9th Sunday after Pentecost 2.8.09 Time management
We sometimes wonder what we would do if we had our time again. If I went back to when I was ten or twenty or thirty... what would I do differently than I have done?
At first we probably think we would not repeat any of the sins or mistakes we made then. But on further reflection we might just make different mistakes.
If we cannot go back in time we can go back in another sense. Go back to the basic union with God which should govern all our lives: simply obey Him. Trust in His providence and do whatever He says.
So we can renew ourselves at any time, regardless of age, by returning to this simple starting point.
We can grasp the present moment. We can make this moment an encounter with God, by calling upon Him in prayer, in sorrow for sin, in asking for guidance and grace to steer us forwards.
We want to make this encounter as deep and as powerful as it can possibly be. God, for His part, never changes. He is present to us; but we can vary in our presence to Him from total to zero.
If we do reflect on our past lives we could all see a lot of things that needed to be done differently. It is a painful reminder of how easy it is to take a wrong turning. It is so easy to drift through life without taking full responsibility for our actions, especially in relation to God and His will.
We can learn from our own mistakes and those of others. In both epistle and Gospel today we hear of the Jews (in different generations) missing all sorts of opportunities to get back on the right path.
Too many sins, and too-long delayed repentance, will eventually bring some kind of payback, some kind of punishment.
But why wait around for that to happen? These things are told to us, as St Paul says, so that we will act differently. We will grasp the present moment, the acceptable time of salvation, and find a new direction.
God’s mercy can never be exhausted. We come back and back to the fount of life, drawing as much as we can each time.
We can be renewed each time we do this; so we are able to go back and start again after all. We start again living the life of grace, discovering more and more of the wonders of God.
Each day is a gift from God to be gratefully received by us and returned to Him.
In the short term all of us can say: This very day I give over to His purposes. To glorify Him, to love neighbour. I renew here and now my resolution to serve God with my whole being, every moment of the day and every day of my life.
In the longer term, we can use the time we have to develop our talents, and bring return and increase.
If you are young enough to have most of your life ahead of you, then set your course under His guidance, resolving to be faithful till the end.
We could certainly weep over Adelaide (or equivalent places) when we consider the question of taking heed of God’s will. The time to repent is now, but who knows it? A few, certainly, but still there are so many who are as oblivious to God’s importance as those in biblical times.
We pray without ceasing and offer our sufferings and penances that all can see their way to a new beginning.
For ourselves we go further and deeper. Time is a preparation for eternity. The decisions we make here have a way of being fixed forever. There are certain things we can do only here; later may be too late.
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