PASTORAL THEOLOGY AS VOCATION: A REFLECTION ON OUR MISSION STATEMENT AND CORE COMMITMENTS

Time is running short! We are coming to the end of this luncheon soon. Time is running short. We are coming to the end of this conference and will soon be heading our separate ways. And time is running short for our world. Years ago I saw a New Yorker cartoon. It depicted a man awakened by his clock radio to the message, "Good morning! While you were asleep the world as you knew it ceased to exist!" At the time I was amused by it. Today I am all too aware of the truth it speaks. Time is running short! How often we find ourselves pressed for time. There simply isn't enough time. We hurry here and there trying to squeeze just a little bit more into the time we have. Yet, while time is running short, we have all the time there is. It is not the shortness of time that is the problem. It is our absence from it. The real challenge is to be present and in the time we have. So I want to invite us to be present for this time that we have. It is, after all, the very act of being present that makes all the difference.