33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - B 2024

If you only had an hour or even a day left to live, what would you do with your remaining time?

The bishop St. John Fisher lived from 1469 to 1535.  He served as a bishop in England and was executed by the order of King Henry VIII.  After Henry VIII split from the Catholic Church and declared himself the head of the Church of England, Fisher pushed back.  He would not recognize Henry as the head of the Church of England.  One morning while in prison, Fisher was woken up by the prison guard at 5 am.  He was informed that he would be executed that morning.  Fisher thanked the guard for informing him and then asked if he could sleep another hour or so because he was tired.

St. Dominic Savio lived a short life.  He was only fourteen years old when he passed away in 1857.  One day as Dominic was playing soccer, one of the other boys he was playing with asked him “Dominic, what would you do if you only had one hour left to live?”  Dominic replied “I would continue playing soccer.”

If you had an hour left to live, what would you do with your remaining time?  Sleep and soccer.  This is how a saint would answer that question.  John Fisher and Dominic Savio were ready for the end.  There was no need for fear or panic.  I am willing to bet that if we knew that we had only one precious hour left on earth, we would scramble and rush to make final preparations.  We all want more time to prepare for the end.  Perhaps the feeling of panic we might experience betrays the fact that we are not prepared to die.  We are not ready.

In the Gospel passage read today Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem and the end of the world.  The destruction of Jerusalem is going to be terrible.  Sure enough, in 70 A.D. the Romans annihilated Jerusalem along with the temple.  One historian writes that when the Romans were finished it wasn’t clear that a city even existed there before.  1.2 million Jews were killed.  It was a great tragedy.  Everything the Jewish people had known and loved was destroyed.  To this day two thousand years later the temple still hasn’t been rebuilt.  Jesus goes on to say that “Heaven and earth will pass away but my word will not pass away.”  Everything we know and are familiar with in this life will pass away but Jesus and His promises will never pass away.

It remains true that everything in this world will pass away.  We are going to die.  I do not say this to sound pessimistic or macabre.  I am merely stating a fact.  Everything we know will crumble with the passing of time.  And when our time is up will we be ready?  In the hour of death will we experience peace or fear, joy or regret?  Have we stored up treasure in Heaven or have we spent our lives building our own little worldly empires which will quickly wash away like sand castles on a beach?

If we are not prepared to die, I would suggest that we are not really prepared to live.  To live as a saint is to always have the end in mind and to have a proper perspective of our limited time on earth.  This does not mean that we should spend our lives moping and wallowing in pessimism.  The saints were the most joyful people to ever live.  And yet, they were always mindful of the end.  Almost paradoxically because they were mindful of the end they were freer to live their lives untroubled.  Because they were always ready to die, they did not fear the end.  Because they were prepared for the end, they truly lived.  Putting first things first and preparing for the end instills within us a hope and a joy that nothing in this world can offer.  That is how St. John Fisher lived.  That is how St. Dominic Savio lived.  And that is how you and I are called to live.

If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, how would you react?  What would you do with the remaining time?  Would you go about your business unworried and unbothered or would you scramble to make final preparations?  Will you have spent your life putting down roots in the Kingdom of God or will you have spent your life building your own earthly kingdom?  Let’s resolve to live our lives in such a way where we never have to fear the end.  Let’s live our lives with true preparedness and hope.  Let’s be like St. John Fisher and St. Dominic Savio.