280th Meditation
“Time is gold. Use it to the full” (Inner Word).
Our heavenly Father has entrusted us with the short time of our earthly life, so that we may spend it praising and serving Him as true children. Although “our lives are over like a sigh” (Ps 89:9), they are time enough to lay up imperishable treasures in heaven (Mt 6:20). The degree of closeness we have with our Father in eternity will also depend on how much we respond to His love and work for His Kingdom during this life.
The Father entrusts us with talents, whether they are many or just one (cf. Mt 25:14-30); but it is up to us how we use them and make them bear fruit. It makes no sense to complain that we have apparently received only a few talents. What does make sense and counts is that what we have received from our Father we multiply until it becomes a great treasure, with which we can show our love and gratitude to Him and serve others.
Christian prudence means to be very attentive to the various opportunities that the Father, in His goodness, offers us, taking advantage of them in such a way that they bear the greatest possible fruit. Here today’s impulse can be useful to us: “Time is gold. Use it to the full”.
Thus, every moment of our life becomes a gentle invitation from the Father to “make the best of the present time”, as the Apostle to the Gentiles exhorts us (Eph 5:16). Time becomes a precious “kairos” of grace and allows us to awaken fully to the TODAY and the NOW. This also implies leaving behind useless and meaningless things, so that we can use time to the full, instead of wasting it.
The fruitfulness of our life is not only about the visible works we do. Every prayer in secret, every cross we carry, every small gesture of love, every denial of ourselves for the Lord’s sake, every humble act of trusting submission to God’s guidance; in short, every opportunity that comes our way on the path of holiness is a priceless invitation from the love of our Heavenly Father to make the time of our earthly life as fruitful as possible.
God Himself will be our reward!