Tomorrow May Never Come
Peasant Times-Dispatch Issue 24
Do your duty ‘now’, without looking back on ‘yesterday’, which has already passed, or worrying over ‘tomorrow’, which may never come for you.
- St. Josemaria Escriva
Meet St. Josemaria Escriva
St. Josemaria Escriva is a relatively new Saint on my radar. He was recommended months ago by
, who offered his book called “The Way” which is 999 quotes. St. Josemaria Escriva founded the order Opus Dei, and is a fascinating, fascinating figure. His “Way” will feature heavily in my quote repository, and it was hard to choose which quote to use to introduce him. This is #253 in “The Way”.Memento Mori and Me
You might think, as I have in the past, that this quote is somewhat morbid. In a way, it is—it’s an invitation to remember that God may whisk us away at any moment, for any reason; to say nothing of the potential for the Final End, the Eschaton, to arrive before we are ready.
I was not raised Catholic. As I’ve mentioned, I entered the Church in 2018. Growing up, death was always the Worst Possible Thing. When I was 12, I watched my grandfather wither and succumb to cancer, I watched my father become addled by grief. I watched my extended family torn apart by bitterness following disputes over estates. I remember, when very young, trying to imagine death as I fell to sleep—first by mentally imagining an absence of sensation, and then by admonishing my thoughts for the act of thinking, which wouldn’t be possible when dead. For a moment, I would experience a sense of that deep dark of nothingness, and I would be rattled for days, if not weeks.
After I became Catholic, I remember attending an event for young adults in my parish and people took turns giving mini-testimonies. One person shared about her experience of HER grandfather passing away. A priest was present to offer last rites, her grandfather was able to receive viaticum, and he passed blissfully into the next life surrounded by praying family who suddenly had confidence that their beloved family member had passed into the comforting arms of God (we are permitted to hope!).
This testimony left a profound impression on me, and was a stark contrast to the devastation experienced in my own family.
St. Josemaria Escriva’s quote above, if I encountered it before I was catholic, would have been received as a warning that death could fall like the blade of a guillotine at any moment, and send me into nothingness. Now, armed with faith, I see it as a message about diligence and vigilance. Diligence to work, today, in a way worthy of God; vigilance to preserve my soul from sin, so that I may meet God with my head held high.
Deployed To Earth
There’s something I said in an ancient edition of the Peasant Times Dispatch which I am not going to dig up. It’s a problem I have with the common cliche “live like there’s no tomorrow”, or “You Only Live Once” commonly abbreviated YOLO. These quotes often inspire people to live recklessly, go skydiving, to consume life experiences for the sake of having those experiences. I prefer the idea that we should live like today is our ONLY day—like we have been deployed to this earth by God for one 24 hour period, and we must make the most of it.
It’s this latter idea which St. Escriva has targeted with surgical precision. Today is it. Save nothing for tomorrow. Don’t linger on yesterday. Now, now, now.
We wake up each day to find God has given us 24 hours to work with and with which we must find some way to glorify him in ways big and small. The parable of the talents comes to mind—yes, we could spend all day in prayer, but is that the most effective use of our time? What about our responsibilities, what about witnessing to our neighbors the truth of Christ? We should seek to end each day having multiplied our talents as much as possible. Everyone’s circumstances are unique—what is the best thing we can do? Forget yesterday, whether we multiplied our talents effectively or not. Spare no thought for tomorrow, which we can’t bank on. We have only today, we have only right now. What is the best thing we can do?
Diligence and Vigilance
As peasants, we return to the ideas of diligence and vigilance. Diligence is usually attributed to work. What work do we have on our plate for this 24 hour period? When the day ends, can we say we did our best and mean it in a way that God would agree with us? When we are called before God on that ultimate day which has no tomorrow, will He be able to point to our works and say we multiplied our talents tenfold?
This is not at all to say that God is “counting the cost” so to speak. Everyone’s circumstances are known to Him with perfect clarity. But we should strive to do more. We should not be complacent that we have done enough. Sometimes that work is interior work—cleaning out our souls and ridding ourselves of sin. Sometimes that work is exterior work, evangelizing and bringing God to the world. We should be diligent in ensuring we are doing enough. A peasant with a farm cannot suppose he has enough grain to last the winter. He must work assiduously to provide for his family through the lean times. Never rest in the service of God: as St. Augustine said, “I am restless until I rest in thee.”
What then about vigilance? A peasant must harvest, but also must protect that harvest. It is one thing to gather in a crop, it is another to prevent it from being lost to theft, rot, or pests. Imagine if one of the servants in the parable said to the Lord that, though he was given talents, he was robbed and lost it all. This is what sin does in our lives—it robs us of all the graces God has given us. We should be vigilant in preventing sin and near occasions of sin from robbing us of the fruit of our diligent labor in the service of God. To restate St. Josemaria Escriva—if we were robbed yesterday, today we must do the work of winning it back. If we were robbed today, we may not get another chance tomorrow. Today is all that counts. Have we done enough?
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Thank you for reading! God bless!
AJPM
This one was really good, Scoot. Thank you.
Dang Scoot