Our passage through the earth is a time to earn; the same Lord has given it to us. Saint Paul reminds us that we do not have here a permanent city; we are seeking what is to come. The Lord will come to call us, to ask us to give an account of the goods He left in deposit for us to manage well: intelligence, health, material possessions, the capacity for friendship, the possibility of making those around us happy... The Lord will come once, perhaps when we least expect it, like a thief in the night, like lightning in the sky, and He will find us well prepared. Clinging to what is here below, forgetting that our end is Heaven, would lead us to lose focus on our life, to live in complete foolishness. Foolishness is the word God uses for this man who had lived only for material things. We must walk with our feet on the ground, with human pursuits, illusions, and ideals, knowing how to foresee the future for ourselves and for those who depend on us, like a good father and a good mother of a family, but without forgetting that we are pilgrims, and only "actors on stage. No one should consider themselves king or rich, because at the end of the act we will all find ourselves poor." The goods are merely means to reach the goal that the Lord has set for us. They should never be the end of our days here on earth.
Our life is short and quite limited in time: tonight you will be asked to surrender your soul. That is how scarce time is: tonight, and perhaps we think in terms of many years, as if our time on earth would last forever. Our days are numbered and counted; we are in God's hands. In a while – perhaps not long – we will meet Him face to face.
Contemplating our earthly end helps us sanctify work – redimentes tempus, recovering lost time – and makes it easier for us to take advantage of all circumstances of this life to earn and repair for sins, and for a genuine detachment from what we have and use. Any day could be our last day. Today, thousands of people have died – or will die – in very different circumstances; they never imagined they would no longer have days to make amends and to fill their bag a little more for eternity. Some have died with their hearts set on matters of little or no importance in relation to their ultimate existence beyond death; others perhaps had their sights and hearts on the same human things, but directed toward God. These will encounter the marvelous treasure that neither rust nor moth can destroy.
Hablar con Dios