Dear family, maybe you, like me, would hear your mom say something to the effect, “Finish what’s on your plate, don’t waste it, you know there are people starving in Africa.” It’s safe to say that when it came to peas and carrots, I was not much concerned about who might be starving. Frankly, if they were hungry, I gladly would have shared my excess peas and carrots.

The same anti-wastefulness doctrine would be drilled in many ways, “Quit standing there with the refrigerator door open” – “Close the door, we’re not heating the outside” – “Don’t waste your money on that.” Whatever it might be, we came to understand that wastefulness was a bad thing. In these “green” times, the culture really has hammered us with wasting any natural resources.

Further, depending on the gravity of what was wasted, the consequences could be great indeed. If we failed to work hard in school, we will have “wasted” our opportunity to get a good education. If we failed to further God-given talents in any other field, like music or sports, we might hear, “What a waste.” Pope St. John Paul II said, “Artistic talent is a gift from God and whoever discovers it in himself has a certain obligation: to know that he cannot waste this talent, but must develop it.”

If we failed to take advantage of any opportunity for such development, it would be an opportunity “wasted.” Who among us would want to bear the brunt of the accusation, “What a waste”? Jesus the Lord taught about wasting talents in the Parable of the Talents, and we all know what became of the guy who buried his talents in the back yard: “Throw this useless servant into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth” (Matthew 25:30).

Ironically, when I was younger, there was a phrase bantered about, essentially as a badge of honor, “I got wasted,” when referring to having done some hard partying. Somehow “getting wasted” was a good thing. To my shock, when researching the theology of waste, one search turned up the following: “Guidance on Cannabis Waste Management Requirements.” Seriously? What’s this world coming to?

Dear family, we all know we are supposed to eat our food, conserve energy, take good care of our bodies, and make something of the talents God has given us. We probably all do a credible job at not being wasteful in those departments. Rather, at the Last Judgment, the thing that likely will be the downfall of many is something few people even think about: wasted time. Victor Hugo, author of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, said: “Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.” Unfortunately, it seems not many pay attention to this waste of time until they run out of time. We all have heard the line: “On their deathbed nobody ever says I wish I would have spent another day in the office!” What I never have heard anyone say is “I wish I would have spent another day in church.”

So much of our thought processes about waste, maybe all of them, consider waste only as regards to temporal things. Do we ever consider waste regarding preparation for eternity? How much time do we waste that better could be spent in prayer and contemplation of eternal truths upon which our salvation actually depends? Perhaps if we spent more time in prayer and contemplation, we would not feel so great a need to waste so much time immersed in activities that do not promote an increase of grace in our lives. Perhaps we would not waste so much time on the accumulation and maintenance of temporal goods and spend a lot more time in accumulation and maintenance of spiritual goods. Unfortunately, sometimes trying to tell someone this is like “talking to the wall,” as the saying goes. In other words, it may seem like “you’re wasting your breath!”

St. Vincent de Paul said, “Our business is to attain heaven; everything else is a sheer waste of time.” That pretty much says it all. How many of us devote even a small portion of time, much less spend adequate and sufficient time, on the business of attaining heaven? How many of us hear and follow the voice of the Good Shepherd Himself who told us point blank, “When (Jesus) returned to His disciples He found them asleep. He said to Peter, ‘So you could not keep watch with Me for one hour? Watch and pray that you may not undergo the test’” (Matthew 26:40-41).

Do we not know that the time for testing is upon us?! Are we even attempting to waste less time on frivolous and temporal matters and spend more time on the only thing that counts?

Even this thought does not give us the fullness of our calling, our duty of service to others. All of us are called to suffer for others, to suffer for their souls. That is why the great Archbishop Sheen said, “Much suffering in hospitals is wasted.” It is why Mother Angelica said, “Suffering in itself does not make us holy. It is only when we unite it, out of love, to the suffering of Christ that it has meaning. Suffering without love is wasted pain.” It is why Pope St. John Paul II said, “each man, in his suffering, can also become a sharer in the redemptive suffering of Christ.”

Dear family, time is the only thing we cannot buy. No amount of money can perpetually delay our inevitable suffering and death. When that time comes for all of us, we will be called to account for our time. Did we waste it, or did we make good use of it? Did we take the toughest times of suffering and offer it up to share in the redemptive suffering of Christ? Let us once again stop and ponder those ultimate words of St. Vincent de Paul, “Our business is to attain heaven; everything else is a sheer waste of time.” (From “Let Freedom Ring“)