The Gift of Time

"Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home." (Lk 1:56)

Time is a precious gift and often our most important asset. Most of us have been trained since childhood to use time well, to organize ourselves, to be on time and to give our time to others whenever possible.  Unfortunately, too many of us have begun to hoard our time and make ourselves emotionally unavailable to people who need us to be present to them, especially in their confusion and anxiety.

Thank God, Mary was not like this.  Today's gospel reminds us that when she visited Elizabeth it was not for a few hours or days, but for "about three months."  Somehow this young woman was able to put her own needs aside to attend to the cares of her older relative who was pregnant for the first time, and in her compassion becomes a model for all of us.  Too often in North America, time is a commodity which we buy and sell, not a gift of God that allows us to share the Good News with our contemporaries.

Many years ago, I was at the airport in Detroit waiting to return to New York when a crowd of people began moving towards me very slowly.  With a small, bent woman at its center, and a dozen television crews filming her every move, only as the crowd drew closer did I realize it was Mother Teresa of Calcutta. How she managed to stop for the weary, many of whom were carrying small children,  astonished me. Surely, she would be late for her plane. Nothing seemed to faze her.  She walked at a steady, slow pace but refused to rush. Her actions lifted my spirit then and amaze me even more today knowing that she was struggling with a kind of spiritual darkness that occasionally made her question God's very existence, but which she did not let interfere with her public life and ministry.

With Christmas only a few days away, Mary and Mother Teresa remind us that we were created for others and that our lives are meant to "magnify the Lord" by the way we stop for those who everyone else passes by.

Today, stop, reflect, and pray quietly for the grace to give your time to others as a gift.