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Friday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
Ecclesiastes 3:1–11
There is a time for everything.
A time to be born,
and a time to die.
A time to plant,
and a time to harvest.
A time to weep,
and a time to laugh.
A time to keep silence,
and a time to speak.
These words from Ecclesiastes are among the most famous words of the Bible.
They speak to everyone.
Believers and non-believers.
Young and old.
People from every culture can understand them,
because they speak about life.
Human life moves through seasons.
Birth and death.
Work and rest.
Joy and sorrow.
Meeting and parting.
War and peace.
Some seasons we choose.
Others come to us without asking permission.
We do not control everything.
We do not understand everything.
Life is beautiful,
but it is also fragile.
Life is a gift,
but it is also full of mystery.
Qohelet, the author of Ecclesiastes,
looks at life honestly.
He sees the rhythm of human existence.
He sees the repetition.
He sees the opposites.
He sees that many things come and go.
But he also says something very important:
God has placed eternity in the human heart.
This means that, even though we live inside time,
our heart longs for something beyond time.
We know birth and death.
But we long for life that does not end.
We know tears.
But we long for joy that cannot be taken away.
We know war.
But we long for peace.
We know injustice.
But we long for a world made right.
This passage is not meant to justify every human action.
It does not tell us to look for a time to hate,
or a time to kill,
or a time to wound.
It teaches us to look honestly at the complexity of life.
There are things we cannot explain.
There are events we cannot control.
There are seasons we can only pass through with patience and faith.
But Christians read these words with hope.
Because time is not an endless circle.
History is moving toward Christ.
One day, the seasons of sorrow will end.
One day, death will be no more.
One day, God will wipe away every tear.
One day, the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem,
will come down from God,
shining with His glory.
So we live in time,
but we wait for eternity.
We pass through seasons,
but we belong to Christ,
the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Content License
© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
(Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial).