Saint Paul writes to Titus, "Young men exhort to be sober." It is not sobriety, as opposed to excess in drink, but sobriety of mind, sober mindedness, which is here meant. What is this? Certainly not the not being trifling, without a spirit of enquiry, or a desire of information, or a desire and aim to advance and to excel in what is useful; and as certainly it does mean the not being vain and scornful, hasty, ambitious, inflated, and immoderate in any even good and laudable pursuit. But much more is meant, of which I will touch on a part. No man can properly be sober-minded who does not consider the present life as transient and uncertain, and inseparably connected with a future and everlasting state of things. But all men, especially young men, are apt to act, talk, and think as if there was only the present life. Unless, therefore, this life is viewed as a mere passage to another, and every day's employment as connected with another, future and eternal life, and that as the day's employment is carried on in Christian faith and obedience, or not, so will be the future, eternal state, young men will not be sober in Saint Paul's meaning of the word. Sober-mindedness will be conceit, and affectation, and hypocrisy, unless the necessity of Christian faith and obedience weigh on the mind, rest in the heart, and affect the conscience. Nothing will make a young man sober who does not often and seriously consider that be is here for a little while, and that his future, unbounded, eternal state is connected with his present conduct and temper, his faith or unbelief, his attention to or neglect of religious duties. While eternity is kept out of sight young men will not be sober, and it is the grace of the Holy Spirit in answer to prayer which alone can make and keep them so.
- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp