From the Editor’s Desk (Monday, 05-11-2015, Gaudium Press) The Catholic Church teaches us that time was created by God. It was meant to serve man and it should be used to give glory to God.
We offer hereafter some thoughts by Lucas Cordeiro, form http://novafriburgo.arautos.org, on a type of danger that everyone faces: wasting time. Let us try to avoid waiting our time because we will be made accountable, on our judgment day, on how we have used every moment of our time.
The first way of wasting our time
By doing nothing. All the faculties in our soul seem dull; we are not thinking in anything; we do not know what to do with ourselves; or if we think of something to do it is just a whish full thinking. If we do not have something to keep us busy, we spend our time, from morning till night, on frivolous conversations, in going around without a specific goal, with nothing in mind, playing games that make us can make up laziness and waste all our time .
The second way of wasting our time
We waist our time when make use of it for an evil purpose. Such is the case for those who spend their time in reading evil literature, obscene novels, criticizing other people, hanging around with dangerous companies, by frequenting places where sin is being practiced, by shaping projects of revenge, of hatred, of envy, by, in one word, listening to the serpent.
The third way of wasting our time
We waist our time by practicing actions that are it themselves indifferent, that is, that they have nothing reprehensible per se nor in the way that they are done. They are done mechanically, without a well-defined goal, or out of pure human and natural motivations. For example, eating only because we are hungry or because it is super time; going to bed just because the person wants to sleep regardless of what time of the day it is; talking just because you want to spend some time. Of course all this is without any spiritual merit, because it is made without taking God into account. What a waste and what a disgrace! To make these actions worthy of Heaven it suffices a good intention.
The fourth way of wasting our time
We waist our time even when we do good works but they are not in accordance with our personal duties. It is the sin committed by those who forget their duties given by their state in life come before everything else; that what they do is out of place or out of the proper time; who often think of what they should do but end up doing what they should not be doing; sleeping when it is time to wake up; praying when it is time to work or working when it is time to pray.
The fifth way of wasting our time
We waist our time when we do good works, which are in accordance with our duties, but are in one of these two wrong ways: 1) When we are in mortal sin: because in this state, all our works are spiritually dead, they have no merit in God’s eyes; they can move God to grant us His grace for us to repent of our sins, but they have no value for our salvation; 2 °) When we do good works out of vanity or mere ostentation to distinguish ourselves and obtain the esteem of others, instead of doing them for God’s glory; when for example, we give something to a poor person only out of a mere human filling, a personal sympathy.
The sixth way of wasting our time
Finally, we waist our time by doing what is right, with a good intention and in accordance with our duties but we do not do them it the right time, or the right place, or in the way they should be done. This is the case when people do good things but they do them in a bad mode, grudgingly, unwillingly, without love and good disposition of spirit, without being done for the sake of God and His glory. In this case the merits are lost or at least diminished. That vast subject for a examine of conscience! [1]
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[1] H. Hamon, Meditations for every day of the year, Lello and Brothers Editors.
