It's Later than You Think

This summer, my family spent a day at Storyland in New Hampshire. Above one of the ornate clocks I read: "It's later than you think!" It puzzled me that a place dedicated to amusement would greet its customers with such a grim warning. Nonetheless, I took it to mean that I shouldn't waste the time I had with my family, because one never knows what tomorrow will bring.

At this time of year, what do we hear more often than not? "I can't believe that Thanksgiving is over!" "I can't believe it's almost Christmas!" No matter how old we get, we never cease being surprised by the quickening pace of time. There's no doubt that it's later than we think.

In last Sunday's readings, both Paul and Jesus remind us that the end is near. It's nearer today than it was yesterday. There's no telling when it will happen. We won't get a two weeks' notice. We have to be always at the ready.

While the reminder is grim, our reaction to it can be joyful. For, what we expect is our salvation! Isaiah describes it to us in the first reading as a time of peace and prosperity when we will finally be liberated from fear and conflict. Paul describes it as living in the light. And Jesus describes it as being taken up to live with God. The end of time has been revealed to us not so that we will live in fear, but so that we'll cherish what we have in this life and come to clarity about what is really important.

I once spoke to a man who had lost his daughter when she was around eight years old. Understandably, the loss embittered him. With time, he grew to accept it by thanking God for the joy his daughter had brought into his life for those seven years. While he still mourned the years he didn't get to share with her, he could comfort himself with the memory of fun and laughter they enjoyed when she was alive.

Everything and everyone around us will be coming to an end. It is later than we think. We "cast off the deeds of darkness" not to live these last days in sorrow and mourning, but to embrace God's generosity and to relish all that is really good and worthwhile while it's still here and while it's still today.