Preparation for Death - Consideration VI

The Death of the Sinner.

“When distress cometh upon them, they will seek for peace, and there shall be none. Trouble shall come upon trouble.” – Ezek. vii. 25.

FIRST POINT.
The Sinner will Seek God at Death, but He will not Find Him.

At present sinners banish the remembrance and thought of death; and thus they seek after peace, though they never find it, in the sinful life which they lead. But when they are found in the straits of death, on the point of entering into eternity, they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.¹ Then they will not be able to fly from the torture of their sinful conscience. They will seek peace; but what peace can be found by a soul loaded with sins that sting it like so many vipers? What peace can the sinner enjoy when he sees that he must in a few moments appear before the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ, whose law and friendship he has till then despised? Trouble shall come upon trouble.² The news of death, which has been already announced, the thought of being obliged to take leave of everything in this world, the remorse of conscience, the time lost, the want of time at present, the rigor of the divine judgment, the unhappy eternity which awaits sinners—all these things will form a horrible tempest, which will confuse the mind, will increase his apprehensions; and thus, full of confusion and distrust, the dying sinner will pass to the other world.

Trusting in the divine promise, Abraham, with great merit, hoped in God, against human hope.³ But sinners, with great demerit, hope falsely and to their own perdition, not only against hope but also against faith; because they despise the menaces of God against all who are obstinate in sin. They are afraid of a bad death, but they fear not to lead a wicked life. But who has assured them that they will not suddenly be deprived of life by a thunderbolt, by apoplexy, or by the bursting of a blood-vessel? And were they at death even allowed time for repentance, who assures them that they will sincerely return to God? To conquer bad habits, St. Augustine had to fight against them for twelve years. How will the dying man, who has always lived in sin, be able, in the midst of the pains, the stupefaction, and the confusion of death, to repent sincerely of all his past iniquities? I say sincerely, because it is not enough to say and to promise with the tongue: it is necessary to promise with the heart. O God! what terror and confusion will seize the unhappy Christian who has led a careless life, when he finds himself overwhelmed with sins, with the fears of judgment, of hell, and of eternity! Oh! what confusion will these thoughts produce when the dying sinner will find his reason gone, his mind darkened, and his whole frame assailed by the pains of approaching death. He will make his confession; he will promise, weep, and seek mercy from God, but without understanding what he does; and in this tempest of agitation, of remorse, of pains and terrors, he will pass to the other life. The people shall be troubled, and they shall pass.⁴ A certain author says that the prayers, the wailings, and promises of dying sinners are like the tears and promises of a man assailed by an enemy who points a dagger to his throat to take away his life. Miserable the man who takes to his bed at enmity with God, and passes from the bed of sickness to eternity.

Affections and Prayers.

O wounds of Jesus! you are my hope. I should despair of the pardon of my sins, and of my eternal salvation, did I not behold you, the fountains of mercy and grace, through which a God has shed all his blood, to wash my soul from the sins which I have committed. I adore you, then, O holy wounds! and trust in you. I detest a thousand times, and curse those vile pleasures by which I have displeased my Redeemer, and have miserably lost his friendship. Looking then at Thee, I raise up my hopes, and turn my affections to Thee. My dear Jesus, Thou deservest to be loved by all men, and to be loved with their whole heart. I have so grievously offended Thee, I have despised Thy love; but, notwithstanding my sinfulness, Thou hast borne with me so long, and invited me to pardon with so much mercy. Ah, my Saviour, do not permit me evermore to offend Thee, and to merit my own damnation. O God! what torture should I feel in hell at the sight of Thy blood and of the great mercies Thou hast shown me. I love Thee, and will always love Thee. Give me holy perseverance. Detach my heart from all love which is not for Thee, and confirm in me a true desire, a true resolution henceforth, to love only Thee, my sovereign good. O Mary, my Mother draw me to God, and obtain for me the grace to belong entirely to him before I die.

SECOND POINT.
Anguish of the Dying Sinner.

The poor dying sinner will be assailed, not by one, but by many causes of distress and anguish. On the one hand, the devils will torment him. At death these horrid enemies exert all their strength to secure the perdition of the soul that is about to leave this world. They know that they have but little time to gain it, and that if they lose it at death, they shall lose it forever. The Devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.⁵ The dying man will be tempted, not by one, but by innumerable devils, who will labor for his damnation. Their houses shall be filled with serpents.⁶ One will say: Fear not; you will recover. Another You have been deaf to the inspirations of God for so many years, and do you now expect that he will have mercy on you? Another will ask: How can you make satisfaction for all the injuries you have done to the property and character of your neighbors? Another: Do you not see that your confessions have been null, that they have been made without sorrow or a purpose of amendment? How will you now be able to repair them?

On the other hand, the dying man will see himself surrounded by his sins. Evils, says David, shall catch the unjust man unto destruction.⁷ These sins, says St. Bernard, like so many satellites, shall keep him in chains, and shall say unto him: “We are your works; we shall not desert you.”⁸ We are your offspring; we will not leave you; we will accompany you to the other world, and will present ourselves with you to the Eternal Judge. The dying man will then wish to shake off such enemies; but, to get rid of them, he must detest them, he must return sincerely to God. His mind is darkened, and his heart hardened. A hard heart shall fare evil at the last; and he that loveth danger shall perish in it.⁹ St. Bernard says that the man who has been obstinate in sin during life, will make efforts, but without success, to get out of the state of damnation; and that, overwhelmed by his own malice, he will end his life in the same unhappy state. Having loved sin till death, he has also loved the danger of damnation. Hence the Lord will justly permit him to perish in that danger in which he has voluntarily lived till the end of his life. St. Augustine says that he who is abandoned by sin before he abandons it, will scarcely detest it as he ought; because what he will then do will be done through necessity.¹⁰

Miserable the sinner that hardens his heart and resists the divine calls: His heart shall be as hard as a stone and as firm as a smith’s anvil.¹¹ Instead of yielding to the graces and inspirations of God, and being softened by them, the unhappy man becomes more obdurate, as the anvil is hardened by repeated strokes of the hammer. In punishment of his resistance to the divine calls, he will find his heart in the same miserable state at the very hour of death, at the moment of passing into eternity. A hard heart shall fare evil at the last.¹² Sinners, says the Lord, you have, for the love of creatures, turned your back upon me. They have turned their back upon me, and not their face; and in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us. Where are the gods thou hast made thee? Let them arise and deliver thee.¹³ They will have recourse to God at death; but he will say to them: Why do you invoke me now? Call on creatures to assist you; for they have been your gods. The Lord will address them in this manner, because, in seeking him, they do not sincerely wish to be converted. St. Jerome says that he holds, and that he has learned from experience, that they who have to the end led a bad life, will never die a good death.¹⁴

Affections and Prayers.

My dear Saviour! assist me; do not abandon me. I see my whole soul covered with the wounds of sin, my passions attack me violently, my bad habits weigh me down. I cast myself at Thy feet; have pity on me and deliver me from so many evils. In Thee, O Lord! I have hoped; may I not be confounded forever.¹⁵ Do not suffer a soul that trusts in Thee, to be lost. Deliver not up to beasts the souls that confess to Thee.¹⁶ I am sorry for having offended Thee, O infinite Goodness. I have done evil, I confess my guilt. I wish to amend my life, whatsoever it may cost me. But if Thou dost not help me by Thy grace, I am lost. Receive, O my Jesus! the rebel who has so grievously outraged Thy majesty. Remember that I have been purchased by Thy blood and Thy life. Through the merits then of Thy Passion and death, receive me into Thy arms, and give me holy perseverance. I was lost, Thou hast called me back: I will resist no longer: to Thee I consecrate myself; bind me to Thy love, and do not permit me evermore to lose Thee by losing Thy grace again. My Jesus! do not permit it. Mary, my queen! do not permit it: obtain for me death, and a thousand deaths, rather than that I should again forfeit the grace of thy Son.

THIRD POINT.
We Must Seek God when we can Find Him.

It is a marvellous thing that God unceasingly threatens sinners with an unhappy death. Then they shall call upon me, and I will not hear.¹⁷ Will God hear his cry when distress shall come upon him?¹⁸ I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock.¹⁹ According to St. Gregory, God laughs when he is unwilling to show mercy.²⁰ Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time.²¹

The Lord pronounces the same threats in so many other places: and sinners live in peace as securely as if God had certainly promised to give them, at death, pardon and paradise. It is true that at whatsoever hour the sinner is converted God promises to pardon him. But he has not promised that sinners will be converted at death: on the contrary, he has often protested that they who live in sin shall die in sin. You shall die in your sins.²² He has declared that they who seek him at death shall not find him.²³ You shall seek me, and shall not find me.²⁴ We must, therefore, seek God while he may be found.²⁵ A time shall come when it will not be in our power to find him. Poor blind sinners! they put off their conversion till death, when there will be no more time for repentance. “The wicked,” says Oleaster, “have never learned to do good unless when the time for doing good is no more.”²⁶ God wills the salvation of all: but he takes vengeance on obstinate sinners.

Should any man in a state of sin be seized with apoplexy and be deprived of his senses, what sentiments of compassion would be excited in all who should see him die without the sacraments and without signs of repentance! And how great should be their delight, if he recovered the use of his senses, asked for absolution, and wade acts of sorrow for his sins! But is not he a fool who has time to repent and prefers to continue in sin? or who returns to sin, and exposes himself to the danger of being cut off by death without the sacraments, and without repentance? A sudden death excites terror in all; and still how many expose themselves to the danger of dying suddenly, and of dying in sin?

Weight and balance are the judgments of the Lord.²⁷ We keep no account of the graces which God bestows upon us; but he keeps an account of them, he measures them; and when he sees them despised to a certain degree, he then abandons the sinner in his sin, and takes him out of life in that unhappy state. Miserable the man who defers his conversion till death. St. Augustine says: “The repentance which is sought from a sick man is infirm.”²⁸ St. Jerome teaches, that of a hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin till death, scarcely one will be saved.²⁹ St. Vincent Ferrer writes that it is a greater miracle to bring such sinners to salvation, than to raise the dead to life.³⁰

What sorrow, what repentance, can be expected at death from the man who has loved sin till that moment? Bellarmine relates that when he exhorted to contrition a certain person whom he assisted at death, the dying man said that he did not know what was meant by contrition. The holy Bishop endeavored to explain it to him; but he said: Father, I do not understand you; these things are too high for me. He died in that state, leaving, as the venerable Cardinal has written, sufficiently evident signs of his damnation. St. Augustine says that by a just chastisement the sinner who has forgotten God during life shall forget himself at death.³¹

Be not deceived, says the Apostle, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall he reap corruption.³² It would be a mockery of God to live in contempt of his laws, and afterward to reap remuneration and eternal glory. But God is not mocked. What we sow in this life, we reap in the next. For him who sows the forbidden pleasures of the flesh, nothing remains but corruption, misery, and eternal death.

Beloved Christian, what is said for others is also applicable to you. Tell me: if you were at the point of death, given over by the physicians, deprived of your senses, and in your last agony, with what fervor would you ask of God another month or week to settle the accounts of your conscience! God at present gives you this time: thank him for it, and apply an immediate remedy to the evil you have done; adopt all the means of finding yourself in the grace of God when death comes; for then there will be no more time to acquire his friendship.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my God! who would have borne with me so patiently as Thou hast? If Thy goodness were not infinite, I would despair of pardon. But I have to deal with a God who has died for my salvation. Thou commandest me to hope, and I will hope. If my sins terrify and condemn me, Thy merits and Thy promises encourage me. Thou hast promised the life of Thy grace to all who return to Thee. Return ye and live.³³ Thou hast promised to embrace him who is converted to Thee. Turn ye to me, and will turn to you.³⁴ Thou hast said that Thou knowest not how to despise a contrite and humble heart.³⁵ Behold me, O Lord; I return to Thee; I acknowledge that I deserve a thousand hells; I am sorry for having offended Thee. I firmly promise never again to offend Thee voluntarily, and to love Thee forever. Ah! do not suffer me any longer to be ungrateful to such unbounded goodness. O eternal Father, through the merits of the obedience of Jesus Christ, who died to obey Thee, grant that I may till death be obedient to all Thy wishes. I love Thee, O Sovereign Good! and through the love which I bear Thee, I desire to obey Thee. Give me holy perseverance, give me Thy love; I ask nothing more. Mary, my Mother! intercede for me.

1Angustia superveniente, pacem requirent, et non erit.

2Conturbatio super conturbationem veniet.

3“Contra spem in spem credidit.” – Rom. iv. 18.

4“Turbabuntur populi et pertransibunt.” – Job, xxxiv. 20.

5“Descendit diabolus ad vos habens iram magnam, sciens quod modicum tempus est.” – Apoc. xii. 12.

6“Replebuntur domus eorum draconibus.” – Isa. xiii. 21.

7“Virum injustum mala capient in interitu.” – Ps. cxxxix. 12.

8“Opera tua sumus, non te deseremus.” – Medit. c. 2.

9“Cor durum habebit male in novissimo; et qui amat periculum, in illo peribit.” – Ecelus. iii. 27.

10“Qui prius a peccato relinquitur quam ipse relinquat, non libere sed quasi ex necessitate condemnat.” – De vera pœnit. c. 17.

11“Cor ejus indurabitur quasi lapis, et stringetur quasi malleatoris incus.” – Job, xli. 15.

12Cor durum habebit male in novissimo.

13“Verterunt ad me tergum, et non faciem, et tempore afflictionis suæ dicent: Surge, et libera nos. Ubi sunt dii tui, quos fecisti tibi? Surgant, et liberent te.” – Jer. ii. 27.

14“Hoc teneo, hoc multiplici experientia didici, quod ei non bonus finis, cui mala semper vita fuit.” – In Epis. Euseb. ad Dam.

15“In te, Domine, speravi: non confundar in æternum.” – Ps. xxx. 6.

16“Ne tradas bestiis animas confitentium tibi.” – Ps. lxxiii. 19.

17“Tunc invocabunt me, et non exaudiam.” – Prov. i. 28.

18“Numquid Deus audiet clamorem ejus, cum venerit super eum angustia?” – Job, xxvii. 9.

19“In interitu vestro ridebo et subsannabo.” – Prov. i. 26.

20“Ridere Dei est nolle misereri.” – Mor. l. 9, c. 20.

21“Mea est ultio, et ego retribuam in tempore, ut labatur pes eorum.” – Deut. xxii. 35.

22“In peccato vestro moriemini.” – John, viii. 21, 24.

23“Moriemini in peccatis vestris.” – Ibid. 24.

24“Quæretis me, et non invenietis.” – John, vii. 34.

25“Quærite Dominum dum inveniri potest.” – Isa. lv. 6.

26Impii nusquam didicerunt bene facere, nisi cum non est tempus bene faciendi.

27“Pondus et statera judicia Domini sunt.” – Prov. xvi. ii.

28“Pœnitentia quæ ab infirmo petitur infirma est.” – Serm. 255, E. B. App.

29“Viz de centum millibus quorum mala vita fuit, meretur in morte a Deo habere indulgentiam unus.” – In Ep. Eus. ad Dam.

30“Majus miraculum est quod male viventes facient bonum finem, quam suscitare mortuos.” – De Nat. V. S. 1.

31“Æquissime percutitur peccator ut moriens obliviscatur sui qui vivens oblitus est Dei.” – S. 257 E. B. App.

32“Nolite errare, Deus non irridetur; quæ enim seminaverit homo, hæc et metet: qui seminat in carne sua, de carne et metet corruptionem.” – Gal. vi. 7.

33“Revertimini et vivite.” Ezek. xviii. 32.

34“Convertimini ad me et ego convertar ad vos.” – Zach. i. 3.

35“Cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies.” – Ps. l. 19.