Eternal Maxims - Monday
Maxims
of Eternity
or
Meditations
for Every Day in the Week.
Meditation for Monday
The
Importance of our Last End.
I.
Consider,
O man! how important it is to you to save your soul. Your dearest
interests are there concerned, because, if you attain salvation, you
will be eternally happy in the enjoyment of every good both of soul
and body; but, in losing it, you lose your soul and body; heaven and
God: you will be eternally miserable, eternally damned. Your only
important, your only necessary affair, therefore, is to serve your
God and to save your soul. Do not, then, O Christian! think of
serving your passions now, and of giving yourself to God hereafter.
Oh, how many has this false and deceitful hope precipitated into
hell! Thousands of sinners have flattered themselves with the hope of
future repentance; but the day in which they hoped never arrived, and
they are now suffering without resource the torments of the damned.
And who amongst them all ever thought of falling into that place of
woe? Which of them had not the intention of saving his soul? But God
curses him that sins in the hope of pardon.1
You say perhaps, within yourself, I will commit this sin and then
repent: but are you sure that time will be allowed you for
repentance? You may die the moment you have sinned. By sinning you
lose the grace of God; and what if you never more recover it? God
shows mercy to those who fear him, but not to those who contemn and
despise him.2
Think not, therefore, that it will cost you no more to repent of and
confess three sins than to repent of and confess one sin. No: in this
thought you are deceived; God might pardon you a first or a second
sin, but not a third. He has patience with the sinner for a time, but
not forever.3
When the measure of iniquity is filled up, his mercy ceases, and he
punishes the impenitent sinner either by death, or by abandoning him
to a reprobate sense, in which state he goes on from sin to sin
without remorse, and at length is precipitated into hell. O
Christian! attend seriously to this. It is time you should put an end
to your disorders and return to God; you should fear lest this will
be the last warning that he will ever send you. You have offended him
long enough, and he has borne with you long enough in your sins:
tremble, then, lest he should forsake you after the next mortal sin.
Oh! how many souls has this striking thought of eternity caused to
retire from the disorders and dangers of the world, to live in
cloisters, solitudes, and deserts! Unfortunate sinner that I have
been! what is the fruit of all my crimes? a conscience gnawed with
despair, a troubled heart, a soul overwhelmed with grief, hell
deserved, and God lost! Ah! my God, my heavenly Father! bind me to
Thy love.
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II.
Consider,
O man! that this affair of eternity is above all others the most
neglected. Mankind have time to think of everything but God and
salvation. If a man of the world is advised to frequent the
sacraments, or to spend a quarter of an hour daily in meditation, he
will immediately say: I have a family to provide for, I have my
business to attend to, I have sufficient to keep me employed. Good
God! and have you not a soul to save? Will your riches and your
family be able to assist you at the hour of your death, or deliver
you from hell if you are condemned? No, no: flatter not yourself that
you are able to reconcile God and the world, heaven and sin together.
Salvation is not to be attained by a life of indolence and ease. It
is necessary to use violence and to make great efforts in order to
obtain the crown of immortality. How many Christians have flattered
themselves with the idea of serving God and saving their souls
hereafter, who are at this moment, and will forever be, in the flames
of hell! How great is the folly of men in attending to what will so
shortly terminate, and thinking so little of that state which will
never end! Christian! put your affairs in order; reflect that your
all is at stake: remember that, in a very short time, your body will
be deposited in the earth, and your soul will go to dwell in the
house of eternity. How dreadful, then, will be your misfortune if you
are condemned to an eternity of woe! Reflect well on this; for then
you can have no remedy.
III.
Consider
and say within yourself: I have a soul, and if I lose it all is lost;
I have a soul, and if in losing it I were to gain the whole world,
what would it profit me? I have a soul, but if I lose it, although I
were to arrive at the highest pinnacle of glory, of what advantage
will it be to me? If I hoard up riches, if I get forward in the
world, but in the end lose my soul, what will be my consolation?
Where are now the dignities, pleasures, and vanities of those great
ones of the world whose bodies are mouldering in the dust and whose
souls are a prey to the flames of hell? Since, then, I have a soul,
and only one, to save, and if I lose it once it is lost forever, I
ought to endeavor to save it. This is an affair of the highest
importance to me. Eternal happiness and eternal misery are at stake.
O my God! I am forced to acknowledge with shame and confusion that I
have hitherto blindly wandered astray from Thee: I have scarcely ever
thought seriously of saving my soul. O my Father! save me, through
Jesus Christ. I am willing to part with everything here, provided I
do not lose Thee. O Mary, my surest hope! save me by thy powerful
intercession.
1 Maledictus
homo qui peccat in spe.
2 “Et
misericordia ejus ... timentibus eum.” — Luke, i. 50
3 “In
plenitudine peccatorum puniat.” — 2 Mach. vi. 14.
