Advent Preparation – Now, Not Later
Growing up as a child, I was often told “never put off for tomorrow that which you can do today”. I am sure many of you are familiar with this saying. I have also been told that “procrastination is the thief of time.”
So far we have covered four letters in the word advent. We have looked at
Attend Holy Mass regularly,
Devotion to prayer,
Vocation,
Encounter Christ in others.
Today we will look at “Now not later.” Very often we put off important things until tomorrow hoping that tomorrow does come. We often put off the most serious things in life for tomorrow. The more worldly things like going to hang out with the gang we have no problem with doing that now. We have no issue with going to lime with ‘the boys’ now, nor catching up with the sweetest gossip now. The most serious things get put off for tomorrow.
So why do we procrastinate? Persons often procrastinate because they are afraid of failure, or because they are afraid of change or they think they will have time. I remember years ago speaking to a friend of mine and telling him about church and about Jesus and his response was that it’s for the old people to do. He said I will wait until I get old to do that. Procrastination. Many have procrastinated on things that they should have done when a close relative was still alive, and now they weep and mourn that they did not do more while the person was still alive. Many procrastinate on turning their lives over to God but on the other hand they expect God to respond immediately if not sooner when they call out to him. It does not work that way. One very common form of procrastination is where people in relationships choose to cohabitate and put off doing the right thing which is either getting married or dissolving the relationship if it is not workable.
The gospel reading for the first Sunday in Advent tells us to be watchful and alert because you know not the time nor the hour. It continues by telling us, ‘watch, therefore; you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you asleep. What I say to you I said to all: watch!
Many here in Trinidad as well as all over the world have invested in alarm systems to protect their properties against vandals and against theft. They have done so because they do not want to be caught unawares. The word of God tells us very clearly that no one knows the time nor the date nor the hour when the Son of Man will come. So be prepared! We know how to prepare ourselves against possible burglaries and possible attacks. How is it we do not know how to protect ourselves against the type of attack that can destroy not just our material gains, our physical bodies, but can destroy our very souls for all eternity? Why does it make sense for us to build walls and fences to keep undesirables out but we will not build the walls and fences necessary to keep the enemies of our souls out – now?
Proverbs 27:1 tells us, “do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what it may bring.“ That is telling us do not place your reliance on tomorrow for you do not know what will happen then; you do not even know if you will live to see tomorrow. Sometimes we act as if we are the authors of time. We behave and we speak as if we own time and we control time, but we don’t. We have no control nor visibility whatsoever on tomorrow. We have no control and no visibility on what will happen in the next 15 minutes. We have no control over what will happen in the next minute. All that we have is now. We put off our salvation for tomorrow. We say tomorrow I will go to church, tomorrow I will start to pray, tomorrow I will make up with my brother or my sister; tomorrow I will tell my wife that I love her, tomorrow I will embrace my son and tell him how proud I am of him, tomorrow I will give my daughter the encouragement that she needs. Tomorrow I will forgive those who hurt me. tomorrow I will give up gossiping. Tomorrow. Tomorrow. The problem is that tomorrow may never come and in many instances when we do receive the gift of tomorrow we squander it. In this post I am challenging you to act not tomorrow but right now. If you need to be reconciled with someone, do so now. If you need to work on your prayer life, do so now. If you need to go to confession, make arrangements to do so now. Whatever you need to do to draw closer to Christ, do it now.
One of the things that hopefully this COVID-19 pandemic should teach us is not to procrastinate. The millions of people who have contracted this disease I am sure in hindsight Would have said, if I had only washed my hands then, or if I had only worn a mask, or if I had only exercise this social distancing then I would not have suffered the way that I did and put my family through the stress that they had due to my illness. Very recently I went to a doctor here in Trinidad and she was lamenting on the death of an elderly lady due to COVID-19. She said that it was heartbreaking to see this old lady suffocate. What made it worse she said was the fact that this old lady did not go anywhere because she was pretty much homebound. The virus was communicated to her via a relative who did not do what they were supposed to have done then.
Another reason that I believe that many put off the things of heaven for tomorrow is because they have grown used to the physical things around them. They have grown to place their trust not in God – whom they cannot see, but rather in what they can see and feel and touch. They have forgotten that the things of heaven are infinitely better than the things of earth. They have forgotten that the things of God are infinitely sweeter and the things of earth. They have forgotten that the things of heaven are infinitely greater than the things of earth. There is no comparison really when it comes to God. We cannot see the fresh air we breathe; we cannot taste it; we cannot touch it. Yet we know that it is there, and if it were taken away, we would all die. So it is with God. There is no life without God.
There are so many lessons to be learned from our current pandemic. It has affected our entire world sparing no one. That in itself should tell us how finite the things of this world are. That in itself should tell us how restricted the things of this world are. Early in the pandemic, I looked on in amazement as persons globally queued up for food, and some of them were driving luxury vehicles. Many who never thought they would have been affected by such a virus, live to tell another tale. No amount of money, no amount of fast cars, no status in life, nothing on this earth prevented the spread nor the impact of this virus. That says a lot. Do not place your hopes in the things of this world. Rather, place your hope and trust in God.
Jesus warns about this in Luke chapter 12, where he told the story of a rich man who having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, ‘what am I to do? I have not enough room to store up my crops.’ Then he said, ‘oh this is what I will do. I will pull down the barns I have, and build bigger ones and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: my soul you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, and have a good time.’ But God said to him, “fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul and this horde of yours, whose will it be then?” So it is when someone stores up treasure for himself instead of becoming rich in the sight of God (Luke 12: 16-21). This scripture passage may sound quite harsh but Jesus’ tone is meant to emphasize the importance of placing your reliance on the things of heaven and not on the things of earth. When we place our reliance on the things of heaven, then we will see the urgency of acting now rather than later.
I am so very happy that Eurika, the young lady I wrote about in the previous post, Encounter Christ In Others, gave her life to Christ when she did. As a result of her ‘now, not later’ approach to life, her life has impacted many I am sure, including mine and Artherly. Even though I messed up initially, I am so very grateful that God gave me another chance to respond to Him through Uncle Vic. I thank God that He did not wait for “tomorrow” to extend mercy to me, but that even now, God’s mercy is available to me, and to you also.
To close off, I would like to share with you a song that crossed my mind as I was writing this post. It is entitled “Tomorrow”. I really want to challenge you to listen to it with a clear mind and an open heart, and allow God to speak to you through his Holy Spirit.
Prayer
Heavenly father, we praise and thank you for this time. We praise and thank you for this wonderful season of advent. We praise and thank you for the promise and the hope that advent brings. We praise and thank you God for your call upon the lives of every single one of us. We thank you God that in spite of our stubbornness, and in spite of our waywardness, and in spite of how undeserving we are of your love and your mercy, you never give up on us. You never abandon us. You never give us what we truly deserve. You never leave us in the miry clay, but with outstretched hands, you continue to reach out to us, and continue to await our response.
Have mercy on us oh God for the many times that we have ignored you. Have mercy on us oh God for the many times that we have ignored your call on our lives. Have mercy on us oh God for the many times that we continue to put off for tomorrow your call to repentance today. Lord we bring to you every person who will read this post or listen to this post; we bring to you Father, every person who will even visit this site; we pray oh God that they will hear and respond to your still sweet voice calling each of them by name.
Lord remove the scales from our eyes that prevent us from seeing the urgency with which we need to respond to your calls every day of our lives. Grant us oh God the grace to see you as you are; to behold your beauty and to recognize that nothing in this world can compare to you. Grant us the grace oh God to recognize that the things of this world are so much rubbish compared to the things of heaven. Cause us, please cause us all Lord, to hunger and thirst for the things of heaven right now. Cause us to seek you right now! Cause us Lord to repent of our sins right now. Caused us all Lord to seek reconciliation with those we need to be reconciled with right now, not later. Cause us all Lord to give up those sinful desires that have led us further and further away from you. Cause us Lord to turn away right now, from all that causes you to grieve. Cause us all Lord to give our hearts, our minds, and our souls completely and totally over to you right now; not tomorrow but right now Lord, so that you, and you alone would be glorified in us.
We ask this through Christ Jesus your Son and our Lord.
Amen
