SAYETH QUOHELETH

The first thing that I do in the morning besides say hello to Saint Augustine who pears in my window during the dark winter months is pray the Liturgy of the Hours and review the readings for Mass. From that point a lot of time is spent on other things that at best involve just a seasoning of prayer. It is all quite mundane. There is the making of the bed, toiletries, getting dressed, preparing the house for the staff, bringing in the paper, (maybe – maybe someday feeding the dog) and turning on the computer.

Yesterday I was in my car driving to day school confessions at a neighboring parish and making a mental list of all the things that I had to do. I was in desperate need of stopping at a gas station before I would need to call AAA. That reminded me to turn off the cell phone before it would be forgotten and ring in the middle of a confession. Passing a store reminded me of things that I needed to pick up for the parish. Maybe I could stop on the way back if there were time.

These ruminations were interrupted by the car’s arrival at its destination. Pulling into the parking lot of the next parish over brought thoughts back to advent and the realization on how little time is spent on things that really matter. All the busy stuff mentioned above is necessary to living, but in the grand scheme of things hardly important. We are told to view everything sub specie aeternitatis or from the point of eternity. What is going to last? Not much. We will. God will. Our relationship with Him will. Love will. My car will not. The rectory will not. Even my body will not. Hope will not. Faith will not. Even the Eucharist will not since we will be before the Body of Christ in heaven.

Yet what requires the majority of our day and effort? Those very things that are like summer plants that are now passed and gone. They are like a bubble we try to keep aloft by getting under them and blowing air at them lest they fall into the grass and pop. That’s a lot of effort for something so transitory.

Of course much of this is a necessary evil (and I use the term loosely.) It is not a bad thing to make sure the body is taken care of, that those things entrusted to us are handled with careful stewardship, and that these efforts may take up much of our time. It’s the nature of the beast. The world in all that is in is in a constant state of decay and needs our vigilant efforts to keep it all together and moving. But there must be that break, that one hour out of twenty four, that one day out of seven that we stop and pay attention, plug into, and to remember the proper place of all that is transitory before that which is eternal, good, beautiful, and true lest in the end we be left with nothing for all of our efforts.

That is advent; to point us toward that which is eternal and to remind us to prepare the way for it in our hearts that when all that is left is that which is eternal we may know it and love it and it may know and embrace us.