Perhaps not all Catholics realise that another year has passed and that a new one begins throughout the created world. To understand this we need to reflect upon time. What does time mean to us? And why are we Catholics best equipped for grasping the meaning of time, and thus to make the best use of every instant?
As St Augustine noted long ago, God created us ‘in view of’ Him and our hearts are restless until they rest in Him. Such are our common origin and destination. Hence no one is stationary or immobile. We are all on our way – on our way to judgment – because we are created by God in time, and time is given us in order to collaborate in the work of our own redemption and, if we are faithful to God’s grace, to meet with Him through an eternal embrace in heaven. In other words, our lives on earth have an end, an end both in terms of a time span and of a purpose. The time we spend in this world is leading us somewhere specific, a fact we should never forget. For if we do forget, we will simply not take the means given us and will miss our opportunity, wasting forever the time allocated by God to our precious lives.
There are two dangers we should avoid. The first danger concerns the repetitiveness of our daily existences. We often get the false impression that time is a mere repetition, a circular motion leading nowhere in particular. Day after day, year after year, we may then forget that every second is given us by God as a grace directed to one specific end, that end being to exit this short preparation we call ‘our earthly lives’ with the most ardent possible love for God in our souls, as this will determine how close to Him we shall spend our eternity. Every second is given us to prepare to meet God at the end of our lives. The second danger consists
in the strength of our inordinate passions. When we come across a created being that we desire, whether it be some kind of food, a jewel, another person, a car, a piece of clothing, a film or a song to download from the Internet, a piece of news or some pictures in a magazine, we seem to forget everything else until we have acquired the object of our desire. Then, very soon after, another object crosses our path and we long for that new one, until the next one, and so on and so forth until death. During that time we feel and act as if our lives had no end, as if we were not called to the insuperable fulfilment of eternal union with God. We prefer to reduce our calling to the consumption of created things. How pathetic, isn’t it?
Who can teach us the right meaning of temporality? How are we going to learn to use time fruitfully? How are we going to live through our weeks, months and years in a manner ordered towards our salvation? Providentially, our Holy Mother the Church, instructed by her divine Spouse the Holy Ghost, has designed for us the perfect guidance. It is called ‘the liturgical year’ or ecclesiastical calendar.
This mystical calendar, of which all others are but images and humble auxiliaries!
The great Abbot of Solesmes Dom Prosper Guéranger explains: “the ecclesiastical year… is the divine cycle, in which appear all the works of God, each in its turn: the seven days of the creation; the Pasch and Pentecost of the Jewish people; the ineffable visit of the Incarnate Word; His sacrifice and His victory; the descent of the Holy Ghost; the holy Eucharist; the surpassing glories of the Mother of God, ever a Virgin; the
magnificence of the angels; the merits and triumphs of the saints. […] Would that we might worthily describe the sacred wonders of this mystical calendar, of which all others are but images and humble auxiliaries!”
Dear readers, we must earnestly try to assimilate this crucial truth: that time is the framework of our redemption. Time is not what some politicians, actors, sportsmen, travel agents and advertisers perhaps would like us to believe – essentially a succession of opportunities for them to influence our vote, to capture our admiration, or to extract more of our money. We must resist our spontaneous inclination to tune in to the godless tempo of the world, which from Halloween to the Gay Pride marks the sterile liturgical year of secularism. No! Year after year, the true calendar is that of our Redemption. This is the only rhythm that matters, the only countdown that saves. Whoever follows another is liable to lose their lives forever.
Any true sense of expectation will be derived from the liturgical festivals and seasons to come. For instance, as I write we are eagerly turning our hearts towards the great feast of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady on December 8th, a fitting feast to prepare for the Nativity of the Saviour. It is good to check whether the genuinely cherished highlights of our lives are the saving ones. If we like Sundays primarily because of football or Christmas because of the turkey, would we not be missing the point? It is not that football or turkey are to be despised, but leisure, food and the rest are means to an end – that end being our sanctification by which our souls are nourished every day of the Church’s liturgical year. Dear friends, let us face it: time will end. Sooner or later you and I will be dead – a truth we particularly meditated upon while praying for the Holy Souls during the month of November. Even little children, who as yet do not understand the meaning of the word ‘death’, will in a matter of years enter eternity. What of eternity? Either it will be the happiest one with God in heaven, or the most unhappy one with the devil in hell. There is no third way! Christians, our time is the liturgical year. This saving truth is not a burden or a constraint. Rather there simply is nothing more beautiful, more exciting and more rewarding as learning the proper use of time, thus taught by our loving Mother the Church. In conclusion, let us together examine our consciences during this Advent season, to consider whether we spent the last liturgical year growing in sanctity, giving priority to the festivals of the Church in our lives, our hearts, in the education of our children, and in witnessing to our faith to our friends and colleagues. And let us ask all the saints now rejoicing eternally to intercede for us, that we may spend this new liturgical year more deeply committed to our Catholic faith and identity, for the greater glory of God and our everlasting happiness.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr Armand de Malleray, FSSP
Article first published in Dowry 16
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