REDEEMING THE TIME

 A SERMON FOR THE 20TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Let me start today by asking you a riddle.  What comes and goes in the space of a split second, and yet continues to be there even after it is gone?  The answer is time.  To be precise, the present time.

Time’s a strange thing.  It was created by God in the very first chapter of the Bible.  There could not have been any chapters in the Bible before this, because there was no time in which anything could “happen.”  God created time in his own image and likeness, the likeness of a trinity.  Time is the name we give to three distinct things—past, present and future.  It has existed ever since that moment when God created time, and will continue until the end of the world, when “heaven and earth shall pass away…”  After that moment, nothing else will exist except the supernatural beings—angels and men, and of course God himself.  We shall exist after time no longer exists.  Time will be transformed into eternity.  An eternity outside this world, in either heaven or hell.

So how much time do we have?  Years?  Months?  Minutes?  But I’m not talking about how much time till the end of the world, or even till we die.  That time is in the future.  How much time do we really have?  The answer is surprising but true.  We only have a split second.

What do I mean by that?  I mean that we exist only in the present, that split second that exists between the future and the past.  We do not live in the future.  Not even the immediate future.  We prepare for the future, certainly, but anything can happen between now and then that could affect our plans.  We can plan to make bacon and eggs for breakfast, but if we drop our last egg on the floor while we’re cooking, we’ll have to switch our plans to cornflakes.  In the spiritual life, we can make our resolutions to God in the confessional, we can promise faithfully to sin no more.  But then the future appears in our life as the present, and we have that split second of “present” to make the decision whether to yield to temptation or resist it.  Then the present disappears forever, never to be repeated, never to be changed or modified in any respect whatsoever.  Poof!  It’s gone.  It’s now in the past, and we will forever be thankful to God for resisting the temptation, or forever regret giving in to it.

So while preparing for our future is important, our eternal judgment will be based not on vague plans that haven’t happened yet, nor even on our past.  Our eternal judgment will be based on that split second of “now” that’s already gone by the time I’ve finished the sentence.  What am I doing now?  What am I thinking?  What am I saying?  I will be judged on this split second, so make the most of it.

But wait, Father, you might say.  There isn’t just one split second, there are millions of them.  Each one follows the last, and so on, so I have plenty of time.  Or at least, I have more than a split second left to make important decisions.  True, but I’m not talking about making decisions, I’m talking about your current thoughts, words, deeds.  You might take time preparing for a future decision, but at some point, some split second in the present, you will eventually make that decision to act, to speak, to indulge a certain thought.  Make sure it’s the right decision.  

The split second of now might not be a conscious decision.  But it’s always based on a decision you’ve already made or are currently in the process of making.  You’re in church listening to a sermon right now because you already made the decision to get out of bed this morning and go to Mass.  That was a good decision.  But what are you doing now?  Right now?  What’s going through your head?  Are you listening and trying to understand what I’m saying?  Or are you still thinking about whether to have the bacon and eggs or the cornflakes for breakfast?  So think about it—it’s always about now! 

St. Paul puts it very well in today’s Epistle to the Ephesians.  He tells them to “walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time.”  And why?  “Because the days are evil.”  He’s not talking here about the times we live in as being evil, though heaven knows they are.  He’s talking about evil as the absence of good.  Every split second of our lives begins as something evil because there is no good in it.  It will forever have been an evil split second if you waste it and don’t do something good in it. 

This good you do at every split second may not be a conscious act and that’s okay.  You’re not conscious of doing a good thing while you’re asleep, for instance.  And yet you are.  Because you made the decision to go to bed and sleep.  All those sleeping moments are thus turned into something good.  We can even sanctify them if we say our night prayers properly.

The point is, we need to fill every one of our split seconds with something good.  We need to redeem the present; to take that empty moment, that split second that is devoid of anything good, and drive out the evil emptiness of it, replacing it with good.  Just like the act of turning on an electric light drives out the darkness, so does the goodness of our thoughts, words and deeds drive out the evil of the moment.  This is the redemption of that moment of “now” in our life, a redemption that we are responsible for.  So be responsible for every split second that passes you by.  Redeem every single one of them, because you never know which of them will be your last.