How foolish, then, the conduct of most people in wasting their time! My dear brethren, this salutary doctrine, this wholesome thought, which comes too late for the dying, is meant for us who are still alive and well, and can still make a good use of the present time. We must therefore make provision now, that we may not on our death-beds have cause to fear a long eternity of despair and wailing. “The present time is the time for sowing.” What is not sown then can never bear fruit, nor be garnered in, but is and remains lost forever. The present time is not a time for idling or loitering; it is not a time for useless talk, amusements, gambling, long sleep and vain pleasures, much less for sin and vice; for it is intended by God, who has given it to us out of His great mercy, for the sole purpose of working out the salvation of our immortal souls, and preparing ourselves for a happy death. St. Bernard says that it is enough to stop the current of his blood partly through pity, partly through indignation, to hear people say: let us talk to pass away an hour;[1] let us play, amuse ourselves, walk about to pass away the time. And have you nothing better to do? Is that the way to use the time that the Creator has granted you to do penance, to obtain pardon, to acquire grace, to merit glory?[2] Will you waste in useless talk and frivolity the precious hour that God has bestowed on you for such a lofty purpose? What must we think when we hear young people, especially when they are of different sexes, say to each other in their young years, like the idlers in the Book of Wisdom: “Come, therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present, and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine, and ointments; and let not the flower of the time pass by us. Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they be withered.”[3]
Shown by a simile. O foolish mortals! what are you saying? If you saw a gardener picking the blossoms off the trees in spring, and making them into a nosegay because they are beautiful, what would you think of him? You would say that he is either mad or an unfaithful servant, inasmuch as he thus destroys all prospects of fruit. Is not that the case? Because it is from the blossom that the fruit has to come, and if that is destroyed, there can be no fruit. “Let not the flower of the time pass by us,” you say;
- ↑ Licet fabulari donec pertranseat hora—St. Bern., Serm. ad Scholares.
- ↑ Quam tibi ad agendam pœnitentiam, ad obtinendam veniam, ad acquirendam gratiam, ad promerendam gloriam miseratio Conditoris indulgeat?
- ↑ Venite ergo, et fruamur bonis quæ stint, et utamur creatura tanquam in juventute celeriter. Vino pretioso et unguentis nos impleamus; et non prætereat nos flos temporis. Coronemus nos rosis antequam marcescant!—Wis. ii. 6–8.
