“Turn, Turn, Turn” to know God’s time

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Lord My Chef Daily Recipe for Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Twenty-Fifth Week in Ordinary Time, Year II, 25 September 2026
Ecclesiastes 3:1-11     ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'> + ><]]]]'>     Luke 9:18-22

Once again,
O Lord,
your words right away
reminded me of another song
from the 1960's but this time
taken almost verbatim 
from our first reading:

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to build up, a time to break down
A time to dance, a time to mourn
A time to cast away stones
A time to gather stones together

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time of love, a time of hate
A time of war, a time of peace
A time you may embrace
A time to refrain from embracing

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

A time to gain, a time to lose
A time to rend, a time to sew
A time for love, a time for hate
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late!

I really wonder, 
Lord, if you have "made
everything appropriate to its time,
and has put the timeless into 
their hearts,
without men's ever discovering,
from beginning to end,
the work which God has done"
(Ecclesiastes 3:11),
then what time is it now 
for me?

A time to weep or to laugh?
A time to mourn or to dance?
A time to scatter or to gather?
A time to be silent or to speak?
A time to love or to hate?

Despite our ingenuity
and intelligence,
we still could not figure out
what time it is, 
Lord, 
because we can never
know you God 
unless we let go
of ourselves,
unless we return to you.

And that is why
Pete Seeger and the Byrds
added those chorus lines
before each stanza
from today's first reading:

To everything – turn, turn, turn
There is a season – turn, turn, turn
And a time to every purpose under heaven

Let me turn,
turn, turn to you
always to experience
your time, dear Lord;
let me turn,
turn, turn to you
so I may see you like
Peter as you are 
in today's gospel -
the Christ of God
(Luke 9:20),
the One who suffered
and died but rose again
for our salvation!

In your Passion and Resurrection
Jesus, 
you have shown us 
time is a dimension
for us to determine and measure 
the passing of moments, 
a reference point
to go back in the past,
to plan in the future,
to experience the present
that often escapes us;
may we learn from Richard Bach's
Jonathan Livingston Seagull the parting
words of the wise Chen after teaching
him how to fly higher than most seagulls:
"Friendships should depend on nothing
like time and space; remove time,
we have now, remove space, we have here;
don't you think between
now and here we could meet
once or twice?"

Teach us, 
Lord Jesus
to return to you,
to turn away from sins
and evil to experience fullness
of time in your coming
in every here and now.
Amen.