Friday of Week 25 in Ordinary Time
Ecc 3:1-11
Lk 9:18-22
When I first read Ecclesiastes 3:1-11, there was something familiar; I knew it. I knew it from long before I knew HIM. Turns out it’s actually a famous 1960s folk-rock song called ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ by The Byrds. Almost every single line is taken word-for-word from Ecclesiastes 3:1–8, except for the chorus. It fills me with such awe, joy and wonder to know He was always speaking to me, singing a message — if only I had ears to listen.
I love the song even more now because every sentence is His word to me, a conversation for difficult times; a joyful expression when there’s much to celebrate. Every line in this passage is perfect just as our God is perfect.
We will all have seasons of joy and sorrow, happiness and tears. No one goes through life unscathed — we accumulate wounds, and along the way experience moments that hopefully seem like heaven on earth. Right now, you might be going through retrenchment at work, the end of a relationship or loss of a loved one. We ask why it has to happen to us; to have to endure so much heartache, pain and difficulty.
A few years ago, I visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb museum and Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, which was just 500m away from the hypocentre of the atomic bomb dropping on 9 August, 1945. Walking through the museum, looking at reminders of the destruction laid bare, it was not easy to accept this time of knocking down, death and tears. I read the book, ‘The Bells of Nagasaki’ in preparation for the trip and it helped frame all the events through Christian lens. Despite losing his wife and eventually his own life to the effects of radiation, Dr. Nagai (the book’s author) interpreted the disaster through a spiritual framework centred on love, peace, and reconciliation. In Dr Nagai’s ‘Funeral Address for the Victims of the Atomic Bomb’ (Sotobakuyo no Koto), delivered on November 23, 1945 , he said, “Happy are those who weep; they shall be comforted… The Lord has given; the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Let us be thankful that Nagasaki was chosen for the whole burnt sacrifice! Let us be thankful that through this sacrifice, peace was granted to the world…”
What Dr Nagai was asking for requires a profound level of trust in our lowest season. We may never be able to understand, but our faith calls us to trust and surrender; and know that there will always be a time for birth, healing, laughter, dancing, embracing, loving and peace.
Brothers and sisters, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says it best — “God has permitted man to consider time in its wholeness, but we will never be able to comprehend the work of God from beginning to end.”
(Today’s OXYGEN by Julia Lim)
Prayer: Good and gracious God, we know you hold all the seasons in your hands; grant us wisdom to navigate every season and always seek peace, hope and reconciliation over anger, violence and vengeance. Help us to rest in your perfect timing, understanding that your plan could be hundreds, or thousands of years in unfolding.
Thanksgiving: Jesus, thank you for being there in every season even when I didn’t know you. You never left me to walk along in the most difficult moments, and you lifted me up even higher and surrounded me with angels to celebrate the victories of my life. I want to praise your Holy name forever.
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