Using Time Wisely

I want to begin today by asking you to imagine that you get a call from a lawyer telling you that you are the main beneficiary of your Great Uncle Frank’s will. Now, everyone had said that Frank was more than a bit eccentric and rather avoided him, but you always went out of your way to visit him, joke with him, and so forth. Well, it turns out that Great Uncle Frank was rich. He left you ta great deal of money, but in his typical fashion, he had certain rules. Everyday for a year, you would receive $86,400. The money would be administered by the lawyers. You had to spend the $86,400 every day. You couldn’t withdraw it to save it. And you had to show receipts for how you spent the money. At the end of each day, whatever you did not spend would be removed from your account. The next day you would start with a fresh $86,400.

I am sure that you and I would find some really creative things to do with the money.

Now, let’s return to reality. Every day we are given 86,400 seconds to use wisely. Every night, God writes off as lost whatever portion of this time we have not used well or have wasted. In the bank of time, there are no balances and no overdrafts. Each day a new account is opened for us. Each night, what remains is written off, lost, gone forever.

Everyday’s 86,400 seconds have to be invested in commodities that will hold their value from day to day, quarter to quarter, year to year and beyond. These commodities are lasting values like justice, compassion, forgiveness, and love.

The Gospel this Sunday presents a number of practical principles of preparation. As always the Lord has a way of teaching us in a very memorable way. Let’s look at four principles taught in the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins. In the end we will find that the Lord turns the tables on us.

Clergy E-Notes

“…if the family is the sanctuary of life, the place where life is conceived and cared for, it is a horrendous contradiction when it becomes a place where life is rejected and destroyed. So great is the value of a human life, and so inalienable the right to life of an innocent child growing in the mother’s womb, that no alleged right to one’s own body can justify a decision to terminate that life, which is an end in itself and which can never be considered the “property” of another human being.”

— Pope Francis

Be Ready for Jesus’ Return

Jesus’ point is that unlike these five foolish girls, we should think ahead and always be ready for his return because we don’t know when it will be. By the 80s A.D. when Matthew wrote his Gospel — 50 years after Jesus’ death — it was already clear that the second coming would not be as soon as they had thought, and with this delay came the danger that people would start to let things slide and so not be ready when at last he came.

Well, here we are now 20 centuries after Jesus’ death and we’re still waiting for the second coming. By Matthew’s time believers knew that Jesus’ return was being delayed, but no one dreamed it would have taken this long. On the other hand, look again. Jesus comes to us all the time. The final, ultimate, end-of-the-world coming in glory for judgment is yet to occur — Thank God!

The Fire of Christ

Bottom line: Like the virgins in todays Gospel, we will face judgment – whether or not we have oil – the Fire of Christ burning in our souls.

As we pray for departed loved ones, we reflect on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. Perhaps you saw the news that one of our parishioners, Cathy Lenac, saw a powerful case of judgment. Forty-eight years ago she happened on a young girl who had been violated and left to die. She and her friend rushed Jodi to the hospital. Although the doctors tried to save her, it was too late. They never caught the perpetrator, but a year ago detectives used a DNA sample to trace the man down. The man will finally confront his crime and receive justice.

Do you Take the Lord as your God? I Do

Jewish weddings at the time of Jesus were, of course, quite different from weddings here now. Usually they were arranged weddings, and the parents, especially the bridegroom’s parents, played a decisive role in whom their son would marry. A year before the wedding, the couple entered betrothal which is a bit like engagement but more definitive. The couple did not live together until married but betrothal was legally binding. A year after betrothal the couple got married. The bridegroom went to the bride’s house to bring her to his parent’s house where the dinner took place. This usually took place in the evening, and often late. The bridesmaids waited at the groom’s house for the arrival of the bride and bridegroom, and once they arrived the festivities began.

Postponement

Wisdom is unfading in splendor. She is found if she is sought. We must watch for her at dawn. “Whoever for her sake keeps vigils shall quickly he free from care.” Wisdom makes her rounds, gracious and solicitous.

What is Wisdom that we might learn from her? We all look for sound judgment and keen insight. We seek depth of mind for an anchor. We await days when, free of illusion and pretense, we will see things as they really are and discern the gifts worth cherishing.

Keeping Our Lamps Lit

As the days get shorter and shorter and nighttime gets longer and longer, and the rain gets colder and colder, the Church readings also become darker and more serious. As the Church year comes to a close, the scriptures will challenge us to focus on “the end of the world” and the “final judgment”. And, with everything that we have had to deal with the year, from contested elections to murder hornets, perhaps this focus on the apocalypse isn’t altogether wrong. In the next few weeks however, we will hear about disciples who are vigilant and prepared for the end times when we must stand before the throne of God and we will hear about disciples who are not. The invitation to all of us is to keep watch for we will not know the day or the hour when our Lord is going to call us.