Note: The following is an edited version of a homily I delivered at the Sacramento State Newman Center. My parish homily was a bit different due to a capital campaign we are currently conducting. The readings can be found here.

---

Have you made time for God in your schedule lately? Yes, of course, we all know when we need to be at Sunday Mass, but do you carve time out for Him in your daily schedule? Is your relationship with God a priority in your life?

Recently in a newspaper article entitled, “The Trivial Tasks that Haunt Our To-Do Lists”, author Emma Brockes writes about how all of these little tasks pile up on our to-do lists and can slow us down and even grind us to a halt to the point that we don’t get them done. In Emma’s case, it was a broken vacuum cleaner that sat in her home for a few weeks. Recently, I was pushed to look at my own “to-do” list after making a comment to our seminarian that I had 25 tasks left to do in the week and yet later in the day, I postponed (in other words, procrastinated) on several of them. We all have long to-do lists and packed schedules and sometimes I wonder if we couldn’t thin them out a bit in order to place God on our calendar, in order to make time for Him because, honestly, He is a lot more important than some of the items that we absent-mindedly place on our to-do lists.

The Sunday readings during November have an eternal focus and here I am talking about mundane things like to-do lists and calendars but if we do not carve out time for God now, here in the present moment, how can we hope to have the time to spend with Him in eternity? One day the Lord will come: sooner than we think, “the sun of justice with [His] healing rays”[1] will come to renew the world, even though He will start as a small child in a far off manger. “The Lord comes to rule the Earth with justice” and if we are not ready for Him, if we don’t make time for Him now, how can we hope to recognize Him when He does come?

This daily preparation, this daily striving to build a relationship with God, a relationship that He so desperately wants with us, is the key to recognizing the presence of God in our lives. By placing God first in our lives, we will recognize His presence, the prompting of His Holy Spirit in even the smallest moments. In our world today, there are all kinds of strange teachings that surround us. Many even come in the name of Jesus, saying, “I am he”[2] but they are false prophets. There are people and even organizations that set themselves up as saviors for us all, but we must never be fooled. Politicians, celebrities, gurus, and all sorts of people will set themselves up as “the next best thing.” Instead of following them, we need to follow Jesus Christ and take to heart the exhortation of Saint Paul, working quietly, earning our keep, and building a relationship with God.[3]

How do we build that relationship? Again, we go back to the need to carve out time for God in our daily lives, to build a true and lasting relationship with Jesus Christ. Is it easy? No, certainly not: people will hate us because of the name of Christ, but not a hair on our heads will be harmed if we only stand fast for the truth, justice, and mercy of our Lord. The only way to recognize where we must go, to discover God in our lives, is to build a relationship with Him in the first place, and the only way to do THAT my friends is to make time for Him each and every day.

“The days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down,” when all of this that we have here will be taken away and we will be left with nothing but a face to face encounter with God.[4] When that time comes, what will we say? Will we have to explain how we had more important things to do than to spend time with Him? Or will we take peace and consolation in the fact that in our life’s highs and lows, we turned to Him, we made time for Him, and we sought Him out?

Many of us here are in the midst of midterms or even starting to look toward finals. For my own part, I have an unfinished thesis hanging over me that beckons to be completed. We have so much to worry about and so much to do, but in the big scheme of things, isn’t God more important? Yes, we have many things in our lives that demand our time, talent, and treasure, but God should take pride of place among it all. I am not saying that we should shirk our responsibilities, but imagine if we came face to face with God and said, “Oh Lord, I don’t have time this week – next week I will stop and spend some time with you.” My friends, the time and place is now. Here in this moment, we are about to be face to face with God in the Eucharist. In our daily lives, surely, we all have time, talent, or treasure, myself included, that we can dedicate to Him. Let’s make our Blessed Lord more important than that big exam, that soccer game, or our next purchase at the Amazon and place Him first in our lives. If we put him first, everything else will fall into place.

“But Father!” I can hear you saying, “I have too much to do or too much to worry about!” Our Lord answers that by saying, “By your perseverance you will secure your lives.” We worry too much about needless things, forgetting that our Lord tells us, “I myself shall give you wisdom in speaking.” Elsewhere in Scripture, He says, “Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.”[5]

Let us set aside our worries and trust in God’s providence. Yes, we all have many important things to worry about in our lives, but now, as we come face to face with God in the Blessed Sacrament, let us worry about the only thing that matters: eternal life with God. Let’s re-examine our to-do lists and calendars and make time for Him, even making Him the first priority in our lives because we will find that, in the end, eternity is a lot more important than that broken vacuum cleaner.

---

References:

[1] First reading

[2] Gospel reading

[3] Cf. second reading

[4] Gospel reading

[5] Matt. 6:31-32