Delay not! The Second Part of the Motto of the CCR

Noli morare! This second part of the motto of the Confraternity of Christ the King—in whole, Age viriliter! Noli morare!, or “Act manfully! Delay not!”—is just as important as the first. We must not only act manfully; we must act manfully now, and always, while the iron is hot. Like acting manfully, refusing to delay is deeply rooted in Scripture and Catholic tradition.

[W]e must act manfully now, and always, while the iron is hot.

Throughout the Scriptures, we repeatedly beg the Lord not to delay His mercies. The Latin words tardare and morari are used for “delay”; and most of the time when we find it in the Scriptures, it is addressed to God, asking Him to hurry and have mercy on us. We address such desires to God very frequently in the liturgy, as well; indeed, before each and every hour of the Divine Office, we pray, Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina: “Lord, hurry to my help.” Obviously, this desire for the Lord to come to us now rather than later is natural and important, and it makes sense that it's the dominant sense in the Scriptures when we are talking about delays.

A few times, however, the Scriptures talk about delay in reference to us, the faithful. Let's take a look and see if we can get a common sense from them. Note that, in the English of the best translation, the Douay-Rheims, we see the words “delay” and “tarry”.

2Rg 17:16 “Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying: Tarry not this night in the plains of the wilderness, but without delay pass over: lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people that is with him.”
Sir 29:11 “But yet towards the poor be thou more hearty, and delay not to shew him mercy.”
Ex 22:29 “Thou shalt not delay to pay thy tithes and thy firstfruits: thou shalt give the firstborn of thy sons to me.”
Dt 23:21 “When thou hast made a vow to the Lord thy God, thou shalt not delay to pay it: because the Lord thy God will require it. And if thou delay, it shall be imputed to thee for a sin.”
Sir 17:26 “Tarry not in the error of the ungodly, give glory before death. Praise perisheth from the dead as nothing.”

There is clearly a common sense here. In the first use, from 2 Kings, we see a very specific command to David: go right now, or bad things will happen. This is concrete, definite. The subsequent four uses—from very different parts of the Scripture, the Pentateuch and Sirach—are generalized statements: not “You, particular person: do this particular thing now”, but rather, “People—all of you—don't waste time, but do the right thing as soon as possible.”

The last two citations are perhaps the most poignant. From Deuteronomy, Moses writes that we need to fulfil our obligations now, when we can; we should not put it off or attempt to avoid it. And this obligation to act now, to delay not, is serious: “if thou delay, it shall be imputed to thee for a sin.”

Sirach's is even more pointed: “Praise perisheth from the dead as nothing.” We know neither the day nor the hour when the Lord will see fit to take us; we should do right now, for we know not when we will no longer be able to do it. The dead can do nothing good; act now, while you still can.

This thinking, that we must act now and delay not, is central to Catholic spirituality. It is very easy for us to say, “I will begin tomorrow.” Tomorrow I will fast; tomorrow I will begin my daily Rosary; tomorrow I will start my spiritual reading, my resolution to stop drinking, my donations to the poor. Yet far too often, “tomorrow” never comes.

So let us remember the words of Christ (Luke 9:59–62):

But he said to another: Follow me. And he said: Lord, suffer me first to go, and to bury my father. And Jesus said to him: Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou, and preach the kingdom of God. And another said: I will follow thee, Lord; but let me first take my leave of them that are at my house. Jesus said to him: No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Let the dead bury their dead; let us not look back after we put our hand to the plow. When Christ calls us, as He does at every moment, let us never tell Him that we have other things we must do first. Act now! Begin! Age viriliter! Noli morare!

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat!