earth around the sun and our day being guided by the son, to being able to seek to control the world. Suddenly we could do more and more, no longer limited by darkness.

By 2007, we were carrying computers in our pockets. And our priorities shifted. Wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge and fear of the Lord, these were replaced by success and profit, accomplishments and wealth. Cramming as much as possible into our day.

And other things changed too. When I was a kid, stores were closed on Sundays. The day was a day only for family, for rest, for Sabbath. And most importantly, for God.

There are two words in Greek for time. The notion of time that governs so much of our lives is called chronos. This is the time kept by watches, calendars and appointment books. This is the time that we count off second by second, hour by hour, day by day.

But there is another word Greek’s have for time called Kairos. This it the time we use to refer to the Kingdom of God, the time of readiness, of fulfillment.

Advent is a time where we stand in-between times. We stand in the time of today where we seek and search to see where God is present and active. And there is the promise that there is a future kingdom that will come in when it is fitting.

But Advent is the time where we are called to enter into Kairos. We are called to recognize that Advent is a chance to “reset.” To put away the day planner of our lives, and to ask God to set our agenda. To focus less on the next thing, and to turn our attention on moments with God.

This is what Saint Paul encourages us to do in the second reading. “May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Just what would our world be like if we all acted out of the harmony that Saint Paul mentions. Imagine what we could be if we all lived out of the values inherent in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. What would happen if we were a good witness to “keeping with Christ Jesus”. Saint Paul continues, “Welcome one another, then, as Christ welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

The activity of God in the life of Saint John the Baptist was concrete evidence of the providence of God. Saint John the Baptist was the fulfillment himself of so much from the Old Testament. He leapt in the womb of Elizabeth his mother, before Mary who was pregnant, just as David danced naked before the Ark of the Covenant.

But there is more. Just as the Israelites witnessed the curse of locusts and entered the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey, Saint John the Baptist had a diet of locusts and wild honey. Just as the Israelites crossed the Jordan to the promised land, John the Baptist preached in the Jordan and baptized Jesus there.

What we know about Saint John the Baptist is that he was a reformer. He felt that the Judaism of his day had lost its way. So, he went out into the desert. Lived simply. And went back to the basics. He encouraged people to examine their lives to determine where God was in their lives.

But more importantly Saint John the Baptist helped us to see how to find God’s purpose and plan. By announcing the coming of Jesus, and what his coming would mean in terms of salvation, he provided confident assurance that God does have a plan for us.

How do we know we are a part of this plan? When we embrace God’s pouring forth upon us his gifts of the Holy Spirit. For these are the very things that Jesus displayed during his life on earth. He told us so when he stood up and did the reading in his hometown.This season of Advent is about the promise God makes to us that we can be saved. That with God’s grace we can change our lives. We can turn away from sin and embrace the salvation God wants to give to us. We can be saved. And that is the message of Advent.

Chronos, Kairos — Photo by Andrey Grushnikov on Pexels.com

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