Redeeming the Time

How long I live is not as important as how I live; how much time I have is not as important as what I do with the time I have. That is, do I waste my time? Do I clutter it with indolence, or frivolity, or filth? Or do I allow it to be empty, without purpose or reason? Or do I make the most of it year by year, day by day, minute by minute?

Time is the heritage God gives me. He gives it to me within well defined limits. He gives it to me within a parenthesis that opens with birth and closes with death.

What is outside the parenthesis, before opening and after closing, is the eternal–the great reality. But now, while I am living, time is “mine,” more mine than my clothing, or my house, or my money.

This is a treasure, an inheritance that my Father has given to me with the right and the responsibility to manage it. I must decide what I am going to do with it. In what will I invest it, or how will I squander it, or will I let it stagnate?

St. Paul counsels that the wise response is to “redeem” it, to “make the most of it.” That is, to give it value, meaning, content —so that when we die we may be received “into the eternal home” (Luke 16:9).