Calling Across Time Zones

“A little while, and you will see me no longer; and again a little while, and you will see me.”John 16:16

You work out the difference before you dial. Seven hours. Or six. Or nine. You try to catch them at a decent moment in their day, while it is still a decent moment in yours.

The phone rings longer than usual. Then a voice arrives from the middle of another afternoon, or from late evening, or from a morning light you cannot see.

There is always a small delay. A fraction of a second in which the words travel further than they used to.

Jesus spoke of a kingdom that was near, and yet not fully here. He lived between what had already begun and what was still to come. He also told his friends that they would lose sight of him for a little while, and then see him again. Those who follow him learn to live in more than one time at once: the hour we are standing in, and the people we love who are standing in another.

Calling across time zones makes the distance easy to feel. You hear the familiar voice, and at the same moment you know how far away it is. Love has to stretch across hours that do not match.

You keep the conversation lighter than you might wish, because one of you is tired, or one of you must leave soon for work that is only beginning.

Yet the call itself matters. Reaching across the mismatch of clocks is already a way of staying close.

The Church lives like this every day. Mass is said in one place at dawn and in another place at night. The same Lord is received under different skies. Prayer travels where we cannot. We name people who are not in our hour, and we trust that Christ is not trapped in our clock. The mystery we celebrate is larger than one time zone.

When you hang up, their day continues in a light you are not standing in.

You return to your own hour carrying the sound of their voice, like a small bridge that held, at least for a while.

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