TIC, TOC, TIC, TOC……. The sound used to be familiar, the sound of the clock ticking. 
No longer so with all our silent gadgets still doing the same 
old task of… measuring time. And with the modern tempo of our busy lives, you will still hear the well-worn expressions: “Time flies”… “I didn’t have the time…” “You should be on time…” “If we have time…”
The segments of our days are often carefully planned: wake up time, departure time, meeting time, and still… we often lack the good periods of meal time, chatting time, and other important moments for our… sanity. Nowadays we are reminded that we should give ‘quality time’ to our loved ones – is there time for that?
This 3rd Sunday of Lent (Year C) has much to say about this aspect of our daily lives: TIME. In the gospel text (Lk.13:1-9) we hear Jesus tell the story of a master checking on his vineyard and telling the man looking after it to cut down a fig tree producing no fruit. The gardener replies: “Give me time…” Such a common request, is it not?
Time seems to be a commodity of which we never have enough. Perhaps it is good to ask: ‘Time for what?…’ Oh, there is always so much to do, things to buy, chores to be done, tasks to finish, people to meet, friends to call, neighbours to help, promises to fulfil, and… and… there is no time!
Ours is said to be a world where stress is always present, and the culprit is time, or more accurately the lack of it! Yet, on Ash Wednesday the apostle Paul was reminding us: (1 Cor.10:1-6,10-12) “NOW is the favourable time…” It may be that we need to learn the wisdom of the NOW, this special skill – yes, rare and precious – to live in the present moment!
In the gospel narratives, Jesus never appears to be… in a hurry. He is never heard to tell the apostles to hasten to do something. He had come to accomplish the salvation of the world – and yet… he had “all the time in the world”, as we say. Perhaps it was that… every moment carried out this salvation… Could it not be the same for all our ‘important things to do’?