Wasting time is a sin against which Commandment?
Catarina de Assis Fonseca – Brazil
Our inquirer is already certain that wasting time is a sin… and she is absolutely right! First of all, to ensure that everything is clear, the initial question is: what is wasting time?
Nowadays, there is a lot of concern, and rightly so, about wasting water or food, but less attention is paid to wasting time – another of God’s precious creatures, for which we will have to pay serious accounts. However, the reason why the waste of any good we have received from our Creator constitutes a fault is the same: not using it according to the proper order of things, but in a senseless, capricious, irrational way. Now, one of the definitions of sin consists precisely in acting contrary to right reason.
Spending hours on useless internet browsing, for example, watching videos that will not do us any good, while we have countless other duties to attend to, is really a sin of wasting time.
Like any sin, wasting time is contrary to the First Commandment because instead of loving God above all things and acting in accordance with Him, we prioritize satisfying a personal whim.
But, depending on the specific case, this fault can also offend other Commandments: the Fourth, if we waste time when it would be our obligation to carry out some duty of state – for example, the upbringing and care of children, in the case of parents – or when a minor wastes his or her time contrary to an express prohibition from a father or mother; the Seventh, if we occupy ourselves with amusements during working hours, instead of carrying out the service for which we are being paid; the Sixth and Ninth, if we waste time watching something contrary to chastity or placing ourselves in a near occasion, or a high risk, of doing so; the Fifth, if we scandalize others with such senseless conduct, and so on.
Let us therefore be very serious in our use of this precious creature of God, which “flies irretrievably” (Virgil. Georgicas. L.III, 284).
Why do the Heralds wear boots?
José Leite Filho – Brazil
For many reasons… In the first place, because they denote the missionary character of the life of the Heralds, who are willing to travel any distance to evangelize.
However, let us consider a deeper, supernatural symbolism, well indicated by the words of Sacred Scripture: “I will put enmities between thee and the Woman, and thy seed and her seed: She shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel” (Gn 3:15).
Our founder, Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, was always fascinated by this passage from Genesis, called the Protoevangelium, because it contains a true prophecy of the whole of salvation history, based on Our Lord Jesus Christ and Our Lady.
He explained that all the children and slaves of love of Mary Most Holy must be in constant combat against the Serpent, vigilant not to fall into his traps and be wounded by him. And this militant character of our struggle on earth – so present in the charism of the Heralds due to the note of discipline that Msgr. João imprinted on his work – is very aptly expressed by beautiful and sturdy boots.
