How time seems to fly

When I was a lad, the duration of time between December 1st and Christmas Day bordered on the infinite. The duration of time measured by normal standards (Sun, moon, chronometers, etc) remains the same, but the experience has been altered. What was once near infinite is now trending towards no time at all. In some sense, each of us has our own “inner time” unrelated to the passing of hours, days, and years on clocks and calendars. I had often thought it was related to some latent ratio of the duration and the time lived.  For example, the 25 days until Christmas is a significant percentage of the entire life of a six-year old child; not so much for a septuagenarian. What lasts forever for the six-year old is the blink of an eye to grandfather. While that may be true at some level, there are more technical explanations being offered these days. Continue reading

The Curious Case of Miriam

In today’s first reading we read about the curious incident wherein Miriam and Aaron challenged Moses: “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on the pretext of the marriage he had contracted with a Cushite woman.” (Num 12:1)  The reason for the complaint that Moses has married a Cushite woman is obscure, since there is no evidence for a marriage other than with Zipporah, a Midianite (Ex 2). Continue reading

Church and Mission

This coming Sunday is the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Matthew is known for his use of “fulfillment” in his gospel. Notable is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the “great prophet like Moses” who was to come as Messiah. There is also another theme that arises in this content. Matthew is the one gospel writer who uses the term ekklesia, the word which means “church.”

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