Sermons

  

20th Sunday after Pentecost

Father Hall, October 14, 2012

Redeeming Time

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.”

Before ever the earth and the sun and the stars existed, there was God.  And God, who is all love, wanted to make out of nothing a creature whom he could love and who would love him freely in return.  And so he created Man.  And to make a home for this man, God created the earth with all its seas and mountains, its deserts and glaciers, its heat and cold, and its length and breadth and depth. 

But in order for Man to act freely, and thus love God freely (and remember this is the first and only true purpose of Man), God created an environment where physical and mental actions are caused by an act of the will.  We first perceive something, then we act on our perception.  For example, we walk past a bakery and smell the fresh bread baking.  We react by wanting bread.  And so we act upon this by entering the bakery, buying the bread and eating it.  It is all a question of cause and effect. 

But for cause and effect to exist at all, they must exist in time.  Mankind must have the dimension of “Time” in which to operate.  He needs this “Time” in order to achieve his ultimate goal which is eternal bliss in heaven.

We don’t think about this very much but in fact “Time” is one of the greatest gifts God gave to Mankind when he created him.  Admittedly it was a necessary gift, because without it we could not act freely, but it is a gift nonetheless and we should be grateful to the good Lord for giving it to us.

And like any gift, Time should be treasured.  Like a precious diamond, it should be treated with great care, it should be valued, never abused or wasted.  In fact it is only when we realize this and learn to value our time that we will stop wasting it.

What exactly is it to waste time?  I think we would all agree that wasting time is simply doing things which do not contribute to our goals.  But that presupposes that we know what our goals are, and how to prioritize them.  So to avoid wasting time, the first thing we must do is to decide on what is our highest priority.  For some people, the Ebenezer Scrooges of this world, the most important thing in their life is making money.  And so they will devote their every waking hour to the pursuit of wealth.  They will spend all their time at the office, wheeling and dealing, amassing a fortune, but at what expense?  Their family life eventually suffers, their own personality becomes mercenary, corrupt and devoid of goodness, and they die alone and miserable.  Certainly, nobody on their deathbed ever said they wished they had spent more time at the office.

For many people, family life is the most important thing.  Often this comes as a kind of epiphany that occurs when we face illness, death or long-term separation.  Being with the people we love, helping support them, feeling the warmth of human comfort in return, this I’m sure will appeal to most of us as of much higher value than financial profit.  According to Mother Theresa of Calcutta:  “In the West we have a tendency to be profit-oriented, where everything is measured according to the results and we get caught up in being more and more active to generate results. In the East -- especially in India -- I find that people are more content to just be, to just sit around under a banyan tree for half a day chatting to each other. We Westerners would probably call that wasting time. But there is value to it. Being with someone, listening without a clock and without anticipation of results, teaches us about love. The success of love is in the loving -- it is not in the result of loving.” 

It was Our Lord himself, who told us the same thing:  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”  This is the true key to achieving our ultimate goal in life.  And it is the key to stop us from wasting our time.

Many of the saints unlocked the door of sanctity with this key.  St. Ignatius of Loyola instilled in himself and those of his Jesuit order, that idea that every little act and thought should be “For the Greater Glory of God."  This became the motto of the Jesuits, and you will often see the initial letters of the original Latin, A.M.D.G. -- Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam – at the head of the writings of the Jesuit fathers, on their buildings, even on their tombstones.  Try and follow their example.  Ask yourself constantly:  “Is what I am doing this moment for the greater glory of God?”  Even the most mundane of our tasks can be transformed into a sanctifying labour for God if we teach ourselves to think constantly in these terms.  Whether we are praying our Divine Office, or whether we are doing the dishes after dinner, taking an elderly relative to the doctor’s, or even, yes, even playing a video game or watching a movie—anything can be of supernatural merit if it is done for the greater glory of God. 

But a video game?  TV?  Yes, even that, if it’s a sinless way of relaxing and winding down after a hard day’s work.  Even if it’s nothing more than an innocent method of entertainment, there can be natural value in it.  The naturally good can always be transformed into the supernaturally meritorious if we have the right motivation.  Ad majorem Dei gloriam.

St. Therese of Lisieux took this approach and turned it into her way of life.  She even made it a new kind of spirituality, her “little way”, where she performed every single act, no matter how simple or mundane, out of love for Our Lord.  She described it as not a staircase, but an elevator, to heaven.

When St. Paul speaks in today’s Epistle to the Ephesians about “redeeming time”, he means this transformation of everything we do into something holy.  Let’s put all our efforts into trying to do just this.  Time is not like money.  None of us is richer or poorer than another.  To each of us is given sixty minutes in every hour and 24 hours in every day.   The seconds tick by at the same pace for rich and poor alike.  And don’t think we can save our time, like we save our money.  There is only one thing to do with time and that is to spend it.  Spend it wisely, says St. Paul, for the days are evil.

What exactly does that mean, “the days are evil"?  St. Paul no doubt refers here to the endless distractions of the day.  Duties of life, interruptions for worthless reasons, frivolous amusements, and perhaps even sinful pleasures.  St. Paul is telling us to avoid the sins at all costs, and transform everything else.  Turn what distracts us from holiness into a motivation for holiness.  Beat the devil at his own game.

Finally, we must remember that it is we ourselves who choose how we are to spend our time.  We have been given the same amount of hours in a day and days in a week as St. Paul, as St. Therese, as St. Ignatius, or any of the most holy men and women of God.  They were able to use those hours and days to become great saints.  Can you?  Do you ever say “I don’t have time.”?  You might as well say “I don’t want to.”  Because it is you who choose your priorities, and if you don’t have time to do A, it is only because you have already chosen to devote your time to B.  So choose carefully what are your A’s and your B’s.  I heard a story from a priest last week whose parishioner told him he didn’t have time to go to Mass on Sunday because the local football team had a home game that day.  Your A’s and your B’s.  Be careful.  See them as if from your deathbed.  See them as you would from Purgatory.  Indeed, see them as you would from the depths of Hell.

I often wonder what hell must be like, and I can think of no greater torment than the despair of knowing the hundreds and thousands of opportunities given me by God each day, which I squandered on time wasted.  Please God, let us never be confounded by having to contemplate those opportunities in such despair.  Redeem your time on earth, for the days are evil.

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