We are tempted to procrastinate. We intend to turn to God, but we put off renouncing that one sin that keeps us from following Christ immediately, writes Father Vincent Hawkswell. (Psychology Today photo)
Third
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
First
Reading: Jon
3:1-5, 10
Second
Reading: 1 Cor
7:29-31
Gospel
Reading: Mk
1:14-20
In 1948, Karl, the brother of Maria von Trapp (Maria from The Sound of Music), who had been away from the Church for about 50 years, asked her what he could give her for Christmas. She replied, “What would make me most happy, dear Karl, is if you would go to the sacraments during midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.”
By Christmas Eve, both Karl and Maria were in hospital: Karl in Vienna with pneumonia and Maria in Illinois with kidney problems. Before she sank into a coma, Maria offered her life for her brother’s conversion.
When she recovered, she was handed a letter from Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna. He had been visiting the hospitals on Christmas Eve, he wrote, when he came upon Karl, who had just read his sister’s letter.
Knowing that Karl was on the critical list, the cardinal said, “We’ll give your sister her Christmas wish here and now.” He heard Karl’s confession and gave him the last sacraments. As the cardinal said goodbye, Karl picked up a pen to write the news to Maria, but fell back on the pillow, dead.
God’s mercy has no limits. He will always give us another chance, if we will accept it.
What a contrast with this Sunday’s liturgy! “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” “Brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short.” “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” When the apostles heard Jesus’ invitation, “immediately they left their nets and followed him.”
We are tempted to procrastinate. We intend to turn to God, but we put off our definitive renunciation of that one sin that keeps us from following Christ “immediately.” The danger of procrastination is that it can harden into a determination, a firm resolve to live life our way rather than God’s. Our dependence on God’s mercy thus becomes presumption: a reliance on God’s forgiveness without conversion.
If only God would tell us the time of our death, we think, we could make sure we were ready. Like students who have learned nothing all term, we want to know when the exam will be so we can “cram” the night before.
Teachers know that one day is too short for students to learn what they should have learned over a semester. God knows that we cannot learn the ways or acquire the habits of life in heaven just before we die.
It takes a lifetime, and the all-knowing, all-loving, all-merciful God knows how long that is for each of us. In the meantime, we must always be ready. Blessed is that servant whom the master, coming “on an unexpected day and at an unknown hour,” finds at his post, doing his duty.
Satan tries to make us put off the beginning of our effort to become holy. Wait, he says, until New Year’s Day, or our birthday. Wait until certain difficulties have been removed: say, the proximity of that attractive co-worker or the persecution of that unpleasant boss. Wait until our health, our energy, and our enthusiasm improve. Wait until we recover from a loved one’s death or defection. Above all, wait until we have time.
We must face the facts: it will never be easy to start becoming holy. In fact, the way we best show our love for Christ is to tackle the obstacles resolutely, just as we best show our love for a spouse in times of difficulty.
Never mind how often we fall. God will always give us another chance, if we ask for it. That is why Christ came into the world, he said: not to condemn the world, but to save it.
However, we must accept the chances God gives us. The chance he offers us today, tonight, may be our last. We cannot afford to neglect it.