Intervals can vary in their size, their span. Time and space intervals seem especially varied in their values, and those values often seem more arbitrary than objective. A rather wise old gentleman once observed that the calendar time intervals of a year (or multiples thereof) tend to pass ever more rapidly as we grow older. In my youth at the time, I paid little attention to his observation. However age has allowed me to recognize the accuracy of that observation. It is not that years grow any shorted as we age. Their temporal constitution of days, weeks and months remains quite exact. Our personal rate of motion merely slows with age. We move more slowly, thus time seems to move more rapidly.
Projects, planned or unplanned, tend to present definite time spans from initiation to completion. Life spans, human or otherwise, tend to be quite specific to individual species, although significant variation for and by individuals within a species can be most fluid. Humans tend to live about 70 years, or about 3 generations as measured in hereditary spans. Some may enter their 80’s, 90’s or even 100’s, but seven decades seems to be the maximum quota of years that most of us can endure.
Temporal counts for vocations can be quite mysterious and perhaps misplaced. Since vocation (e.g. Marriage, Holy Orders, Personal Oblation) originates from God and is a continuing function of His presence, mere human counts seem artificial. Yet we have a certain attraction for temporal counts, if for no other reason but to mark perseverance (or perhaps outright stubbornness) on our part.
The more mysterious an interval, the less essential it seems to be to the entity it purports of measure. If the universe is a billion light years in spatial size (and a light year is 300,000 km/second multiplied by the number of seconds in a year, then multiplied by a billion) the resulting kilometric interval is so large that one’s mind tends to dismiss it. If the age of this same universe is 4.5 billion years, that number also is of precious little meaning especially since time measurements seem to be affected my material densities (e.g. “black holes”) and velocities of entities in motion.
As I mark 25 years as presbyter in Holy Orders my thoughts are of perseverance (or stubbornness) in this Gift which Almighty God has bestowed. A mere quarter of a century, it has been the most RAPID quarter century of my life. Gratitude to God and to all of you who have accompanied me during all or part of this quarter century is the personal stance most apparent at this time. Many of you were physically present on 8 September, 1984 for that ordination. Many, including my beloved Dad and Mom, have gone to eternity. The rest of us will arrive soon enough. I pray that we persevere in navigating this life with, through and in Jesus Christ.
With grateful blessings in Almighty God
Pe. Ed Benya, S.J.