BENEFITTING FROM OUR TIME IN CHRIST


SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL, PRIEST

Eccl 3:1-11; Ps 144:1-4; Lk 9:18-22

Understanding our Times in Christ

Time is one of the most important resources given to each of us. Thus, a man living by heavenly wisdom learns how to use time to attain his proper end. The time for our natural birth is not of our making but determined by God for us. But there are two types of birth for each of us: the natural birth and the spiritual or supernatural birth in Jesus Christ. While the former is outside our determination, the latter is within our decision, aided by God’s grace. Parents sometimes initiate their children into the Christian faith, thereby determining their spiritual birth for them. It still belongs to each person to choose to live a spiritual life or not. In this sense, the spiritual birth is within our decision. God determines each person's time at conception, and none knows the duration of his time unless it is revealed to him by God, whose providence guides all things. The natural life we receive at birth is like an empty mould that God gives us to mould ourselves into the person we want to be. In that sense, our birth is within our decision, for we become what we choose each time and die subsequently to what we reject. Thus, the preacher says: “A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted.” We choose to come to life when we decide to plant the word of God in our minds and hearts and to die when we reject the word of God for lie and falsehood.

Our time is within our grasp to come to life or to die perpetually. As far as we have time remaining for us to decide, it is still the time for giving birth and a time for dying. If we are walking on the path leading away from God to eternal and spiritual death, it is a time for killing and a time for knocking down; for killing what is earthly in us and knocking down sinful structures that have imprisoned our souls in perishable goods of this life through our inordinate desires. It is a time for healing and a time for building. It is a time for healing the wounds inflicted on our souls by sinful desires that have ruled our lives this long through the sacraments of the Church; and a time for rebuilding the image of God in which we were made by exposing our minds and hearts daily to the light of the word of God. It is a time for tears and mourning, and it is a time for laughter and dancing. This time is a time we must tear up for the sins we and others around us committed against the infinite love of God and mourn for the loss of many souls in hell. These tears and mourning are alternated by the time for joyful laughter and dancing at the knowledge of the eternal life the Father has given us in his Son Jesus Christ, and the promise of eternal inheritance we will receive when our time ends. Notice that for anyone in Jesus Christ, the usefulness of every time is in using the activities to deepen oneself in the mystery of Christ the Lord.

Subsequently, the question our Lord put to his disciples in the gospel is most important for the good usage of our time here on earth. “‘Who do the crowds say I am?’ And they answered, ‘John the Baptist; others Elijah; and others say one of the ancient prophets come back to life.’ ‘But you,’ he said ‘who do you say I am?” The people without the knowledge of Jesus Christ, lacking heavenly wisdom, are caught up in cyclic and recursive operations of nature. This explains why they considered Jesus one of the ancient prophets who came back to life. But Jesus reveals himself to us as our ultimate end. St. Vincent de Paul had a good knowledge of our Lord, which made him devote his time and energy to care for the poor and the destitute for Jesus Christ. He also formed his religious men and women to devote their lives and time to the same charitable mission. May his prayer help us use our time to die to ourselves and enter the mystery of Jesus so that we may live eternally with Christ in God.

Let us pray: O God, who for the relief of the poor and the formation of the clergy endowed the Priest Saint Vincent de Paul with apostolic virtues, grant, we pray, that, afire with that same spirit, we may love what he loved and put into practice what he taught.   

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