Redeeming Time

We cannot redeem time like we used to redeem glass bottles, returning them to the store for a few pennies or nickels. To redeem time, is to use the lifetime allotted to us to create a common good, or perhaps, given the state of the world, an uncommon good. We cannot do it by simply dreaming or wishing that somehow things were different or better

We cannot redeem time by attending only to our own needs, or worse yet, like a modern day Ebenezer Scrooge, by being oblivious to all needs, those of the world and its peoples as well as our own.

We can redeem time and the human condition by using, as a people of faith, our freedom and our power both wisely and well, remembering that we are mortal and that our time on earth is finite and precious.

We can redeem time and our own lives by living deeper, more authentic, more creative, more powerful, more compassionate lives.

We can redeem time and the human condition by working to make real our passionate hopes for a just future. May it be said of us that we knew how to keep Life well, through acts of kindness and mercy and justice.