AN OPPORTUNE TIME | KAIROS GLOBAL | JULY 2026

Author: Joseph Anthraper

Intro: Joseph Anthraper is a regular contributor, whose articles make for profound reading.

There is a time for everything, says Ecclesiastes 3, a season for every activity under the heavens; a time to plant, and a time to uproot; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak (v 1-8). Not many of us would contest the wisdom of these verses, but most of us do indeed grapple with that all-elusive knowledge of ‘the time,’ i.e. discernment – of whether this is the ‘time to seek or the time to lose.’ As in the famous opening lines of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness… - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.’ 

In the world at large and in his daily life both within and without, I would assume that the average Christian believer also wrestles with these questions of decision, yearning to know whether this is the time to gather or the time to scatter! Hey, it could be argued that it was presumptuous of me to attribute this struggle to most Christians – so let's keep it focused – I do struggle and struggle a fair bit at that. And you might have already guessed – before penning an article, (although that some cynics would, and do call it laziness and a waste of time), I do spend an immeasurable amount of time debating (read sleeping) whether this is the time or not.

The Inadvertent Beginning

As with my foray into Jesus Youth, the beginnings at Kairos was purely accidental – well, St John Paul II would claim that there is nothing accidental in human life, as he saw everything as a God-incidence rather than as a coincidence. Indeed, it definitely was a God-incidence, but Jesus Youth style – somebody told somebody about somebody being somebody who might be able to do something for something – and I get a call about helping with Kairos. What better illustration of the method in madness technique, so uniquely chiselled and perfected by us, of course, made in God’s own country. I must add a disclaimer here – this was well over ten years ago. My memory might be a little patchy here (the author fails to consider that his memory is like a sieve, and that he can't, most times, distinguish the days of the week from the names of his children, [not relevant to the discussion!]).

Anyway, cometh the hour, cometh the man – here I was, charging and ready, paper in one hand, pen in another – raring to go! And the powers that be, very congenially asked this budding Hildebrand-to-be to write a movie review! Can you imagine the disproportionate disappointment when I heard it – the bulldog suddenly became a poodle. Granted, I loved movies – but any sane person does – of course, Blaise Pascal didn’t and therein lies the problem. Spiritually enlightened people, like Pascal, don’t like movies (and therefore by virtue of reason, are insane as clearly we proved earlier that all sane people like movies) – so how in the whole world can someone write sanity to insanity. Lost cause, lost hope – this cruel world has mercilessly killed the next GK Chesterton, even before he wrote a single word. Ah, such they say is life!

Yet, under constant nagging from the people around, I spent a few days searching for the most spiritual-yet-not-so-spiritual movie around and found a Polish one – and boy, was I chuffed with myself! Revenge, here I come – to the overlords who nipped a future CS Lewis even before the C began, I unleashed the power of the Polish movie and waited for the inevitable response of rejection. A week, two weeks, a month, a few months – nothing; at least I expected an automated email response, like those from the recruiters, telling the barefaced lie, ‘We receive hundreds of reviews every day and are working hard to respond to you.’ But wonder of wonders, after the pregnant pause of a few months, I received an email containing the edited form of my superlatively wonderful movie review, and was stupefied to discover that the editorial board had made the decision to ‘edit’ and ‘curtail’ my magnum opus! Honestly, I had never even liked the word editorial board, let alone the people who are part of it, but this was unforgivable – in the words of Barack Obama, ‘a red line had been crossed.’ Unlike Obama though, I was not going down without a fight and out from the cellar came the nukes, the tanks and the bombers! ‘Hey Editor – unbeknownst to you and hitherto hidden from the glare of the naked eye, this review integrates the theological, philosophical and anthropological realms of reality to anchor the film’s phenomenological dimensions…’ and so I began. Naturally, they just needed someone to talk sense, you see, the overlords caved in and voila, a film critic was born!

The Journey

The spiritual-but-not-so-much genre didn’t last long. Soon I moved on to mainstream movies, and although some in the Politburo frowned, the author (making his best Madagascar skipper pretence) said as nonchalant as ever, ‘just smile and wave, boys!’ I don’t know how many reviews I have written (and more importantly, I have always wondered who reads them) – some have been more enjoyable than others, and some I should say have been a real bore. Often the quest for the right movie was more onerous than the review itself, time consuming and with little reward. Months and years passed, a greyer, wiser (although people take offence at that, and I respond Ruuude!) me found it difficult to carve out and dedicate the time needed to do justice to this undertaking. So off late, it has been good to just take a break from the monthly deadlines. 

Although I dreamt of becoming the next wonder of Catholic literature, the reality is that I find writing an arduous process. And then there is my natural laziness and procrastination which makes sticking to deadlines an absolute impossibility. Over the years, the editors have been exceptionally kind to me, as I have missed deadlines and targets with regularity. Both Sharrol Jose and Tania have been more than generous. A profound word of thanks also to all the architects of Kairos, without whose passion, dedication and hard work, this would have remained just a dream. Above everything else, I thank the good Lord for the mysterious ways in which ‘his sweet mercy leads me on,’ in spite of my weaknesses and limitations. It has been an absolute pleasure to have been part of this venture, albeit in a very small way. I hope and pray every blessing on Kairos and the people associated with it.

Joseph Anthraper lives near Southampton, UK with his wife Mahima and their five children. He masquerades as a software engineer by day and is mostly confused during the rest of the time. Inspired by his namesake St Joseph, his life ambition is to have God speak to him in his dreams, and so to facilitate that, tries hard at sleeping, in the hope that those dreams are just a sleep away. Loves reading and (unlike St Joseph) monologues to anyone willing to listen.