Consideration XI - THE VALUE OF TIME

"Fili, conserva tempus" (Sirach 4:23).

Point I

My son, says the Holy Spirit, take care to preserve time, which is the most precious thing and the greatest gift God can give to a living man. Even the pagans knew how valuable time is. Seneca said there is no price that equals the value of time: "Nullum temporis pretium." But with better light the Saints have known the value of time. St. Bernardine of Siena said that a moment of time is worth as much as God is worth, because in every moment a man can, by an act of contrition or of love, acquire divine grace and eternal glory: "Modico tempore potest homo lucrari gratiam, et gloriam. Tempus tantum valet, quantum Deus, quippe in tempore bene consumto comparatur Deus."

Time is a treasure that is found only in this life; it is not found in the next, neither in hell nor in heaven. In hell this is the lament of the damned: "O si daretur hora!" They would pay any price for one hour of time in which they could remedy their ruin; but this hour they will never have. In heaven there is no weeping, but if the blessed could weep, this alone would be their lament: that they lost time in this life in which they could have acquired greater glory, and that this time they can have no more. A deceased Benedictine nun appeared in glory to a person and told her that she was fully content; but if she could ever desire anything, it was only to return to life and to suffer, in order to merit more glory; and she said she would have been content to endure the painful illness she had suffered in death until the day of judgment, to acquire the glory that corresponds to the merit of a single "Hail Mary."

And you, my brother, how do you spend your time? Why do you always put off until tomorrow what you could do today? Consider that the time already past is no longer yours; the future is not in your power; only the present time is yours for doing good. "Quid de futuro miser praesumis," St. Bernard warns us, "tanquam Pater tempora in tua posuerit potestate?" And St. Augustine says: "Diem tenes, qui horam non tenes?" How can you promise yourself tomorrow, when you do not know if even another hour of life will be yours? Therefore St. Teresa concludes and says: If today you are not ready to die, fear that you will die badly.

Affections and Prayers

O my God, I thank You for the time You give me to remedy the disorders of my past life. If at this moment I had to die, one of my greatest pains would be the thought of time lost. Ah, my Lord, You gave me time to love You, and I spent it offending You! I deserved that You should send me to hell from the first moment I turned my back on You; but You called me to penance and pardoned me. I promised You not to offend You anymore, but how many times then I returned to injure You, and You again pardoned me! May Your mercy be blessed forever. If it were not infinite, how could it have so borne with me! Who could ever have had the patience with me that You have had? How much it grieves me to have offended so good a God! My dear Savior, the patience alone that You have had with me should make me fall in love with You. Ah, do not permit me to live any longer ungrateful to the love You have shown me. Detach me from everything, and draw me entirely to Your love. No, my God, I will no longer waste the time You give me by Your mercy; I wish to spend it all in serving You and loving You. Give me strength; give me holy perseverance. I love You, infinite Goodness, and I hope to love You eternally.

I thank you, O Mary; you have been my Advocate in obtaining for me this time of life. Assist me now, and grant that I may spend it all in loving your Son, my Redeemer, and you, my Queen and Mother.

Point II

Nothing is more precious than time, but nothing is less esteemed and more despised by the people of the world. This is what St. Bernard bewails: "Nihil pretiosius tempore, sed nihil vilius aestimatur." And then he continues: "Transeunt dies salutis, et nemo recogitat sibi perire diem, et nunquam rediturum." You will see that gambler spending days and nights wasting time at games; if you ask him, "What are you doing?" he answers: "We are passing the time." You will see that other idler standing for entire hours in the middle of a street watching passersby, or speaking obscenely or of useless things; if you ask him, "What are you doing?" he answers: "I am passing the time." Poor blind ones, who lose so many days — days that will never return!

O despised time, you will be the most desired thing by the worldly at the time of death! They will then desire another year, another month, another day, but they will not have it; they will then hear: "Tempus non erit amplius." How much would each of them then pay for another week, another day of time, to better settle the accounts of conscience? Even for a single hour of time, says St. Lawrence Justinian, he would give all his possessions: "Erogaret opes, honores, delicias pro una horula." But that hour will not be given him. Quickly, the assisting priest will say, quickly depart from this earth; there is no more time: "Proficiscere, anima christiana, de hoc mundo."

Therefore the prophet exhorts us to remember God and to procure His grace before the light fails: "Memento creatoris tui, antequam tenebrescat sol, et lumen" (Eccl. 12:1). What pain it is for a pilgrim who realizes he has taken the wrong road when night has already fallen and there is no more time to set it right! This will be the pain at death of one who has lived many years in the world but has not spent them for God: "Venit nox, in qua nemo potest operari" (John 9:4). Then death will be for him a time of night, in which he can do nothing more. "Vocavit adversum me tempus" (Lam. 1:15). His conscience will then remind him how much time he has had and spent to the harm of his soul; how many calls, how many graces he received from God to become a saint, and he refused to use them — and then he will see the way to any good closed to him. So he will say weeping: Oh, what a fool I have been! Oh, time lost! Oh, my wasted life! Oh, years lost in which I could have made myself a saint — but I did not do it, and now there is no more time to do it! But what good will these laments and sighs do, when the scene is about to end, the lamp is near to going out, and the dying man is close to that great moment on which eternity depends?

Affections and Prayers

Ah, my Jesus, You spent Your whole life to save my soul; there was not a moment of Your life in which You did not offer Yourself for me to the Eternal Father, to obtain for me pardon and eternal salvation; and I have been in the world for so many years — how many of them have I spent for You? Ah, whatever I remember having done all gives me remorse of conscience. The evil has been great. The good has been far too little, and all of it full of imperfections, tepidity, self-love, and distractions. Ah, my Redeemer, it has all been so because I forgot how much You have done for me. I forgot You, but You did not forget me; You pursued me while I was fleeing from You, and so many times You called me to Your love. Here I am, my Jesus; I will resist no longer. Am I waiting for You to abandon me entirely? I repent, O supreme Good, of having separated myself from You by sin. I love You, infinite Goodness, worthy of infinite love. Ah, do not permit me to waste any longer this time You give me by Your mercy. Ah, remind me always, my beloved Savior, of the love You have shown me and the sufferings You endured for me. Make me forget everything, so that in this remaining life I may think of nothing but loving You and pleasing You. I love You, my Jesus, my love, my all. I promise, whenever I remember, to make acts of love to You. Give me holy perseverance. I place all my trust in the merits of Your blood.

And I trust in your intercession, O my dear Mother Mary.

Point III

"Ambulate dum lucem habetis" (John 12:35). We must walk in the way of the Lord in this life, now that we have the light, because it is lost at death. Then is not the time to prepare, but to be found prepared. "Estote parati." At death nothing can be done; then what is done is done. O God, if someone had news that shortly the case of his life or of all his possessions was to be tried, how he would hasten to find a good lawyer, to inform the officials of his rights, and to find means to secure their favor! And what are we doing? We know for certain that shortly (and it may be at any hour) the case of the greatest business we have is to be tried — the business of eternal salvation — and we waste time?

Someone will say: But I am young; later I will give myself to God. But know, I answer, that the Lord cursed the fig tree He found without fruit, even though it was not the season for fruit, as the Gospel notes: "Non enim erat tempus ficorum" (Mark 11:13). By this Jesus Christ wished to signify to us that man at every time, even in youth, must bear the fruit of good works; otherwise he will be cursed and will bear no more fruit in the future. "Iam non amplius in aeternum ex te fructum quispiam manducet." So said the Redeemer to that tree, and so He curses those whom He calls and who resist. What a thing! The devil considers the whole time of our life as little, and therefore does not lose a moment in tempting us: "Descendit diabolus ad vos habens iram magnam, sciens quod modicum tempus habet" (Rev. 12:12). So the enemy does not waste time in trying to ruin us, and shall we waste time when it is a question of saving ourselves?

Another will say: "But what harm am I doing?" O God, is it not harm to waste time in games, in useless conversations that profit the soul nothing? Does God give you this time so that you may waste it? No, says the Holy Spirit: "Non te praetereat particula boni diei" (Sirach 4). Those laborers of whom St. Matthew writes were doing no harm but only wasting time, and for this they were rebuked by the master of the vineyard: "Quid hic statis tota die otiosi?" (Matt. 20). On the day of judgment Jesus Christ will demand an account of every idle word. Every moment not spent for God is time lost. "Omne tempus, quo de Deo non cogitasti, cogita te perdidisse" (St. Bernard). Therefore the Lord exhorts us: "Quodcunque facere potest manus tua, instanter operare, quia nec opus, nec ratio erunt apud inferos, quo tu properas" (Eccl. 9:10). The Venerable Mother Sister Joan of the Most Holy Trinity, a Teresian nun, used to say that in the life of the Saints there is no "tomorrow": tomorrow is in the life of sinners, who always say "later, later," and so they arrive at death. "Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile" (2 Cor. 6:2). "Hodie si vocem eius audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra" (Ps. 94:8). Today God calls you to do good — do it today; because tomorrow it may be that there is no more time, or that God calls you no more.

And if in the past, to your misfortune, you have spent your time offending God, strive to weep over it in the life that remains to you, as King Hezekiah resolved to do: "Recogitabo tibi omnes annos meos in amaritudine animae meae" (Is. 38:15). God gives you life so that you may now redeem the time lost. "Redimentes tempus, quoniam dies mali sunt" (Eph. 5:16). St. Anselm comments: "Tempus redimes, si quae facere neglexisti, facias." Of St. Paul, St. Jerome says that although he was the last of the Apostles, he was the first in merits for what he did after he was called: "Paulus novissimus in ordine, prior in meritis, quia plus in omnibus laboravit." If nothing else, let us think that at every moment we can make greater acquisitions of eternal goods. If you were allowed to acquire as much land as you could walk around in a day, or as much money as you could count in a day, what haste you would make! And you can acquire at every moment eternal treasures, and you want to waste time? What you can do today, do not say you can do tomorrow, because today will be lost to you and will never return. St. Francis Borgia, when others spoke of worldly things, would turn to God with holy affections, so that when asked his opinion, he could not answer. For this he was corrected; but he said: "Malo rudis vocari, quam temporis iacturam pati." I would rather be thought dull of mind than waste time.

Affections and Prayers

No, my God, I will no longer waste this time that You give me by Your mercy. At this hour I should be in hell weeping without fruit. I thank You for having preserved me in life; I wish then, in the days that remain to me, to live for You alone. If I were now in hell, I would weep, but in despair and without fruit. I wish to weep over the offenses I have committed against You, and in weeping I know for certain that You pardon me, since the prophet assures me of it: "Plorans nequaquam plorabis miserans miserabitur tui" (Is. 30:19). If I were in hell, I could no longer love You; but now I love You, and I hope to love You always. If I were in hell, I could no longer ask You for graces; but now I hear You telling me: "Petite, et accipietis." Since then I am still in time to ask You for graces, two graces I ask of You, O God of my soul: give me perseverance in Your grace, and give me Your love, and then do with me what You please. Grant that in all the moments of life remaining to me, I may always commend myself to You, my Jesus, saying: Lord, help me; Lord, have pity on me; grant that I may offend You no more; grant that I may love You.

Most Holy Mary, my Mother, obtain for me the grace of always commending myself to God and asking Him for perseverance and His holy love.