Prologue continued:

Let us arise, then, at last, for the Scripture stirs us up, saying, "Now is the hour for us to rise from sleep" (Rom. 13:11). Let us open our eyes to the deifying light, let us hear with attentive ears the warning which the divine voice cries daily to us, "Today if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts" (Ps. 94[95]:8). And again, "Whoever has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Matt. 11-15; Apoc. 2:7). And what does He say? "Come, My children, listen to Me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord" (Ps. 33[34]:12). "Run while you have the light of life, lest the darkness of death overtake you" (John 12:35).

Tomorrow, mañana, later….famous last words of procrastinators everywhere. I’ll start my diet tomorrow. I’ll forgive my sister tomorrow. I’ll start exercising tomorrow. I’ll give more, I’ll be more, I’ll pray more, and I’ll try more … tomorrow. We humans have a tendency to delay the inevitable, ever hear of a snooze button on an alarm clock? But what if tomorrow doesn’t come? What if we have no more tomorrows and we have no more time to give, forgive, pray? St. Benedict knew about our tendency to delay and is urgently reminding us that it is unacceptable and that we must live our lives today, now.

If we knew we had a short time left to live, what would we do today to make our last days mean something? There is a song by Tim McGraw titled, "Live Like You Were Dying", in the song a man is faced with the news that he is dying and he is asked what he did with that news and he says, ‘I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter, and I gave forgiveness I'd been denying… I was finally the husband that most the time I wasn’t. An' I became a friend a friend would like to have…Well, I finally read the Good Book, and I took a good long hard look, at what I'd do if I could do it all again.’ Now that is a great philosophy. Are we not all called to live like we were dying? To love deeper, forgive quicker, be the friend that we were meant to be, and to live with the light of life always in our hearts, minds and souls. Is it easy? No, because we cannot get complacent or lazy, we have to be always alert and on our game. There is an urgency that we cannot ignore as St. Benedict cautions, "Run while you have the light of life, lest the darkness of death overtake you" (John 12:35). Tomorrow is a bonus that we might not receive but today is a gift that can be unwrapped and enjoyed now.