Never Too Late to Pray

We’re easily discouraged.  Even in little things, we give up far too easily.  Sometimes we’re so discouraged, we don’t even want to begin.  Dull or insignificant tasks are put off until there are so many of them we’re overwhelmed and don’t even know where to start.  The result?  We don’t start.  We sit and wallow in the mayhem and untidy mess that our lives—or in my case, my desk—has become.  The thought of actually diving in and cleaning up the chaos we’ve allowed to accumulate is just too much for our weakened willingness to act, and it takes an almost superhuman effort to take the plunge and begin.  We envy those people who, unlike us, always keep up with what they have to do, so that now they have barely to lift a finger to maintain the well-oiled machine of their daily routine.

Today’s Gospel starts out by making a similar point.  A bunch of labourers are hired first thing in the morning, and they toil away all day long, expecting a nice reward when their time is up.  If we are like them, and have kept things moving, we too may rightfully expect the nice reward of having a well-maintained life, bills all paid up, filing completed, floors vacuumed and bookshelves dusted.  But if we’ve been standing idle, leaving our duties for some mythical “tomorrow” that never comes, we may despair of ever doing what it takes, flinching from starting work at the midday of our lives, and certainly not at the eleventh hour. 

This is where our Lord surprises us with a twist at the end of his parable.  It turns out that those labourers who were hired later in the day, even as late as the eleventh hour, end up receiving the same reward as those who had toiled all the day long.  It’s our Lord’s way of encouraging us never to give up.  It’s never too late to start work.  Maybe we have to work a little bit harder to catch up, but it will be worth it in the end because we receive the same reward.  My desk may take a while to clean up, but in the end it will be the same clean desk as the person who just keeps it clear day after day.  So don’t be discouraged, Our Lord tells us, no matter how late you’ve left it, you need to get to work and do what it takes to save your soul.  For your reward will be the same in the end.

So here we are with our main point on this Septuagesima Sunday.  It’s time to start work. 

Christmastide is over, and we’re entering the sombre period of Shrovetide, which is nothing more than a preparation for Lent.  Lent in turn is a preparation for Passiontide.  Starting now, it’s one long preparation for the Passion and Death of the Son of God.  That preparation work means prayer.  And it’s better if we start praying now than wait until Good Friday.  We should have been praying all along throughout our lives.  But have we?  We’re not monks, we’re not nuns, you might say, we’re busy people with busy lives.  We can’t work for God and pray to God as though there’s nothing else to do.  This is not a valid objection.  We’re called to pray constantly, even when our mind is on other things than God.  We need to make that virtual morning offering every day, by which we offer up every single menial task and duty of life up to God as a prayer.  This way, everything we do becomes a prayer, every little thing has its ultimate focus on our Creator and loving Saviour.

If you think you’re an old dog to whom new tricks cannot be taught, then think again.  It may be the midday of your life or even the eleventh hour, but it’s not too late to start praying.  Indeed, the later it gets, the more imperative it is that we pray—if, that is, we want to earn that same reward as those who have prayed their whole life.