[AI translation] These words were spoken by Jesus when he met a man who was blind from birth, somewhere in a village in Judea or Galilee. At the sight of this wretched man, the disciples immediately engaged in an interesting theological debate: "who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind"? No doubt it is an interesting subject for people who like to philosophize and argue, but even if they decide it, they are not helping this man, he himself is not benefiting from it. Jesus does not even enter into the debate, but puts aside the whole theoretical question in a single sentence, and goes on to the action, saying, "I must do the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work." It is as if he said: life is not philosophy, but work! On this, the last night of the year, the Lord warns us with this Word of the great occasion of the passing of life.Jesus has always walked this earth with the firmest, most concrete vocation. He was so one with the Father that in His life and in His works, step by step, the whole plan of God's salvation, prepared in advance for eternity, is revealed. It was as if He were moving and doing His work in this world according to an invisible timetable. He had the most to do, and yet was never in a hurry. He was working to establish a kingdom destined to be the final order for mankind. But while he was at work, he never seemed in a feverish, urgent hurry. Not that he was restless, on the contrary! He never wasted a moment, nor was he ever preoccupied. He never lost sight of the real goal, never took a side-track, but always stuck to the one necessary. He knew exactly how long he had to work on this earth. He knew what he had to do in the meantime as God's messenger, and when the final moment of the appointed time arrived, he could safely say, "It is finished! Thus He lived among us, our divine Brother! Just as He said, "I must do the works of Him who sent Me while it is day."
If even He felt the urgency of the shortness of the time appointed for Him to accomplish His task, how much more must we, who do not even know how much time is appointed for us! One thing is certain: this Word applies to us too. It is also our duty to do the works of Him who sent us while it is day, for night is coming and then no one can work any more. No one is in this world by chance! Every man is sent by God! God has a purpose for every human life! There is no life without a purpose, only one that has not yet recognized this purpose in its life. God gives every man a task, every life carries a message from above. God sends everyone into life with a specific vocation. It would be difficult, of course, to go into detail about the specific tasks God has entrusted to each of us, but the great common purpose that God wants to achieve with each person's life is that He wants to redeem us! He wants us to share in the grace that Jesus has given us in His redemptive death, so that we may then truly live as His redeemed ones, for His glory! God's purpose for your life is that you, too, may be cleansed by the sin-atoning blood of Christ, in your own place, in your own circle, contributing as best you can to the increase of His glory.
Every man who believes in God through Jesus Christ is a representative of the Jesuit spirit, a messenger of God in his place. He is a co-worker with God, with whom God continues to do his healing, helping, blessing work for people and the world. For us who know God, it is our mission from Him that other people and the world may benefit from the fact that He is Lord to us. That we have a Lord who loves, forgives, comforts, lifts up, empowers, saves! Yes, this is the great opportunity of our earthly life to do the things of Him who sent us!
And whether one works in a mine, or at a desk, or lies in a hospital bed, or is in a merry company on New Year's Eve, or sits in prison, or on the schoolroom bench, he may believe with courage that there too God has sent him. There too, God has a work to do there, which he has to do there! A man in any walk of life, a man in any circumstance, may find his chief calling in being the embodiment of the Spirit of Christ where he is, in carrying out His purpose and His work in his relations with things and with men. God has often spoken to us about this in the preaching of the Word over the past year. So what we are talking about here is nothing new!
But now comes a great warning: we must do the works of Him who sent us while it is day, for the night is coming when no one can work. So to do our God-ordained work we have but one day. One day of time! This day marks the time of our life on earth. A day is a short time, it goes very quickly from sunrise to sunset! And it is a fixed time: once the sun is setting, there is no power in the world that can prolong its setting even for a moment. And the work that is not done by day remains undone forever. For when night comes, no one can work any more.
None of us knows where our day is, rising, setting or setting, how much time we have before darkness falls. But there is no doubt that the clock is moving strongly forward. "Another year, another God-ordained time of transience has come to an end." (Canto 280, verse 1) This evening also reminds us that the day has been shortened by a whole year, and the evening has come nearer! On this, the last evening of the year, the passing of time is almost tangible. We see ourselves with more grey hairs on our heads, more wrinkles on our faces, more strength in our muscles. Yet we live as if the day were endless. How much desperate effort we make to stop time! All this cosmetics is nothing but a desperate struggle against the night that is falling upon us! Only intoxicated exhilaration deludes itself with the claim: "We shall never die!" But even you don't believe what you say is true! In fact, you say it because you want to make yourself forget that the happy moments, the hours of life, are running dangerously long. We try in vain to make it seem as if time had not passed us by. In vain do we not want to think about it, we know, we feel, we see that our day is getting shorter and shorter, we are heading towards evening!
Here we are, burying another whole year of our lives. And that would not be a bad thing if we did not bury with it a lot of never to return occasions! Opportunities that God has given us to do His things while it is daylight. How much of what God has entrusted us to do up to this time of the day have we done? What good has our work been this year? Has it only aged us, only wearied us, only given us bread, or has it had some value that is recorded in heaven? Did you only do things that anyone else could have done in your place - perhaps even better than you - or did you do things that God sent you specifically to do? Were you only a man of whom twelve make a dozen, so you might as well not have been, or has this world been enriched by you in joy, beauty, goodness, love? Were you able to care for the soul of your child, the heart of your spouse?
A good friend of mine has been through a long, painful, crisis illness in the past year. He told me later that when his condition was at its most critical, he was most pained by the thought that there was so much he had not yet discussed with his wife and children that was the one thing he needed to do. And lo, now he might be forever late! Once he was called to a dying man in hospital. He was in despair, poor fellow, that, behold, his life was gone, run away, and he now only saw that he had neither given to God what was God's, nor to men what he owed. I have often seen how dreadful this late sorrow is! When the passing of time takes with it unused opportunities! Once a famous multimillionaire died. He was much talked about, even in strange company. Someone asked, "Don't you know how much he left behind?" Someone said, "Everything, down to the last penny!" Have you not also broken your heart for things that you will have to leave behind when the night comes? Have you worked for things that are worth only to the grave? Have you done the kind of work that Jesus will ask you to do at the last judgment in those familiar words, "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, and I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink" (Mt 25,35)?
Someone who, after a very turbulent life, finally came to God with a great needle in his hand, after his conversion, once heard the testimony of an old friend of his who had been a believer before. "Why did you not tell me about all this when we were students?" And will you not be accused in the next world of the same thing, why you who knew Jesus did not tell someone about Him? Have you brought anyone to Christ in the past year? Has anyone heard from you, seen from you, who Jesus is? How many times has God sent, called, urged you to do this work through the sermons you have heard here! Has the money that has passed through your hands increased the glory of God's name? Time is passing, you cannot hold back the day. Life is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and if we don't take advantage of it, there is no chance to relive it. Wherever we look, the merciless warning stares us in the face: it's much later than you think! Do you feel the urgency of the passing time: "Beware, for the night is coming when no one can work". God has measured out the day for each of us so long that it is just long enough to do the things he has sent us to do. No one can excuse himself for his unfinished work of life by saying that he has been given a short time. The day is always just long enough, if only we have enough faithfulness to the tasks entrusted to us!
A whole year has gone by, but the day is still here! Do we see in this mere fact the great grace of God to give thanks? As Jeremiah says: "The mercy of the Lord is that we have not yet come to an end, for his mercy shall not fail! He is renewed every morning; great is your faithfulness!" (JSir 3:22-23) This mercy, this grace, this faithfulness is also for Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ. It is not our merit that we do not yet have an end, but His. This merit means forgiveness of sins for the past, but in a way that at the same time means an even greater commitment to the future. Forgiveness means to be truly different from now on! Forgiveness here means that it is still not too late, but now then, make every effort not to be too late!
A pagan philosopher, Marcus Aurelius, said in one of his works: 'Do not pretend that you have a thousand years to live! Life is but one day! Someone once painted the image of the setting sun on his pocket watch with the inscription: "Night is coming!" In this way, the passing of time always reminded him of the brevity of life and the urgency of his tasks. The now past time of 1954 urges us to do the work of Him who sent us while it is day, for "the night is coming when no one can work". And yet we have much to do.
Amen
Date: the evening of 31 December 1954.