Episode 98 - No one knows the day or the hour

"But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow." St Gregory the Great

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Paul, Welcome to Catholic money talk, where we talk about all things money and finance, and we try to do it through a lens of being Catholic, where our ultimate goal is to one day be in Heaven with the Lord. I am your host. Paul Scarfone, thank you for being here today. Paul, Paul, welcome back to Catholic money talk. Today. We're going to take a break from talking about finances, and instead, I want to offer a reminder to us, and that reminder is no one knows the day or the hour. Let's start with a prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen, Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for all the ways that you love and bless us. Lord, You are a faithful God, a loving Father who has an incredibly wonderful plan for our lives, for each of our lives and all of those plans. Lord, end with us being with you in Heaven, forever. Lord, give us a sense of gratitude for everything that you've put into our lives, for all those moments that we're invited to draw closer to you, bless us, strengthen us on our journey to Home, and send your angels to guard and protect us Come Holy Spirit. We ask all this in Jesus name, amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen, But of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. We hear that distinctly in two places in the Gospel, Matthew 24 and Mark 13. And over the past few months, there have been some stark reminders, although we know that death will come to us all, we don't know when we don't know how. A few months ago, we had the young women who were victims of the flooding in Texas, a natural disaster that no one could have predicted or foresaw. Two weeks ago, there was a shooting at the Annunciation school in Minnesota. It's just unimaginable that someone would do such a thing to young children during mass. And then last week, the assassination, I might even call it martyrdom of Charlie Kirk. And then the very next day, we had the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attack in the World Trade Center, recalling the tragedy where nearly 3000 people lost their lives. We don't know the day or the hour. It's a sobering reality, and these are only the headlines. Right? How many people every day lose their lives in tragedy? A friend of ours last year lost her father in a car accident. When I was young, my uncle died in a motorcycle accident. When I was in college, a friend of mine lost his dad to a massive heart attack, and then post college, I lost a friend who died during the night. All of a sudden, I lost a colleague at the bank about six years ago to another heart attack. And I'm sure in your own life, you can think of so many other examples we don't know the day or the hour. Two weeks ago, on September 3, we had the feast day of st Gregory, the great and each morning, as part of my prayer time, I read the mass readings for the day, and I take a look at the Saint of the day, I use the Laude app on my phone. It has brief history and usually details of the saints, and many times it'll have an excerpt or two of their writings. And that morning, there was a quote from st Gregory that really hit me, and I've been going back to it in my prayer and pondering it ever since. It's from a writing of his titled, be friends of God, and I'm going to read it to you here. He writes, If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance, but God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow, therefore we must always dread the final day, which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a. Day for conversion, and yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done. Not only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to them. If we are, in fact, now occupied with good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow. Nobody must rejoice in the security of their own good deeds. As long as we are experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what end may follow, we must not trust in our own virtues. Wow, there's a lot in there. Let's look at that first line. If we knew at what time we were to depart from this world, we would be able to select a season for pleasure and another for repentance. This is the story of my life. I wish I knew there are so many moments that I find myself desiring ease and comfort, to be able to just sit back and just enjoy to have a break from the hard work of trying to be virtuous. And I know I'm not alone in this. We can spend so much time planning and preparing, trying to find moments of pleasure, and I'm not even talking about evil pleasures, right, but just the ease and comfort that I long for in my head, I feel like life would be easier if I knew I was gonna, you know, get one week's notice of my death right. Give me a week to repent, go to confession, correct any relationships. Love everyone so well, and then just fall into the arms of my heavenly father after a week of holy, virtuous living in my head, at least, that makes me feel like that would be an easy plan, but we don't. We don't get that. Rather, we have to be awake and sober, right? First, Thessalonians five or six, therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober. The next line from this quote from st Gregory, it's so beautiful. I just keep going over and over this but God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. What do we know about God? He loves us so much. He is a generous, loving father. He only gives us good things, but God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner has not promised us tomorrow. So knowing what we know about God and when we hear this line, what is the truth that jumps out to us? The truth is this that the gift of His forgiveness, right, the gift of His mercy, it's greater than the gift of tomorrow. But how many of us would prefer the gift of tomorrow over his gift of forgiveness today? Yes, when we stop and prayerfully consider it, we want His forgiveness, but to our thoughts, words and actions every day, Shout to the Lord that we are repentant and desire forgiveness, or do our thoughts, words and actions shout that we desire tomorrow. Go ahead. Take a moment reflect on that, pray about it, ponder this beautiful truth. But God, who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. The second half of this quote from st Gregory, and I'll read it again here, therefore we must always dread the final day which we can never foresee. This very day is a day of truce, a day of conversion, and yet we refuse to cry over the evil we have done. And not only do we not weep for the sins we have committed, we even add to them. If we are, in fact, now occupied in good deeds, we should not attribute the strength with which we are doing them to ourselves. We must not count on ourselves, because even if we know what kind of person we are today, we do not know what we will be tomorrow, nobody must rejoice in the security. Why of their own good deeds. As long as we are experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what and may follow. We must not trust in our own virtues. I was just talking to someone about this the other day, and this is one of those things that separates us from many of our Protestant brothers and sisters. We are saved because Christ came and died for us, and we just heard that in the Gospel yesterday, on Sunday, John 316 For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life, right, shall not die, but have eternal life. And many Protestants emphasize justification by faith alone, and we as Catholics, we integrate faith with the sanctifying grace that we receive through the sacraments and through being virtuous and viewing salvation as a journey rather than just the single event, knowing that at any moment we could still choose sin or virtue, and a grave sin does separate us from God, but then we need to come back to God through the grace of the sacrament of reconciliation to restore our relationship with God. It's a lifelong journey, you know, and this is the point that st Gregory is addressing. As long as we are experiencing the uncertainties of this life, we do not know what end may follow. We must not trust in our own virtues. Right now, I had my words here. We must trust in the Lord, in his unfathomable mercy and the gift of His church. This reminds me of, you know, to use a sports analogy, right? It ain't over till it's over. You know, in sports will say that, and how many times and sometimes on huge stages, right? We've seen teams that had big leads and they somehow squandered them and lose. And on the flip side, we've seen teams that they're so far behind, and yet they find a way to slowly claw their way back to win. And so it is with our life. In our spiritual journey, there is no moment where, where you're done, where your ticket is punched and you're done, you don't get to coast. There's no such thing as an earthly victory lap, right? It just doesn't happen. I think now, if St Paul, he says, I run so as to win, right? Like, I'm like a libation that is poured out, like it's, it's the end, it's the last drop. There's nothing left when we get to the end, because we've spent it all serving and loving. We need to find ourselves working for the Lord and serving others when he comes for us, when our time comes. Now, maybe that might be in our sleep, at an old age, where we've been praying for and offering our suffering for those around us, or as in these tragic examples recently, you know, witnessing to college kids on the campus attending Mass or serving at a camp. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober because God who has promised pardon to every repentant sinner, has not promised us tomorrow. So let us be about this today, serving and loving in our vocations, witnessing to the Lord at work with our friends in our families, pray with your spouse, teach your kids to pray. Love your parents, frequent the sacraments, and say to the Lord, here I am Lord, I come to do Your will. May God bless you. Thank you for listening to Catholic money talk. I hope you join us again next time, please click Subscribe on your podcast app to get notified of new episodes. God bless you and have a great day. Foreign.