The Alphonsianum

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXXVI

2011-03-05T02:41:00.002Z

The Conformity to the Will of God

“And life in his good will.” – Ps. xxix. 6.

FIRST POINT.
Excellence of this Virtue.

All our salvation and perfection consists in loving God. He that loveth not, abideth in death.¹ Charity, which is the bond of perfection.² But the perfection of love consists in conformity to the divine will; for, as St. Denis the Areopagite says, the principal effect of love is, to unite the will of lovers, so that they may have but one heart and one will. Hence our actions, our works of penance our Communions and alms-deeds, please God only inasmuch as they are conformable. to the divine will; for, if they are not conformable to the will of God, they are not good works, but are defective, and deserving of chastisement.

Our Saviour came down from heaven principally to teach us by example to conform ourselves to the will of God. Behold what he said, as the apostle writes, at his entrance into this world. Sacrifice and oblation Thou wouldst not: but a body Thou hast fitted to me. . . . Then, said I, behold I come, ... that I should do Thy will, O my God.³ Thou, O my Father! hast refused the victims offered by men; Thou wishest that, by my death, I should sacrifice this body which Thou hast given me; behold me ready to do Thy will. This he frequently declared, saying, that he came on earth only to do the will of his Father. I came down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him that sent Me.⁴ And by going to die through obedience to the will of his Father, he wished to make known to us his great love for his Father. That the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father hath given Me commandment, so do I. Arise; let us go hence.⁵ Hence he has said that he acknowledges for his disciples only those who fulfil the divine will. Whosoever shall do the will of My Father that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.⁶ The accomplishment of the divine will has been the only object and desire of the saints in all their works. Blessed Henry Suso used to say: “I would rather be the vilest worm on earth in conformity to the will of God, than be a seraph with my own will.” St. Teresa says: “All that he who practises prayer should seek is, to conform his will to the divine will; and let him be assured,” adds the saint, “that in this consists the highest perfection. He who practises it best, will receive the greatest gifts from God, and will make the greatest progress in spiritual life.” The blessed in heaven love God perfectly, because they are in all things conformed to the divine will. Hence Jesus Christ has taught us to do the will of God on earth as the saints do it in heaven. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.⁷ He who does the will of God, will, as David says, become a man according to God’s own heart. I have found a man according to My own heart, who shall do all My wills.⁸ And why? Because David was always prepared to do whatever God wished. My heart is ready, O my God, my heart is ready.⁹ He asked nothing else from the Lord, than to teach him to do his will.¹⁰

Oh! how great is the value of an act of perfect resignation to the will of God: it is sufficient to make a saint! While St. Paul was persecuting the Church, Jesus appeared to him, enlightened, and converted him. The saint only offered himself to do the divine will. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?¹¹ And behold, Jesus Christ instantly declared him a vessel of election, and apostle of the Gentiles. This man is to Me a vessel of election to carry My name before the Gentiles.¹² He who fasts, gives alms, or mortifies himself for God’s sake, gives a part of himself to God; but the man who gives his will to God, gives himself entirely to him. All that God asks of us is, our heart – that is, our will. My son, give Me thy heart.¹³ In a word, the accomplishment of the divine will must be the object of all our desires, of our devotions, meditations, Communions, etc. The object of all our prayers must be to obtain from God the grace to do his will. And for this purpose we must implore the intercession of our holy advocates, and particularly of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that they may procure for us light and strength to conform ourselves to the will of God in all things, but particularly in embracing what is opposed to self-love. The venerable John Avila used to say: “A single ‘Blessed be God’ in adversity is better than six thousand acts of thanksgiving in prosperity.”

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my God! all my past ruin has arisen from a want of conformity to Thy will. O God of my soul! I detest and curse a thousand times the days and moments in which I have, in order to do my own will, contradicted Thy holy will. I now give my whole will to Thee. Accept it, O my Lord! and bind it so firmly to Thy love, that it may never more be able to rebel against Thee. I love Thee, O infinite Goodness! and through the love which I bear Thee, I offer myself entirely to Thee. Dispose of me and of all I possess, as Thou pleasest: I resign myself entirely to Thy holy will. Preserve me from the misfortune of doing anything against Thy holy will, and then treat me as Thou wishest. Eternal Father, hear me for the love of Jesus Christ. My Jesus, hear me through the merits of Thy Passion. Most Holy Mary, assist me; obtain for me the grace to fulfil the divine will, in the accomplishment of which my salvation entirely consists: obtain this grace for me, and I ask nothing more.

SECOND POINT.
In what we should Conform to God’s Will.

It is necessary to conform ourselves to the will of God, not only in crosses and adversity which come directly from God, such as infirmities, desolation of spirit, loss of property or relatives; but also in those which come indirectly from him, – that is, through men, – such as defamation, contempt, injuries, and all other persecutions. And let us remember that when others injure us in our property or honor, God does not will their sin, but he wills our poverty and our humiliation. It is certain that whatsoever happens takes place by the divine will. I am the Lord: I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace and create evil.¹⁴ And Ecclesiasticus says: Good things and evil, life and death, poverty and riches, are from God.¹⁵ In a word, all things, blessings as well as misfortunes, come from God.

The crosses that happen to us are called evils, because we call them so, and because we make them evils; if we accepted them as we ought, with resignation, from the hands of God, they should prove to us, not evils, but blessings. The jewels which give the greatest splendor to the crown of the saints are the tribulations which they have borne for God, as coming from his hands. What did holy Job say when he was told that the Sabeans had taken away his property? The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away.¹⁶ He did not say: The Lord gave me these goods, and the Sabeans have taken them away; but the Lord has given them, and the Lord has taken them away. And therefore he blessed the Lord, knowing that all had happened by his will. And as it hath pleased the Lord, so it is done; blessed be the name of the Lord.¹⁷ When the holy martyrs Epictetus and Athone were tormented with iron hooks and burning torches, they only said: “Lord, Thy will be done in us.” And their dying words were: “O eternal God, be blessed for giving us the grace to accomplish in ourselves Thy holy will.” Cesarius relates¹⁸ that a certain monk wrought many miracles, though his life was not more austere than that of the other monks. Being astonished at his miracles, the abbot asked him one day what devotions he practised. In answer he said that he was more imperfect than his companions, but that he was always careful to conform himself in all things to the divine will. “And,” said the Superior, “did you feel displeasure at the injury which an enemy did to our farm some days ago?” No,” Father, “replied the monk; I, on the contrary, thanked the Lord, because I know that he does and permits all things for our welfare.” From this, the abbot perceived the sanctity of this good religious.

We ought to do the same when any cross or adversity happens to us. Let us accept them all from the divine hands, not only with patience, but also with joy, in imitation of the apostles, who rejoiced when they were maltreated for the sake of Jesus Christ. They went from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the name of Jesus.¹⁹ And what greater happiness than to bear crosses, and to know that, in embracing them, we please God? If we wish to enjoy continual peace, let us endeavor, from this day forward, to embrace the divine will, always saying in all that happens to us: Yea, Father, for so hath it seemed good in Thy sight.²⁰ Lord, this has pleased Thee, let it be done. To this end we ought to direct all our meditations, Communions, visits, and prayers. always imploring the Lord to make us conform to his will. And let us always offer ourselves to him, saying: “Behold me, O my God! do with me what thou pleasest.” St. Teresa offered herself to God at least fifty times in the day, that he might dispose of her as he wished.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my divine King, my beloved Redeemer! come and reign henceforth in my soul with undivided sway. Take my whole will, that it may desire and wish nothing but what Thou wishest. My Jesus, I have hitherto offended Thee so grievously by resisting Thy holy will. This gives me greater pain than if I had suffered every other evil. I repent of it, and am sorry for it with my whole heart. I deserve chastisement; I do not refuse it; I accept it. Preserve me only from the chastisement of being deprived of Thy love, and then do with me whatever Thou pleasest. I love Thee, my dear Redeemer; I love Thee, my God: and, because I love Thee, I wish to do whatever Thou wishest. O will of God! Thou art my love. O blood of my Jesus, Thou art my hope. In Thee I hope to be, from this day forward, always united to the divine will. It shall be my guide, my desire, my love, and my peace. In it I wish always to live and repose. In peace in the self-same I will sleep and I will rest.²¹ I shall always say, in whatever shall befall me: My God, thus Thou hast willed, thus I will; my God, I wish only what Thou wishest, may Thy will be always accomplished in me. Thy wilt be done. My Jesus, through Thy merits, grant me the grace always to repeat this beautiful dictate of love: Thy will be done! Thy will be done! O Mary, happy thou, who didst always fulfil, in all things, the divine will. Obtain for me the grace that henceforth I, too, may always fulfil it. My queen, through, thy great love for Jesus Christ, obtain for me this grace. Through thy prayers I hope for it.

THIRD POINT.
Happiness Derived from Conformity to God’s Will.

He who is united with the divine will, enjoys, even in this life, a perpetual peace. Whatsoever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad.²² Yes, for a man cannot enjoy greater happiness than that which arises from the accomplishment of all his wishes. He who wills only what God wills, possesses all that he desires; for whatever happens to him, happens by the will of God. If, says Salvian, the soul that is resigned be humbled, it desires humiliations; if it is poor, it delights in poverty; in a word, it wishes whatever happens, and thus leads a happy life.²³ Let cold, heat, wind, or rain come, and he that is united with the will of God says: I wish for this cold, this heat, this wind, and this rain, because God wills them. If loss of property, persecution, or sickness befall him, he says: I wish to be miserable, to be persecuted, to be sick, because such is the will of God. He who reposes in the divine will, and is resigned to whatever the Lord does, is like a man who stands above the clouds, and, without injury or perturbation, beholds the tempest raging below. This is the peace which, according to the Apostle, surpasseth all understanding,²⁴ which exceeds all the delights of the world; a perpetual peace, subject to no vicissitudes. A fool is changed like the moon . . . A holy man continueth in wisdom like the sun.²⁵ Fools – that is, sinners – are changed like the Moon, which increases to-day, grows less on to-morrow. To-day they are seen to laugh, and to-morrow to weep; to-day all joy and meekness, to-morrow, all sadness and fury, in a word, they change with prosperity and adversity. But the just man is like the sun, always the same, and uniformly tranquil in whatever happens; for his peace consists in conforming himself to the divine will. And on earth peace to men of good will.²⁶ At the bare mention of the will of God, St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to feel much consolation that she would fall into an ecstasy of love. When the will is united with the will of God, crosses may produce some pain in the inferior part, but in the superior part peace shall always reign. Your joy no man shall take from you.²⁷ But how great the folly of those who oppose the will of God! What God wills will certainly happen; for who resisteth his will?²⁸ They, therefore, must bear the cross, but without fruit and without peace. Who hath resisted him, and hath had peace?²⁹

And what else but our welfare does God will? This is the will of your God, your sanctification.³⁰ He wishes to see us saints, that we may be content in this life, and happy in the next. Let us remember that the crosses which come to us from God work together unto good.³¹ Even chastisements are inflicted on us in this life, not for ruin, but that we may amend, and gain eternal beatitude. Let us believe that these scourges of the lord . . . have happened for our amendment, and not for our destruction.³² God loves us so ardently, that he not only desires, but is solicitous for, the salvation of each of us. The Lord is careful for me.³³ And what will he deny us after having given us his Son? He that spared not even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how hath He not also with Him given us all things.³⁴ Let us then always abandon ourselves into the hands of that God who is always solicitous for our welfare as long as we remain in this world. Casting all your care upon Him, for He hath care of you.³⁵ Think of me, said our Lord to St. Catharine of Sienna, and I will always think of you. Let us often say with the spouse of the Canticles: My beloved to me, and I to him.³⁶ My beloved thinks of my welfare, and I will think only of pleasing him, and of uniting myself to his holy will. We ought, says the holy Abbot Nilus, to pray, not that God would do what we wish, but that we may do what he wills.

He who always acts in this manner will lead a happy life, and will die a happy death. He who dies with entire resignation to the divine will, gives to others a moral certainty of his salvation. But he who is not united with the divine will during life, will not be united with it at death, and will not be saved. Let us, then, endeavor to make ourselves familiar with some sayings of the Scripture, by which we shall always keep ourselves united with the will of God. Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?³⁷ Lord, tell me what Thou wishest me to do; I am ready and willing to do it. Behold the handmaid of the Lord.³⁸ Behold! my soul is Thy servant; command, and Thou shalt be obeyed. I am Thine; save me.³⁹ Save me, O Lord! and then do what Thou pleasest with me; save Thine, I am no longer mine. When any serious cross or adversity happens to us, let us say: Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in Thy sight.⁴⁰ My God, this has pleased Thee; let it be done. Above all, let the third petition of the Lord’s prayer be dear to us: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let us say it often, with fervor, and let us repeat it several times. Happy we, if we live and die saying: Thy will be done! Thy will be done!

Affections and Prayers.

O Jesus, my Redeemer! Thou hast sacrificed Thy life on the cross in order to become the cause of my salvation; have mercy on me, then, and save me; do not permit a soul that Thou hast redeemed by so many pains, and with so much love, to hate Thee for eternity in hell. Thou canst do nothing more to oblige me to love Thee. This Thou gavest me to understand, when, before Thou didst expire on Calvary, Thou didst utter these loving words: It is consummated. But how have I repaid Thy love? For the past, I can truly say that I have done all I could to displease Thee, and to oblige Thee to hate me. I thank Thee for having borne me with so much patience, and for now giving me time to repair my ingratitude, and to love Thee before I die. Yes, I wish to love Thee, and I wish to love Thee ardently, my Saviour, my God, my love, and my all; I wish to do whatever is pleasing to Thee; I give Thee my whole will, my whole liberty, and all that I possess. From this hour I sacrifice my life to Thee, accepting the death which Thou wilt send me, along with all the pains and circumstances that will accompany it. From this moment I unite this sacrifice of mine to the great sacrifice of Thy life, which Thou, my Jesus, didst offer for me on the cross. I wish to die in order to do Thy will. Ah! through the merits of Thy Passion, give me grace to be, during life, resigned to the arrangements of Thy Providence. And when death comes, grant that I may embrace, with an entire conformity, Thy holy will. I wish to die, O my Jesus! in order to please Thee. I wish to die saying: Thy will be done. Mary, my mother, it was thus thou didst die; ah! obtain for me the grace that I too may die in this manner.

Live, Jesus, our love, and Mary, our hope

1“Qui non diligit, manet in morte.” – I John, iii, 14.

2“Charitatern habete, quod est vinculum perfectionis.” – Col. iii. 14.

3“Hostiam et oblationem noluisti; corpus autem aptasti mihi. . . Tunc dixi: Ecce venio, . . . ut faciam, Deus, voluntatem tuam.” – Heb. x. 5.

4“Descendi de cœlo, non ut faciam voluntatem meam, sed voluntatem ejus qui misit me.” – John, vi. 38.

5“Ut cognoscat mundus quia diligo Patrem, et sicut mandatum dedit mihi Pater, sic facio: Surgite, eamus.” – John, xiv. 31.

6“Quicumque enim fecerit voluntatem Patris mei qui in cœlis est, ipse meus frater, et soror. et mater est.” – Matt. xii. 50.

7Fiat voluntas tua, sicut in cœlo, et in terra.

8“Inveni David, filium Jesse, virum secundum cor meum. qui faciet omnes voluntates meas.” – Acts, xiii. 22.

9“Paratum cor meum, Deus, paratum cor meum.” – Ps. lvi. 8; cvii. 2.

10“Doce me facere voluntatem tuam” – Ps. cxlii. 10; “Doce me justificationes tuas” – Ps. cxviii. 12, 26, 68, 135, etc.

11“Domine, quid me vis facere?” – Acts, ix. 6.

12“Vas electionis est mihi iste, ut portet nomen meum coram gentibus.” – Acts, ix. 15.

13“Præbe, fili mi, cor tuum mihi.” – Prov. xxiii. 26.

14“Ego Dominus, et non est alter, formans lucem et creans tenebras, faciens pacem et creans malum.” – Isa. xlv. 6.

15“Bona et mala, vita et mors, paupertas et honestas, a Deo sunt.” – Ecclus. xi. 14.

16“Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit.” – Job, i. 21.

17“Sicut Domino placuit, ita factum est; sit nomen Domini benedictum!” – Job, i. 21.

18lib. x., cap. vi.

19“Ibant gaudentes a conspectu concilii, quoniam digni habiti sunt pro nomine Jesu contumeliam pati.” – Acts, v. 41.

20“Ita, Pater! quoniam sic fuit placitum ante te.” – Matt. xi. 26.

21“In pace, in idipsum, dormiam et requiescam.” – Ps. iv. 9.

22“Non contristabit justum, quidquid ei acciderit. – Prov. xii. 21.

23“Humiles sunt, hoc volunt; pauperes sunt, pauperie delectantur; itaque beati dicendi sunt.” – De Gub. D. l. 1, n. 2.

24“Exsuperat omnem sensum.” – Phil. iv. 7.

25“Homo sanctus in sapientia manet sicut sol: nam stultus sicut luna mutatur.” – Ecclus. xxvii. 12.

26“Et in terra pax hominibus.” – Luke, ii. 14.

27“Gaudium vestrum nemo tollet a vobis.” – John, xvi. 22.

28“Voluntati enim ejus quis resistit?” – Rom. ix. 19.

29“Quis restitit ei, et pacem habuit?” – Job, ix. 4.

30“Hæc est enim voluntas Dei, sanctificatio vestra.” – I Thess. iv. 3.

31“Omnia cooperantur in bonum.” – Rom. viii. 28.

32“Ad emendationem, non ad perditionem nostram, evenisse credamus.” – Judith, viii. 27.

33“Dominus sollicitus est mei.” – Ps. xxxix. 18.

34“Qui etiam proprio Filio suo non pepercit, sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit illum, quomodo non etiam cum illo omnia nobis donavit?” – Rom. viii. 32.

35“Omnem sollicitudinem vestram projicientes in eum, quoniam ipsi cura est de vobis.” – I Peter, v. 7.

36“Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi.” – Cant. ii. 16.

37“Domine, quid me vis facere?” – Acts, ix. 6.

38“Ecce ancilla Domini.” – Luke, i. 38.

39“Tuus sum ego. salvum me fac.” – Ps. cxviii. 94.

40“Ita, Pater, quoniam sic fuit placitum ante te.” – Matt. xi. 26.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXXV

2011-02-08T22:56:00.001Z

Dwelling of Jesus on our Altars.

“Come to me all ye that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.” – Matt. xi. 28.

FIRST POINT.
Jesus makes Himself Accessible to Every One.

Having to depart from this world after he had completed the work of redemption, our loving Saviour did not wish to leave us alone in this valley of tears. “No tongue,” says St. Peter of Alcantara, “can express the greatness of the love which Jesus Christ bears to our souls. Hence, that his absence from us might not be an occasion of forgetting him, this spouse, before his departure from this world, left, as a memorial of his love, this Most Holy Sacrament, in which he himself has remained. He did not wish that between him and his servants there should be any other pledge than himself, to keep alive the remembrance of him.” This effort of love on the part of Jesus Christ merits great love from us; and, according to the revelation said to have been made to his servant, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, he wished that in these latter times a festival should be instituted in honor of his Most Sacred Heart, in order that, by our devotions and affections, we might make some return for his loving dwelling on our altars, and thus compensate the insults which he has received in this sacrament of love, and which he receives every day from heretics and bad Catholics.

Jesus has left himself in the Most Holy Sacrament, first, that all may be able to find him; secondly, to give audience to all; thirdly, to give his graces to all. He, in the first place, remains on so many, altars, that all who wish may be able to find him. On the night on which the Redeemer took leave of his disciples to go to his death, they shed tears of sorrow at the thought of being separated from their dear Master; but Jesus consoled them, saying (and the same he then said also to us): My children, I am going to die for you, in order to show you the love which I bear you. But at my death I will not leave you alone: as long as you are on earth, I will remain with you in the Most Holy Sacrament. I leave you my body, my soul, my divinity: I leave myself entirely to you. As long as you remain on earth, I will not depart from you. Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.¹ The Saviour, says St. Peter of Alcantara, did not wish to leave his spouse alone at such a distance, and therefore he has left this sacrament, in which he himself, the best of all companions, has remained with her. The Gentiles have invented so many gods; but they could never imagine a god more loving than our God, who remains nigh to us, and assists us with so much love. Neither is there any other nation so great, that hath God so nigh them, as our God is present to all our petitions.² The holy Church applies this passage of Deuteronomy to the festival of the Most Holy Sacrament. – Resp. ii. Noct. iii.

Behold, then, Jesus Christ remains in our tabernacles, as if confined in so many prisons of love. His priests remove him from the tabernacle to expose him on the altar, or to give Communion, and afterward put him back to be again shut up; and Jesus is content to remain there day and night. But why, my Redeemer, dost thou remain in so many churches, even during the night, when the faithful lock the doors, and leave Thee alone? It would be enough for Thee to remain during the day. No; he wished to remain also during the night, though left alone, that, in the morning, all who seek may instantly find him. The sacred spouse went in search of her beloved, saying to every one she met: Have you seen him whom my soul loveth?³ And, not finding him, she raised her voice and exclaimed; My spouse, tell me where thou art. Show me . . where thou feedest, where thou liest, in the mid-day.⁴ The spouse did not find him, because then the Most Holy Sacrament was not instituted; but, at present, if a soul wishes to find Jesus Christ, it has only to go to a church in which the Holy Eucharist is preserved, and there it will find its beloved expecting it. There is not a town nor a convent in which the Holy Sacrament is not kept; and in all these places the King of Heaven is content to remain shut up in a case of wood or of stone, often almost without a lamp burning before him, and without any one to keep him company. But, “O Lord!” says St. Bernard, “this is not suited to Thy Majesty.” No matter,” Jesus replies; “if it becomes not my Majesty, it well becomes my love.”

What tender devotion do pilgrims feel in visiting the holy house of Loretto – the Holy Land – the stable at Bethlehem – the hill of Calvary – or the holy sepulchre, in which Jesus Christ was born, or lived, or died, or was buried! But how much greater tenderness should we feel in a church, in presence of Jesus himself in the Blessed Sacrament? The venerable Father John D’Avila used to say that he knew no sanctuary capable of inspiring greater devotion or consolation than a church in which Jesus remains in the Holy Eucharist. Father Balthazar Alvarez would weep in seeing the palaces of princes filled with courtiers, and the churches, in which Jesus Christ dwells, solitary and abandoned. O God! if the Lord remained only in one church – for example, in St. Peter’s in Rome – and only on one day in the year, oh! how many pilgrims, how many nobles, how many princes would endeavor to have the happiness of being there on that day, to pay court and homage to the King of Heaven descended again upon the earth! Oh, what a splendid tabernacle of gold, adorned with gems, would be prepared for the occasion! Oh, with what an abundance of lights would the dwelling of Jesus Christ on the earth be celebrated on that day! But, says the Redeemer, I do not wish to remain only in a single church, or but for a single day: nor require either such riches, or such a profusion of lights. I wish to remain continually every day, and in all places in which my servants are found; that all may easily find me at all times, and at any hour they wish.

Ah! if Jesus Christ had not invented this excess of love, who could have ever thought of it? Should a Christian, after the ascension of the Redeemer into heaven, say to him, Lord, if Thou wishest to show us Thy affection, remain with us on our altars under the appearance of bread, that we may be able to find Thee whenever we wish: would not such a demand be regarded as the extreme of temerity? But, what no man could ever even imagine, our Saviour has invented and accomplished. But, alas! where is our gratitude for so great a favor? If a prince came from a distance to a village for the purpose of being visited by a peasant, how great would be the ingratitude of the peasant if he refused to visit his sovereign, or if he paid him only a passing visit!

Affections and Prayers.

O Jesus, my Redeemer, O love of my soul! how much has it cost Thee to remain with us in the sacrament? To be able to remain on our altars, Thou hadst first to suffer death; afterward, in order to aid us by Thy presence, Thou hadst to submit to so many grievous insults in this sacrament. And, after all this, we are so slothful and negligent in visiting Thee, though we know that Thou so ardently desirest our visits for the purpose of enriching us with Thy graces when Thou seest us in Thy presence. Lord, pardon me; for I too have been one of these ungrateful souls. From this day forward, O my Jesus! I wish to visit Thee often, and to remain as long as I can in Thy presence, to thank Thee, to love Thee, and to ask Thy graces; for it is for this purpose that Thou remainest on earth shut up in our tabernacles, and made our prisoner of love. I love Thee, O infinite Goodness! I love Thee, O God of love! I love Thee, O sovereign Good! amiable above every good. Grant that I may forget myself and all things, in order to remember only Thy love and to spend the remainder of my life wholly occupied in pleasing Thee. Grant that from this day forward I may relish no pleasure more than that of remaining at Thy feet. Inflame my whole soul with Thy holy love. Mary, my mother, obtain for me a great love for the Most Holy Sacrament; and whenever Thou seest that I am negligent, remind me of the promise I now make of going every day to visit the Holy Sacrament.

SECOND POINT.
Jesus Gives Audience to All at all Times.

In the second place, Jesus Christ, in the Blessed Sacrament, gives audience to all. St. Teresa used to say that all cannot speak with the sovereign. The poor can scarcely hope to address him, and make known to him their necessities, even through a third person. But to speak to the King of Heaven, the intervention of a third person is not necessary: all, the poor as well as the nobles of the earth, may speak to him face to face in the Sacrament. Hence Jesus is called the flower of the fields. I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.⁵ The flowers of gardens are enclosed and reserved; but the flowers of the fields are exposed to all. “I am the flower of the field,” says Cardinal Hugo, in his comment on this passage, “because I exhibit myself to be found by all.” With Jesus, then, in the Holy Sacrament, all may speak every hour in the day. Speaking of the birth of the Redeemer in the stable of Bethlehem, St. Peter Chrysologus says that princes do not always give audience; that when a person goes to address the king, the guards send him away, saying that the hour or day for giving audience is not yet arrived,. and telling him to come at another time. But the Redeemer wished to be born in an open cave, without a door and without guards, in order to give audience to all, at all hours: there is no attendant to say, “It is not the hour.”⁶ The same happens in the Holy Sacrament. The churches are always open: all can go to converse with the King of Heaven whenever they wish. Jesus desires that we speak to him with unbounded confidence: it is for this purpose that he remains under the species of bread. If Jesus appeared on our altars, as he will on the day of judgment, on a throne of glory, who among us would dare to approach him? But, says St. Teresa, because the Lord desires that we speak to him, and ask his graces with confidence and without fear, he has therefore clothed his majesty with the appearance of bread. He desires, as Thomas à Kempis says, that we converse with him as one friend does with another.⁷

When a soul remains at the foot of the altar, Jesus appears to address it in the words of the Canticles: Arise, make haste, my love, my beautiful one, and come.⁸ Arise, arise, O my soul, and fear not. Make haste, approach to me. My love, you are no longer my enemy; for you love me, and you repent of having offended me. My beautiful one, you are no longer deformed in my eyes: my grace has made you beautiful. And come, tell me what you want; I remain here on purpose to hear your prayers. What joy should you feel, dear reader, if a king called you into his cabinet and said to you: What do you wish for? what do you stand in need of? I love you, and I desire to promote your welfare. This, Jesus Christ, the King of Heaven, says to all who visit him: Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.⁹ Come, all you that are poor, infirm, or afflicted; I am able and willing to enrich you, to heal you, to console you. For this purpose I remain on your altars. Thou shalt call, and he shall say: Here I am.¹⁰

Affections and Prayers.

Since then, my beloved Jesus, Thou remainest on our altars to hear the supplications of the miserable who have recourse to Thee, hear the prayer which I, a miserable sinner, present to Thee. O Lamb of God! sacrificed and lifeless on the cross, I am a soul redeemed by Thy blood; pardon me all the offences I have offered to Thee, and assist me by Thy grace, that I may never lose Thee again. Impart to me, O my Jesus! a portion of the sorrow which Thou didst feel in the garden of Gethsemane for my sins. O my God! that I had never offended Thee! My dear Lord, had I died in sin, I could never more love Thee; but Thou hast waited for me that I might love Thee. I thank Thee for the time which Thou givest me: and since I can now love Thee, I wish to love Thee. Give me the grace of Thy holy love, but of a love which will make me forget all things, to think only of pleasing Thy most loving heart. Ah, my Jesus! Thou hast spent Thy whole life for me: grant that I may spend at least the remainder of my life for Thee. Draw me entirely to Thy love; make me all Thine before I die. I hope for all graces through the merits of Thy Passion. I also hope in thy intercession, O Mary! Thou knowest that I love thee: have pity on me.

THIRD POINT.
Jesus only Wishes to bestow his Graces.

Jesus, in the Holy Sacrament, gives audience to all in order to bestow his graces on all. St. Augustine says that the Lord has a greater desire of communicating his graces to us than we have of receiving them.¹¹ The reason is, that God is infinite goodness, and goodness is naturally diffusive; therefore, it desires to impart its goods to all. God complains when souls do not come to ask his graces. Am I, he says, become a wilderness to Israel, or a lateward springing land? Why, then, have my people said, We are revolted; we will come to thee no more?¹² Why, says the Lord, will you come to me no more? Have you, when you asked my graces, found me like a barren or lateward springing land? St. John saw the Lord with his breast full of milk – that is, of mercy – and girded with a band of gold – that is, with the love with which he desires to dispense his graces to us. I saw one like the Son of man . . . girt about the paps with a golden girdle.¹³ Jesus Christ is always ready to bestow his favors upon us; but the disciple says that, in the Holy Sacrament, he dispenses his graces in greater abundance. And, according to Blessed Henry Suso, it is in the Holy Eucharist that Jesus most willingly hears our prayers.

As a mother whose breasts are full of milk goes in search of infants to give them suck in order to be relieved of the burden, so our Lord from this sacrament of love cries out, and says to us all: You shall be carried at the breasts. . . . As one whom the mother caresses, so will I comfort you.¹⁴ Father Balthassar saw Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament, having his hands full of graces, to dispense them to men; but found no one to ask them.

Oh! happy the soul that remains at the foot of the altar to ask graces of Jesus Christ! The Countess of Feria, afterward a religious of the Order of St. Clare, remained as long as she could before the Blessed Sacrament, and was therefore called the spouse of the sacrament. She continually received treasures of graces at the foot of the altar. Being asked one day how she was employed during so many hours before the tabernacle, she answered: “1 would remain there for all eternity. I am asked what I do before the Blessed Sacrament. And what do I not do? What does a beggar do in the presence of a rich man? What does a sick man do before his physician? What do I do? I thank my Saviour, I love him, I ask his graces.” Oh! how precious these last words are to make us draw fruit from our visits to the Holy Sacrament!

Jesus Christ complained to the servant of God, Sister Margaret Mary Alacoque, of the ingratitude of men to him in this sacrament of love. To make her understand the love with which he dwells on our altars, he showed her his heart in a throne of flames, surrounded with thorns and surmounted by a cross, and said to her: “Behold that heart, which has loved men so tenderly, which has reserved nothing, and which has been even consumed to show its love for them. But, in return, the greater part of them treat me with ingratitude by their irreverence and by their contempt of my love in this sacrament. And what is most painful to me is, that they are hearts consecrated to me.” Christians do not visit Jesus Christ because they do not love him. They spend entire hours in the society of friends; and they feel tediousness in conversing half an hour with Jesus Christ. Some will say: Why does not Jesus Christ give me his love? I answer: If you do not banish the world from your heart, how can divine love enter it? Ah! if you could say with sincerity, what St. Philip Neri said at the sight of the Holy Sacrament – Behold my love! behold my love! – you should not feel tediousness in spending hours and entire days before the Blessed Sacrament.

To souls enamoured of God, hours spent before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament appear moments. St. Francis Xavier labored the whole day for the salvation of souls; and what was his repose at night? It consisted in remaining before the Holy Sacrament. St. John Francis Regis, that great missionary of France, after having spent the entire day in preaching and hearing confessions, went at night to the church. And having sometimes found it shut, he remained outside the door, exposed to the cold and wind, to pay homage, at least at a distance, to his beloved Lord. St. Aloysius Gonzaga wished to remain always before the Holy Sacrament; but was forbidden to do so by his Superiors. In passing by the altar, he felt himself drawn by Jesus to remain, but was compelled by obedience to depart. Hence he would lovingly say to his Saviour: “Withdraw from me, O Lord! withdraw.”¹⁵ Lord, do not draw me; allow me to depart; obedience obliges me to go away. If, my brother, you do not feel this love for Jesus, endeavor at least to visit him every day: he will certainly inflame your heart. Do you feel cold? Approach the fire, says St. Catharine of Sienna. Ah happy you, if Jesus, by his grace, inflames you with his love. Then you will certainly no longer love; on the contrary, you will despise all the goods of this world. “When,” says St. Francis de Sales, “a house is on fire, all that is within is thrown out through the windows.”

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Jesus! make Thyself known, make Thyself loved. Thou art so amiable, Thou canst do nothing more to induce men to love Thee; how then does it happen that so few among them love Thee? Alas! I have been among these ungrateful wretches. I have been sufficiently grateful to creatures, who have bestowed no gift or favor upon me: to Thee only, who hast given me Thyself, have I been ungrateful, so as often to offend Thee grievously, and insult Thee by my sins. But I see that, instead of abandoning me, Thou continuest to seek after me, and to ask my love. I feel that Thou continuest to propose to me this loving precept – “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.” Since, then, Thou didst wish to be loved even by me after my ingratitude, I desire to love Thee. Thou wishest for my love, and at present through Thy grace, I desire only to love Thee. I love Thee, my love, my all. Through that blood which Thou hast shed for me, help me to love Thee. My beloved Redeemer! I place all my hopes in this blood, and also in the intercession of Thy most holy Mother, whom Thou wishest to assist me by her prayers in the work of my salvation. O Mary, my Mother! pray to Jesus for me. Thou inflamest all thy lovers with the divine love; I love thee tenderly; procure it also for me.

1“Ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus, usque ad consummationem sæculi.” – Matt. xxviii. 20.

2“Non est alia natio tam grandis, quæ habeat deos appropinquantes sibi, sicut Deus noster adest nobis.” – Deut. iv. 7.

3“Num, quem diligit anima mea, vidistis?” – Cant. iii. 3.

4“Indica mihi . . . ubi pascas, ubi cubes in meridie.” – Cant. i. 6.

5“Ego flos campi, et lilium convallium.” – Cant. ii. 1.

6“Non est satelles qui dicat: Non est hora.” – In Ps. iv.

7Sicut solet dilectus ad dilectum. – l. 4, c. 13.

8“Surge, propera, amica mea, columba mea, formosa mea, et veni.” – Cant. ii. 10.

9“Venite ad me, omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis, et ego reficiam vos.” – Matt. xi. 28.

10“Ego ipse qui loquebar. Ecce adsum.” – Isa. lii. 6.

11“Plus vult ille dare, quam nos accipere.” – Serm. 105, E. B.

12“Numquid solitudo factus sum Israeli, ant terra serotina? Quare ergo dixit populus meus:. Recessimus, non veniemus ultra ad te?” – Jer. ii. 31.

13“Vidi præcinctum ad mamillas zona aurea.” – Apoc. i. 13.

14“Ad ubera portabimini. . . . Quomodo si cui mater blandiatur, ita ego consolabor vos.” – Isa. lxvi. 12.

15Recede a me, Domine, recede.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXXIV

2011-01-24T03:39:00.002Z

Holy Communion.

“Take ye, and eat: this is my body.” – Matt. xxvi. 26.

FIRST POINT.
The Eucharist is a Precious Gift.

Let us consider the great gift which Jesus Christ has bestowed on us in the institution of the Most Holy Sacrament; the great love he has shown to us in this gift; and his great desire that we should receive this gift. Let us, in the first place, consider the great gift which Jesus Christ has bestowed upon us in giving us himself entirely for our food in the Holy Communion. St. Augustine says that Jesus Christ, though an omnipotent God, has nothing more to give us.¹ And what greater treasure, adds St. Bernardine of Sienna, can a soul receive or desire, than the sacred body of Jesus Christ?² The prophet Isaias exclaims: Make His works known among the people.³ O men! proclaim aloud the loving inventions of our good God. And if our Redeemer had not bestowed this gift upon us, who among us could have asked it? Who could have dared to say to him: Lord, if Thou wishest to make us understand Thy love, remain under the species of bread, and permit us to make Thee our food? Even to think of it would be considered folly. “Does it not,” says St. Augustine, “appear foolishness to say, eat my flesh – drink my blood?”⁴ When Jesus Christ made known to his disciples this great gift of the Most Holy Sacrament which he wished to leave us, they could not bring themselves to believe it; and, therefore, they departed from him, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? . . . This saying is hard, and who can hear it?⁵ But, what men could never imagine, the great love of Jesus Christ has invented and executed.

St. Bernard me says that the Lord has left us this sacrament as a memorial of the love he has shown us in his Passion.⁶ And this accords with what Jesus Christ himself has said: Do this for a commemoration of Me.⁷ The love of our Saviour, adds St. Bernardine, was not content with sacrificing his life for our salvation: before his death this love constrained him to bequeath to us the greatest gift which he had ever bestowed upon us, by giving us himself for our food.⁸ The Abbot Guerric says that, in this sacrament, Jesus made the last effort of love.⁹ This was better expressed by the Council of Trent, which declared that, in the Eucharist, Jesus poured out all the riches of his love for men.¹⁰

How great, says St. Francis de Sales, the tenderness of love which a prince would show to a beggar by sending him a part of what he had on his own plate! How much greater would it be if he sent him the entire of his own dinner! But what would it be, if he sent him, for his food, a part of his own arm! In Holy Communion, Jesus gives us not only a portion of his own dinner, not only a part, but the entire of his body. Take ye, and eat: this is My body.¹¹ And with his body he gives us his soul and his divinity. In a word, St. Chrysostom says that in giving you himself in Holy Communion, he gives you all that he has, and reserves nothing for himself.¹² And the angelic Doctor says that, “in the Eucharist, God has given us all that he is and has.”¹³ Behold! exclaims St. Bonaventure, that God whom the world cannot contain makes himself our prisoner in the Most Holy Sacrament.¹⁴ And since the Lord gives himself entirely to us in the Eucharist, how can we fear that he will refuse us any grace which we ask of him? How, says St. Paul, hath He not also, with Him, given us all things.¹⁵

Affections and Prayers.

O my Jesus! what has induced Thee to give Thyself entirely to us for our food? After this gift, what more remains for Thee to give us in order to oblige us to love Thee? Ah, Lord! give us light, make us understand the excess of Thy love in becoming food in order to unite Thyself to poor sinners! But, if Thou givest Thyself entirely to us, it is just that we too give our whole being to Thee. O my Redeemer! how have I been able to offend Thee, who hast loved me so tenderly, and who hast done so much to gain my love? Thou hast become man for my sake, Thou hast died for me, Thou hast become my food; tell me, what more couldst Thou have done? I love Thee, O infinite Goodness! I love Thee, O infinite Love! Lord, come often to my soul; inflame my whole heart with Thy holy love; grant that I may forget all things in order to think only of Thee, and to love nothing but Thee. Most Holy Mary, pray for me, and, by thy intercession, make me worthy to receive thy Son frequently in the Holy Sacrament.

SECOND POINT.
The Eucharist is a Gift of Love.

Let us consider, in the second place, the great love which Jesus Christ has shown us in giving us himself in the Holy Eucharist. The Most Holy Sacrament is a gift which has proceeded from pure love. For our salvation it was necessary, according to the decree of God, that the Redeemer should die, and, by the sacrifice of his life, satisfy the divine justice for our sins; but what necessity was there that Jesus Christ, after having died for our redemption, should leave himself to us for our food? But this his love wished to do. He, says St. Laurence Justinian, instituted the Eucharist for no other purpose than to show his great charity, for no other purpose than to make us understand the immense love which he bears us.¹⁶ This is precisely what St. John has written: Jesus, knowing that His hour was come that He should pass out of this world to the Father: having loved His own, He loved them to the end.¹⁷ Knowing that the time of his departure from this earth had arrived, he wished to give us the greatest proof of his love, by bequeathing to us this gift of the Most Holy Sacrament. This is the precise meaning of the words, He loved them to the end; that is, according to Theophilactus and St. Chrysostom, “he loved them with an extreme love.”¹⁸

And mark what the apostle has observed – that the time at which Jesus Christ wished to bequeath this gift was the time of his death. The Lord Jesus, the same night on which He was betrayed, took bread, and, giving thanks, broke, and said “Take ye, and eat: this is My body.”¹⁹ At the very time that men prepared for him scourges, thorns, and a cross to crucify him, the loving Saviour wished to leave us this the last proof of his love. And why at death, and not before that time, did he institute this sacrament? Because, says St. Bernardine, the marks of love given by friends at death make a greater impression on the memory, and are preserved with greater affection.²⁰ Jesus Christ, says the saint, had already given himself to us in many ways: he had given himself to us for a companion, a master, a father; for our light and our victim. The last degree of love remained; and this was, to give himself to us for our food in order to unite himself entirely to us, as food is united with him who eats it.²¹ This he has done by giving himself to us in the Most Holy Sacrament. Thus, our Redeemer was not content with uniting himself only to our human nature: he wished by this sacrament to find a means of also uniting himself to each of us in particular.

St. Francis de Sales says “that in no other action can the Saviour be considered more tender or more loving than in the institution of the Holy Eucharist; in which he, as it were, annihilates himself, and becomes food, in order to penetrate our souls, and to unite himself to the hearts of his faithful servants.” Thus, says St. Chrysostom, with that Lord on whom the angels dare not fix their eyes, we are united, and are made one body and one flesh.²² What shepherd, adds the saint, has ever fed his sheep with his own blood? Even mothers intrust their children to the care of nurses. But Jesus, in the sacrament, nourishes us with his own blood, and unites us to himself.²³ And why become our food? Because, says the saint, he loved us ardently, and by making himself our food, he wished to unite himself entirely to us, and to make himself one thing with us.²⁴ Then Jesus Christ wished to perform the greatest of his miracles (He hath made a remembrance of His wonderful works; He hath given food to them that fear Him²⁵) in order to satisfy his desire of remaining with us, and of uniting in one, our heart and his own most holy heart. “O wonderful is Thy love, O Lord Jesus!” exclaims St. Laurence Justinian, “who wished to incorporate us in such a manner with Thyself, that we should have one heart and one soul inseparably united with Thee.”²⁶

That great servant of God, Father de la Colombière, used to say: If anything could shake my faith in the mystery of the Eucharist, I would not doubt of the power, but rather of the love, which God displays in this sacrament. If you ask me how bread becomes the body of Jesus – how Jesus is found in many places, I answer that God can do all things. But if you ask me how it is that God loves men so as to make himself their food, I can only say that I do not understand it, and that the love of Jesus cannot be comprehended. But, O Lord! to reduce Thyself to the condition of food, appears to be an excess of love not suited to Thy majesty. But St. Bernard’s answer is, that love makes lovers forget their own dignity.²⁷ St. Chrysostom also answers that love seeks not what is convenient when there is question of making itself known to the beloved; it goes not where it ought, but where it is carried by the ardor of its desire.²⁸ Justly, then, has the angelic Doctor called this sacrament “a sacrament of love – a pledge of love.”²⁹ And St. Bernard calls it love of loves. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to call Holy Thursday, the day on which this sacrament was instituted, the day of love.

Affections and Prayers.

O infinite love of Jesus, worthy of infinite love! Ah! my Jesus, when shall I love Thee as Thou hast loved me? Thou couldst do nothing more to make me love Thee; and I have forsaken Thee, O infinite Good! for the sake of vile and miserable goods! Ah! enlighten me, O my God! discover to me always more and more the greatness of Thy goodness, that my whole soul may be enamoured of Thee, and that I may labor to please Thee. I love Thee, O my Jesus! my love, my all; and I wish to unite myself frequently to Thee in this sacrament, in order to detach myself from all things, and to love Thee alone, who art my life. Through the merits of Thy Passion, assist me, O my Redeemer! O Mother of Jesus, and my Mother! do thou, too, assist me; beg of him to inflame my whole heart with his holy love.

THIRD POINT.
How much Jesus Christ desires to Unite Himself to us.

Let us, in the third place, consider the great ardor with which Jesus Christ desires that we should receive him in Holy Communion. Jesus knowing that His hour was come.³⁰ But how could Jesus call the night on which his bitter Passion should commence, His hour? He calls it His hour, because on that night he was to institute this divine sacrament in order to unite himself entirely to his beloved souls. This desire made him say: With desire I have desired to eat this pasch with you.³¹ Words by which the Redeemer wished to show us the great ardor with which he desired to unite himself to each of us in this sacrament. With desire I have desired. Words which, according to St. Laurence Justinian, proceeded from his immense love for us. This is the language of the most burning love.³² The Redeemer wished to give himself to us under the appearance of bread, that all might be able to receive him. Had he given himself to us under the appearance of costly food, the poor would not be able to receive him, and had he instituted the Holy Sacrament under the appearance of any other cheap food, this perhaps would not be found in all parts of the world. Jesus wished to leave himself under the species of bread, because it costs but little, and is found in every country: so that all persons in all places may find him and receive him.

Through his great desire that we should receive him, the Redeemer not only presses us to receive him by so many invitations: Come, eat My bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you.³³ Eat, O friends, and drink, and be inebriated, My dearly beloved,³⁴ but he also commands us to receive him. Take ye, and eat: this is My body.³⁵ Moreover, he endeavors to allure us to the holy table by promises of eternal life. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, hath life everlasting. He that eateth this bread shall live forever.³⁶ He also threatens to exclude from paradise all who neglect to receive him in the holy sacrament. Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you.³⁷ These invitations, promises, and threats all proceed from the ardent desire of Jesus Christ to unite himself to us in this sacrament. And this desire springs from the great love which he bears us: for, as St. Francis de Sales says, the end of love is nothing else than to be united with the object of love. And because in this sacrament Jesus unites himself entirely to the soul – He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood, abideth in Me and I in him.³⁸ Therefore he desires so ardently that we should receive him. Our Lord said one day to St. Mechtilde: “The bee does not cast itself on the flower from which it sucks the honey, with as much ardor as I come to the soul that desires to receive me.”

Oh! If the faithful understood the great blessing which Holy Communion brings to the soul! Jesus is the Lord of all riches; for his Father has made him master of all things. Knowing that the Father had given Him all things into His hands.³⁹ Hence, when Jesus Christ comes to a soul in Holy Communion, he brings with him immense treasures of graces. Now all good things, says Solomon, speaking of the eternal wisdom, came to me together with her.⁴⁰

St. Denis says that the Most Holy Sacrament has the greatest efficacy in sanctifying the soul.⁴¹ And St. Vincent Ferrer asserts that the soul derives greater profit from one Communion, than from fasting for a week on bread and water. The Communion, as the Council of Trent teaches, is that great remedy which delivers us from venial, and preserves us from mortal sins.⁴² Hence St. Ignatius, martyr, has called the Most Holy Sacrament the medicine of immortality.⁴³ Innocent III has said that, by his Passion, Jesus Christ has delivered us from the punishment of sin; but, by the Eucharist, he preserves us from the commission of sin.⁴⁴

Moreover, this sacrament kindles the fire of divine love. He brought me into the cellar of wine; he set in order charity in me. Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples; because I languish with love.⁴⁵ St. Gregory of Nyssa says that Holy Communion is this cellar of wine, in which the soul is so inebriated with divine love, that she forgets the earth and all creatures: it is thus the soul languishes with holy charity. The Venerable Father Francis Olimpio, of the Order of Theatines, used to say that there is nothing that so powerfully inflames the soul with divine love, as Holy Communion. God is love and a fire of love. God is charity.⁴⁶ My God is a consuming fire.⁴⁷ And this fire of love the Eternal Word came to light upon the earth. I am come to cast fire on the earth; and what will I but that it be kindled?⁴⁸ Oh! what burning flames of holy love does Jesus kindle in the souls who receive him in this sacrament with a desire of being inflamed with his love. St. Catharine of Sienna saw, one day, in the hands of a priest, Jesus, in the Holy Sacrament, like a furnace of love; and wondered that the hearts of all men were not set on fire and reduced to ashes by the flames which issued from the Holy Eucharist. St. Rose of Lima used to say that, in receiving Jesus Christ, she felt as if she received the sun. Hence she sent forth from her countenance rays which dazzled the sight, and the heat emitted from her mouth after Communion was so intense, that the person who reached her a drink felt her hand scorched as if she approached a furnace. In visiting the Most Holy Sacrament, St. Wenceslaus, king and martyr, was inflamed, even externally, with such a degree of heat that the servant who accompanied him, when obliged to walk on the snow, trod in the footsteps of the saint, and thus felt no cold. “The Eucharist,” says St. John Chrysostom, “is a fire which inflames us, that, like lions breathing fire, we may retire from the altar being made terrible to the devil.”⁴⁹ The Holy Sacrament is a fire which inflames the soul to such a degree, that we ought to depart from the altar breathing such flames of love that the devil will no longer dare to tempt us.

But some will say: I do not communicate often because I am cold in divine love. But, says Gerson, he who acts in this manner is like the man who refuses to approach the fire because he feels cold. The greater, then, our tepidity, the more frequently we ought to receive the Most Holy Sacrament, provided we have a desire to love God. “If,” says St. Francis de Sales (in his Devout Life, chap. xxi.), “you are asked why you communicate so frequently, say that two sorts of persons ought to communicate often – the perfect and the imperfect: the perfect to preserve perfection, and the imperfect to acquire perfection.” St. Bonaventure says: “Though you feel tepid, approach, trusting in the mercy of God. The more a person feels sick, the more he stands in need of a physician.”⁵⁰ And Jesus Christ says to St. Mechtilde: “When you are to communicate, desire to have all the love which any soul has ever had for me, and I will accept your love in proportion to the ardor with which you wish for it.⁵¹

Affections and Prayers.

O enamoured of souls, O my Jesus! it is not in Thy power to give us greater proofs of love in order to show us that Thou lovest us. And what more couldst Thou invent to induce us to love Thee? Ah! grant, O infinite Goodness! that I may love Thee tenderly and with all my strength! And who is there that has greater claims on the affections of my heart, than Thou, my Redeemer, who, after having given Thy life for my salvation, hast given me Thyself entirely in this sacrament? Ah! Lord, that I always remembered Thy love in order to forget all things, and to love Thee alone without interruption and without reserve! I love Thee, O my Jesus above all things, and I wish to love Thee alone. Banish from my heart, I entreat Thee, all affections which are not for Thee. I thank Thee for giving me time to love Thee and to weep over the offences I have offered to Thee. My Jesus, I desire that Thou mayst be the only object of my affections. Assist me, save me, and let my salvation consist in loving Thee with my whole heart, and in loving Thee always in this life and in the next. Mary, my Mother, obtain for me the grace to love Jesus Christ; pray to him for me.

1“Cum esset omnipotens, plus dare non potuit.” – Lohner Bibli. tit. 52, § 3.

2“Quis melior thesaurus in corde hominis esse potest, quam corpus Christi?” – T. iv. s. 12, a. 1. c. 4.

3“Notas facite adinventiones ejus.” – Isa. xii. 4.

4“Nonne videtur insania: Manducate meam carnem, bibite meum sanguinem?” – In Ps. xxxiii. en. 1.

5“Durus est hic sermo, et quis potest eum audire?” – John. vi. 61.

6Hoc sacramentum est memoriale suæ dilectionis.

7“Hoc facite in meam commemorationem.” – Luke, xxii. 19.

8“In illo fervoris excessu, quando paratus erat pro nobis mori, ab excessu amoris majus opus agere coactus est, quam unquam operatus fuit: dare nobis corpus in cibum.” – T. II. s. 54, a. 1, c. 1.

9“Omnem vim amoris effudit amicis.” – Serm. de Ascen. Dom.

10“Divitias divini sui erga homines amoris velut effudit.” – Sess. 13, c. 2.

11“Accipite et comedite; hoc,est corpus meum.” – Matt. xxvi. 26.

12Totum tibi dedit, nihil sibi reliquit.

13“Deus in Eucharistia totum quod ipse est et habet in summo dedit.” – De Beat. c. 3.

14“Ecce, quem mundus capere non potest, captivus noster est.” – Exp. Miss. c. 4.

15“Quomodo non etiam cum illo omnia nobis donavit?” – Rom. viii. 32.

16“Hoc ardentissimæ charitatis indicium.” – De Tr. Chr. Ag. c. 2.

17“Sciens Jesus quia venit hora ejus, ut transeat ex hoc mundo ad Patrem, cum dilexisset suos. . . . in finem dilexit eos,” – John, xiii. 1.

18Extremo amore, summe dilexit eos.

19“In qua nocte tradebatur, accepit panem, et gratias agens fregit, et dixit: Accipite et manducate; hoc est corpus meum.” – I Cor. xi. 23.

20Quæ in fine in signum amicitiæ celebrantur, firmius memoriæ imprimuntur et chariora tenentur.

21“Ultimus gradus amoris est, cum se dedit nobis in cibum; quia dedit se nobis ad omnimodam unionem, sicut cibus et cibans invicem uniuntur.” – T. II. s. 54, a. 1, c. 1; a. 4, c. 1.

22Huic nos unimur, et facti sumus unum corpus et una caro.

23“Quis pastor oves proprio pascit cruore? Et quid dico, pastor? Matres multæ sunt, quæ filios aliis tradunt nutricibus; hoc autem ipse non est passus, sed nos proprio sanguine pascit.” – Ad pop. Ant. hom. 60.

24“Semetipsum nobis immiscuit, ut unum quid simus; ardenter enim amantium hoc est.” – Ad op. Ant. hom. 61.

25“Memoriam fecit mirabilium suorum misericors et miserator Dominus, escam dedit timentibus se.” – Ps. cx. 4.

26“O quam mirabilis est dilectio tua, Domine Jesu, qui tuo corpori taliter nos incorporari voluisti, ut tecum unum cor et animam haberemus inseparabiliter colligatam.” – De Inc. div. am. c. 5.

27“Amor dignitatis nescius.” – In Cant. s. 64.

28“Amor ratione caret, et vadit quo ducitur, non quo debeat.” – Serm. 147.

29Sacramentum charitatis, charitatis pignus.

30“Sciens Jesus quia venit hora ejus.” – John, xiii. 1.

31“Desiderio desideravi hoc pascha manducare vobiscum.” – Luke, xxii. 15.

32“Flagrantissimæ charitatis est vox hæc.” – De Tr. Chr. Ag. c. 2.

33“Venite, comedite panem meum, et bibite vinum quod miscui vobis.” – Prov. ix. 5.

34“Comedite, amid, et bibite, et inebriamini, charissimi.” – Cant. v. 1.

35“Accipite et comedite; hoc est corpus meum.” – Mati. xxvi. 26.

36“Qui manducat meam carnem, et bibit meum sanguinem, habet vitam æternam. . . . Qui manducat hunc panem, vivet in æternum.” – John, vi. 55.

37“Nisi manducaveritis carnem Filii hominis, et biberitis ejus sanguinem, non habebitis vitam in vobis.” – John, vi. 54.

38“Qui manducat meam carnem, et bibit meum sanguinem, in me manet et ego in illo.” – John, vi. 57.

39“Omnia dedit ei Pater in manus.” – John, xiii. 3.

40“Venerunt autem mihi omnia bona pariter cum illa.” – Wis. vii. 11.

41Eucharistia maximam vim habet perficiendæ sanctitatis.

42“Antidotum, quo liberemur a culpis quotidianis, et a peccatis mortalibus præservemur.” – Sess. 13, cap. 2.

43“Pharmacum immortalitatis.” – Ep. ad Eph. c. 20.

44“Per crucis mysterium, eripuit nos a potestate peccati; per Eucharistiæ sacramentum, liberat nos a voluntate peccandi.” – De Alt. Myst. l. 4, c. 44.

45“Introduxit me in cellam vinariam, ordinavit in me charitatem. Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis; quia amore langueo.” – Cant. ii. 4.

46“Deus charitas est.” – John, iv. 8.

47“Ignis consumens est.” – Deut. iv. 24.

48“Ignem veni mittere in terram; et quid volo, nisi ut accendatur?” – Luke, xii. 49.

49“Carbo est Eucharistia, quæ nos inflammat, ut tamquam leones ignem spirantes ab illa mensa recedamus, facti diabolo terribiles.” – Ad pop. Ant. hom. 61.

50“Licet tepide, tamen confidens de misericordia Dei accedat; tanto magis æger necesse habet requirere medicum, quanto magis senserit se ægrotum.” – De Prof. re1. l. 2, c. 77.

51Spir. grat. l. 3, c. 22.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXXIII

2010-11-10T01:06:00.001Z

The Love of God.

“Let us therefore love God, because God hath first loved us.” – John, iv. 19.

FIRST POINT.
Love and Goodness shown by God to Man.

Consider, in the first place, that God deserves your love, because he has loved you before you loved him, and because he has been the first of all to love you. I have loved thee with an everlasting love.¹ Your parents have been the first to love you on this earth; but they have loved you only after they have known you. Before your father or your mother came into this world, God loved you: even before the world was created, he loved you. And how long before the creation of the world did God love you? Perhaps a thousand years, or a thousand ages? It is useless to count years or ages; God has loved you from eternity. I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee.² In a word, as long as he has been God, he has loved you; as long as he has loved himself, he has loved you. Hence the holy virgin St. Agnes had reason to say: “I am prevented by another lover.”³ When the world and creatures sought her love, she answered: No, I cannot love you. My God has been the first to love me; it is but just, then, that I should consecrate all my love to him alone.

Thus, my brother, God has loved you from eternity, and through pure love has taken you from among so many men whom he could create; he has given you existence, and has placed you in the world. For the love of you, God has created so many other beautiful creatures, that they might serve you, and remind you of the love which he has borne to you, and of the love which you owe to him. “Heaven and earth,” says St. Augustine, “tell me to love Thee.”⁴ When the saint looked at the sun, the moon, the stars, the mountains, the rivers, they appeared to him to speak, and say: “Augustine, love your God; for he has created us for you, that you might love him.” The Abbot de Rancé, founder of La Trappe, when he saw a hill, a fountain, or a flower, would say that all these creatures upbraided him with ingratitude to God. In holding a flower or a fruit in her hand, St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi felt her heart wounded as it were by a dart of divine love, and would say within herself: “Then, my God has from eternity thought of creating this flower Or fruit, that I might love him.”

Consider, moreover, the special love God has shown to you in allowing you to be born in a Christian country, and in the bosom of the true Church. ... The number of those who have the happiness of being born in a country where the true faith prevails, is small, compared with the rest of mankind; and he has chosen you to be one of that small number. Oh, what an infinite gift is the gift of faith! How many millions are deprived of the sacraments, of sermons, of the examples of good companions, and of all the other helps to salvation which are found in the true Church! And God is resolved to give all these great helps to you without any merit on your part, and even with a foreknowledge of your demerits; for when he thought of creating you, and bestowing these graces upon you, he foresaw the insults which you would offer to him.

Affections and Prayers.

O sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, infinite good, infinite majesty! who hast loved men so tenderly, how does it happen that Thou art so much despised by them? But among these men, Thou, O my God! hast loved me in a particular manner, and hast bestowed on me special graces, which Thou hast not given to so many others. And I have despised Thee more than others. I prostrate myself at Thy feet; O Jesus, my Saviour! “cast me not away from Thy face.”⁵ I would deserve to be cast off on account of my frequent ingratitude to Thee. But Thou hast said that Thou wilt not reject a penitent soul that returns to Thee. Him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out.⁶ My Jesus, I am sorry for having offended Thee. Hitherto I have not known Thee. I now acknowledge Thee for my Lord and Redeemer, who hast died in order to save me and to be loved by me. When, O my Jesus! shall I cease to be ungrateful to Thee? When shall I begin truly to love Thee with a true love? Behold, I this day resolve to love Thee with my whole heart, and to love nothing but Thee. O infinite Goodness! I adore Thee for all those who do not adore Thee, and I love Thee for all who do not love Thee. I believe in Thee, I hope in Thee, I love Thee, and offer my whole being to Thee. Assist me by Thy grace; Thou knowest my weakness. But if Thou didst bestow so many graces upon me when I neither loved nor desired to love Thee, how much greater graces should I hope for from Thy mercy now that I love Thee and desire only to love Thee! My Lord, give me Thy love, but a fervent love which will make me forget all creatures a strong love, which will make me conquer all difficulties in order to please Thee; a perpetual love, which will never be dissolved between me and Thee. I hope for all graces through Thy merits, O my Jesus! and I hope for them through thy intercession, O my mother, Mary.

SECOND POINT.
God has given Himself to us.

But God has not only given us so many beautiful creatures—he was not content until he even gave us himself. He loved us, and delivered himself up for us.⁷ Accursed sin had robbed us of the divine grace, and made us the slaves of hell; but, to the astonishment of heaven and of all nature, the Son of God came on earth to become man in order to redeem us from eternal death, and to purchase for us the grace and the eternal glory which we had lost. How great would be our wonder if we saw a monarch become a worm for the love of worms! But our astonishment would be infinitely greater at the sight of a God made man for the love of men. He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, . . . and in habit found as man.⁸ A God clothed in flesh! And the word was made flesh.⁹ But the astonishment increases when we see all that this Son of God has done and suffered for the love of us. To redeem us it would have been sufficient for him to shed a single drop of his blood, or a single tear, or to offer a single prayer; for a prayer offered by a divine person would be of infinite value, and therefore sufficient for the salvation of the whole world, and of an infinite number of worlds. But, says St. Chrysostom, what was sufficient for redemption was not sufficient for the immense love which this God bore to us.¹⁰ He not only wished to save us, but, because he loved us ardently, he wished to be loved ardently by us; and therefore he resolved to lead a life full of sorrows and humiliations, and to suffer a death the most painful of all deaths, in order to make us understand the infinite love which he entertained for us. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross.¹¹ O excess of divine love, which all men and all angels will never be able to comprehend! I say, excess; for Moses and Elias, speaking of the Passion of Jesus Christ, called it an excess.¹² St. Bonaventure called the Passion of Christ an “excess of sorrow and of love.”¹³ If our Redeemer had not been God, but a friend or a relative, what greater proof of love could he have given, than to die for, us? Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends.¹⁴ If Jesus Christ had to save his own Father, he could not have done more for the love of him! If, my brother, you had been God and the creator of Jesus Christ, what more could he have done for you than sacrifice his life in the midst of a sea of torments and sorrows, for the love of you? If the most contemptible man on earth had done for you what Jesus Christ has done for you, could you live without loving him?

But what do you say? Do you believe in the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ? You believe these mysteries; and do you not love him? or, can you think of loving anything but Jesus Christ! He, says St. Augustine, has come on earth to suffer and to die for you in order to make known to you the. immense love which he bears you.¹⁵ Before the Incarnation, man might doubt whether God loved him tenderly; but how, after the Incarnation and death of Jesus Christ, can he any longer doubt that God loves him with the most tender love? And what greater tenderness of affection could he show you, than to sacrifice his divine life for the love of you? Our ears are accustomed to hear of creation, of redemption, of a God in a manger, of a God on a cross. O holy faith, enlighten us!

Affections and Prayers.

O my Jesus! I see that Thou couldst have done nothing more in order to compel me to love Thee; and I also see that by my ingratitude I have labored to force Thee to abandon me. Blessed forever be Thy patience, which has borne with me so long. I would deserve a hell made on purpose for myself; but Thy death gives me confidence. Ah! make me understand well the claims which Thou, O infinite Good! hast to my love, and the obligations by which I am bound to love Thee. I knew, O my Jesus! that Thou didst die for me; how then, O God! have I been able to live for so many years in forgetfulness of Thee? Oh that the past years of my life commenced again! I would wish, O my Lord! to give them all to Thee. But years do not return. Ah! grant that I may at least spend all the remaining days of my life in loving and pleasing Thee. My dear Redeemer! I love Thee with my whole heart; but increase this love within me. Remind me always of all that Thou hast done for me; and do not permit me to be any longer ungrateful to Thee. No; I will no longer resist the lights Thou hast given me. Thou didst wish to be loved by me, and I desire to love Thee. And whom will I love, if I do not love a God of infinite beauty and infinite goodness? a God who has died for me? a God who has borne with me with so much patience, and who, instead of chastising me as I deserved, has changed chastisements into graces and favors? Yes; I love Thee, O God! worthy of infinite love, and I sigh and seek to live wholly employed in loving Thee, and forgetful of everything but Thee. O infinite charity of my Lord! assist a soul that ardently desires to be entirely Thine. O great mother of God, Mary, do thou too assist me by thy intercession; beg of Jesus to make me belong entirely to him.

THIRD POINT.
Love that Jesus Christ has shown in His Passion.

Our astonishment increases when we consider the ardor with which Jesus Christ desired to suffer and die for the love of us. I have a baptism, says Jesus Christ, wherewith I am to be baptized; and how am I straitened until it be accomplished.¹⁶ I am to be baptized with the baptism of my own blood: and I feel myself dying through a desire that my Passion and death may soon come, that thus man may soon know the love which I bear to him. It was this desire that made him say on the night before his Passion: With desire have I desired to eat this pasch with you before I suffer.¹⁷ Then, says St Basil of Seleucia, it appears that our God cannot be satiated with loving men.¹⁸

Ah, my Jesus! men do not love Thee because they do not think of the love which Thou hast had for them. O God! how is it possible for a soul to live without loving God, if it considers that he died for its sake, and that he died with so great a desire of showing his love for it? The charity of Christ presseth us.¹⁹ St. Paul says that it is not so much what Jesus Christ has done and suffered for our salvation, as the love which he has displayed in suffering for us, that obliges, and, as it were, forces us to love him. Contemplating the love which Jesus Christ exhibits in his Passion, St. Laurence Justinian exclaimed: “We behold the All-wise infatuated through excess of love.”²⁰ We have seen a God as it were foolish, through the excess of his love for us. And who could ever believe, had not faith assured us of it, that the Creator would die for his own creatures? In an ecstasy, St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, carrying a crucifix in her hands, exclaimed: “Yes, my Jesus, Thou art foolish through love.” This the Gentiles also said when they heard the apostles preaching the death of Jesus Christ; they, as St. Paul attests, regarded it as a folly which could not be believed. We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness.²¹ And how, said they, could a God that is most happy in himself, and stands not in need of any one, descend on earth, to become man, and die for the love of men, who are his creatures? This would be the same as to believe that a God had become foolish for the sake of men. But, it is of faith that Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, has delivered himself to death for the love of us. Christ hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us.²²

And why has he done so? He has done so that we might no longer live to the world, but only to that Lord who has died for us. Christ died for all, that they also who live may not live to themselves, but unto Him who died for them.²³ He has done it that, by the love which he has shown us, he might win all the affections of our hearts. For to this end Christ died and rose again, that He might be the Lord both of the dead and of the living.²⁴ Hence the saints, contemplating the death of Jesus Christ, thought it very little to give their life and all things for the love of so loving a God. How many noblemen, how many princes, have left relatives, riches, country, and even kingdoms, to shut themselves up in a cloister, in order to live only to the love of Jesus Christ! How many martyrs have sacrificed their life! how many tender virgins, renouncing the nuptials of the great, have gone with joy to death, in order thus to make some return for the affection of a God who had died for their sake! And, my brother, what have you hitherto done for the sake of Jesus Christ? As he has died for the saints—for St. Laurence, for St. Lucy, for St. Agnes, so he has also died for you. What do you intend to do during the remaining days of life, which God gives you that you may love him? From this day forward, look frequently at the crucifix, and, in looking at it, call to mind the love which Jesus Christ has borne you, and say within yourself: Thou hast then, my God, died for me? Do this at least, I say, and do it often; if you do, you cannot but feel yourself sweetly constrained to love a God who has loved you so tenderly.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my dear Redeemer! it is true that I have not loved Thee because I have not reflected on the love which Thou hast borne me! Ah, my Jesus! I have been very ungrateful to Thee! Thou hast given Thy life for me by submitting to the most painful of all deaths; and have I been so ungrateful as not even to think of Thy sufferings? Pardon me; I promise, O my crucified Love! that from this day forward Thou shalt be the only object of my thoughts and of all my affections! Ah! when the devil or the world presents me a forbidden apple, remind me, O my beloved Saviour! of the pains which Thou hast endured for my sake, that I may love Thee, and may never more offend Thee! Ah! if one of my servants had done for me what Thou hast done, I could not bring myself to displease him. And I have dared to turn my back so often on Thee, who hast died for me. O beautiful flames, which have obliged a God to give his life for Me, come, inflame, fill my whole heart, and destroy all affections to created things. Ah, my beloved Redeemer! how is it possible for me to contemplate Thee, either in the manger, in Bethlehem, on the cross on Calvary, or in the sacrament on our altars, and not be enamored of Thee? My Jesus! I love Thee with my whole soul. During the remaining Years of my life Thou shalt be my only good, my only love. I have unhappily lived long enough forgetful of Thy Passion and of Thy love. I give Thee all things, and if I do not give myself to Thee as I ought, take me, and reign in my whole heart. Thy kingdom come. May my heart be the servant only of Thy love. May I speak of nothing else, may I treat of nothing else, may I think of nothing else, may I sigh and desire only to love and please Thee. Assist me always by Thy grace, that I may be faithful to Thee. In Thy merits I trust, O my Jesus! O mother of fair love! make me ardently love thy Son, who is so amiable, and who has loved me so tenderly.

1“In charitate perpetua dilexi te.” – Jer. xxxi. 3.

2“In charitate perpetua dilexi te; ideo attraxi te, miserans.” – Jer. xxxi. 3.

3Ab alio amatore præventa sum.

4“Cœlum et terra et omnia mihi dicunt ut te amem.” – Conf, l. 10. c. 6.

5“Ne projicias me a facie tua.” – Ps. l. 13.

6“Eum qui venit ad me, non ejiciam foras.” – John, vi. 37.

7“Dilexit nos, et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis.” – Eph. v. 2.

8“Semetipsum exinanivit, formam servi accipiens . . . et habitu inventus ut homo.” – Phil. ii. 7.

9“Et verbum caro factum est.” – John, i. 14.

10Quod sufficiebat redemptioni. non sufficiebat amori.

11“Humiliavit semetipsum factus est obediens usque ad mortem, mortem autem crucis.” – Phil. ii. 8.

12“Dicebant excessum ejus, quem completurus erat in Jerusalem.” – Luke, ix. 31.

13Excessus doloris, excessus amoris.

14“Majorem hac dilectionem nemo habet, ut animam suam ponat quis pro amicis suis.” – John, xv. 13.

15“Propterea Christus advenit, ut cognosceret homo quantum eum diligat Deus.” – De catech. rud. c. 4.

16“Baptismo autem habeo baptizari; et quomodo coarctor usquedum perficiatur!” – Luke, xii. 50.

17“Desiderio desideravi hoc pascha manducare vobiscum.” – Luke, xxii. 15.

18Hominum amore nequit expleri Deus.

19“Charitas enim Christi urget nos.” – 2 Cor. v. 14.

20“Vidimus sapientiam amoris nimietate infatuatam.” – Serm. de Nativ.

21“Prædicamus Christum crucifixum, Judæis quidem scandalum, Gentibus autem stultitiam.” – 1 Cor. i. 23.

22“Dilexit nos, et tradidit semetipsum pro nobis.” – Eph. v. 2.

23“Pro omnibus mortuus est Christus, ut et qui vivunt, jam non sibi vivant, sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est.” – 2 Cor. v. 15.

24“In hoc enim Christus mortuus est et resurrexit, ut et mortuorum et vivorum dominetur.” – Rom. xiv. 9.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXXII

2010-10-07T05:10:00.003+01:00

Confidence in the Patronage of Mary.

“He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord.” – Prov. viii. 35.

FIRST POINT.
Power of Mary.

Oh! how great will be our thankfulness to the mercy of God, for having given us for our advocate, Mary, who, by her prayers, can obtain for us all the graces we stand in need of. “Truly wonderful,” exclaims St. Bonaventure, “is the bounty of our God, who has given thee, O Lady, to his guilty subjects as their advocate, so that thou art able to obtain for them by thy assistance whatever thou wilt.”¹ Sinners, brethren, if we find ourselves debtors to the divine justice, and condemned to hell by our sins, let us not despair; let us have recourse to this divine mother; let us put ourselves under her protection, and she will save us. But we must have a sincere purpose of amending our lives. If we have such a purpose, and place confidence in Mary, we shall be saved. And why? Because Mary is a powerful advocate, a merciful advocate, an advocate that desires to save all.

In the first place, let us consider that Mary is a powerful advocate, who can obtain from the Judge all graces for her servants. This is a singular privilege, given to her by the Judge himself, who is her Son. “It is a great privilege, that Mary is most powerful with her Son.”² John Gerson says that the Blessed Virgin asks nothing from God with an absolute will, which she does not obtain; and that, like a queen, she sends the angels to enlighten, to purify, and to perfect her servants. Hence, to inspire confidence in this great advocate, the Church makes us invoke her under the title of Powerful Virgin. Powerful Virgin, pray for us.³ And why is the patronage of Mary so powerful? Because she is the Mother of God. “The prayer of the divine Mother,” says St. Antoninus, “partakes of the nature of a command, and therefore it is impossible for her not to be heard.”⁴ The prayers of Mary are the prayers of a mother, and are therefore regarded by Jesus Christ, in a certain manner, as commands; hence it is impossible that her petitions should be rejected. St. George, Archbishop of Nicomedia, says that the Redeemer, as if to discharge the obligation which he owes to his mother for having given to him his human nature, hears all her prayers. Hence, St. Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, has written, “The Son is pleased that his Mother should pray to him, because he wishes to grant her whatsoever she asks, in order to repay her for the favor received from her in giving him flesh.”⁵ Hence the martyr St. Methodius exclaimed: Rejoice, rejoice, O Mary! thou hast for a debtor thy Son. We are all debtors to him; but he is a debtor to thee alone.”⁶

Hence Cosmas of Jerusalem says that the intercession of Mary is omnipotent.⁷ Yes, her prayers are omnipotent, because, as Richard of St. Laurence says, it is but just that the Mother should partake of the power of the Son. The Son, then, who is omnipotent, has made the Mother omnipotent.⁸ The Son is omnipotent by nature; the Mother is omnipotent by grace—that is, she obtains by her prayers whatsoever she asks, as is happily expressed in the celebrated verse: “What God doeth by right, thou, O Virgin, dost by prayer.”⁹ This was revealed to St. Bridget, who one day heard Jesus Christ addressing his mother in the following words: “Ask from me what you wish; for your petition cannot be fruitless.”¹⁰ My mother, ask as much as you please; for I shall hear all your prayers. He then subjoins the reason. “Because you refused me nothing on earth, I will refuse nothing to you in heaven.”¹¹ You refused me nothing when I lived on earth; it is just that I should refuse nothing to you now that you are with me in heaven.

In fine, there is no sinner, however abandoned, whom Mary cannot save by her intercession. “You have,” says St. George of Nicomedia, “insuperable strength, lest the multitude of our sins should overcome your clemency. Nothing resists your power; for the Creator regards your glory as his own.”¹² O Mother of God, nothing can resist thy power, since thy Creator regards thy glory as his own.”¹³ “Nothing, then,” says St. Peter Damian, “is impossible to thee, who can raise even those who are in despair to a hope of salvation.”¹⁴

Affections and Prayers.

My dear Queen and Mother, Mary, I will address thee in the words of St. Germanus: “Thou art omnipotent in saving sinners; thy prayers are all-powerful with God, because thou art the mother of true life.”¹⁵ Then, O my mistress, if I have recourse to thee, all my sins cannot make me despair of salvation. Thou obtainest by thy prayers whatever thou wishest. If thou prayest for me I shall certainly be saved. I will then say to thee with St. Bernard: Pray for me, who am so miserable, O great Mother of God, for thy Son hears thee, and grants whatsoever thou askest.¹⁶ I am indeed a sinner; but I wish to amend my life, and I glory in being specially devoted to thee. I am, it is true, unworthy of thy protection; but I know that thou hast never abandoned any one who has placed his trust in thee. Thou art able and willing to save me, and I trust in thee. When I was in the state of perdition, and forgetful of thee, thou didst think of me, and didst obtain for me the grace to enter into myself. How much more ought I to trust in thy mercy now that I am dedicated to thy service, and that I recommend myself with confidence to thy prayers! O Mary! pray for me, and obtain for me the grace to be a saint. Obtain for me holy perseverance; obtain for me a great love of thy Son, and of thee, O my amiable mother! I love thee, O my Queen! and hope to love thee always. Do thou also love me, and obtain for me the grace that I may be transformed from a sinner into a saint.

SECOND POINT.
Mercy of Mary.

Let us consider, in the second place, that Mary is an advocate as merciful as she is powerful, and that she knows not how to refuse her protection to any soul that has recourse to her. The eyes of the Lord, says David, are upon the just; and this mother of mercy, says Richard of St. Laurence, keeps her eyes upon the just and upon sinners, that she may preserve them from falling into sin, or that, should they fall, she may raise them up.¹⁷ St. Bonaventure used to say that, in looking at Mary, he seemed to behold mercy itself.¹⁸ Hence St. Bernard exhorts us to recommend ourselves with great confidence in all our necessities to this powerful advocate, who is all sweetness and benignity to those who invoke her intercession.¹⁹ Hence Mary is called an olive-tree. As a fair olive-tree in the plains.²⁰ As from the olive-tree nothing comes forth but oil, the symbol of mercy; so from the hands of Mary nothing flows but the graces and mercies which she dispenses to all who take shelter under her protection. Hence Denis the Carthusian has justly called her the “advocate of all sinners who have recourse to her.”²¹ O God! how great will be the remorse of the damned Christian in thinking that, during life, he could have saved his soul with so much facility by invoking the intercession of this mother of mercy; that he had not done so; and that there will be no more time to do it! The Blessed Virgin said one day to St. Bridget: I am called, and I really am, the Mother of mercy; for such God has made me.²² “I am called by all the Mother of mercy, and truly his mercy has made me merciful.”²³ And who, but God in his mercy, because he desires our salvation, has given us this advocate to defend us? “Therefore,” adds Mary, “miserable will he be, who, while it is in his power, has not recourse to me, who am merciful.”²⁴ Miserable is the man, and miserable for eternity, who, though he could, during life, have recommended himself to me, who am so benign and merciful to all, has neglected to have recourse to me, and is lost.

Perhaps, says St. Bonaventure, we are afraid that in asking Mary’s intercession she will refuse it to us? No, says the saint: “Mary does not refuse, and never has refused pity and aid to any sinner who has invoked her intercession.”²⁵ She has not done so, and she cannot do so; because God has made her the queen and the mother of mercy; and as queen of mercy she is bound to attend to the care of the miserable. “Thou,” says St. Bernard, “art the queen of mercy; and who but the miserable are the subjects of mercy?”²⁶ Hence the saint through humility adds: Since then, O Mother of God! thou art the queen of mercy, thou must have a special care of me, who am the most miserable of sinners.²⁷ As mother of mercy it is her duty to deliver from death her sick children, to whom her mercy makes her a mother. Hence, St. Basil calls her a public hospital.²⁸ Public hospitals are erected for the poor; and they who are in the greatest poverty have the best claims to be admitted into them. Hence, according to St. Basil, Mary ought to receive with the greatest tenderness and care the greatest sinners who have recourse to her.

But let us not doubt of the mercy of Mary. One day St. Bridget heard the Saviour saying to his mother: “Thou wouldst show compassion to the devil, should he ask it with humility.”²⁹ The haughty Lucifer will never humble himself to ask her prayers; but if he humbled himself to this divine mother, and invoked her help, she, by her intercession, would deliver him from hell. By those words, Jesus Christ wished to give us to understand what Mary herself afterward said to the same St. Bridget—that when a sinner has recourse to her, however enormous his guilt may be, she regards not the sins with which he is charged, but the intention with which he comes. If he come with a sincere desire to amend, she receives him and heals all his wounds.³⁰ Hence St. Bonaventure says: “Poor sinners! do not despair; raise your eyes to Mary, and trust in the mercy of this good mother.”³¹ Let us then, says St. Bernard, ask the grace we have lost, and let us ask it through Mary.³² The grace which we have lost, she has found, says Richard of St. Laurence;³³ we therefore ought to go to her in order to recover it. When the Archangel Gabriel announced to the Most Holy Virgin the divine maternity, he said to her: Fear not, Mary, thou host found grace.³⁴ But, since Mary was never deprived of grace, but was, on the contrary, always full of grace, how could he say that she had found it! In answer to this question, Cardinal Hugo says, that Mary found grace, not for herself, because she had always possessed it, but for us, who have lost it. Hence the same author says, that we ought to go to her and say: O Lady, property ought to be restored to him who has lost it; the grace which thou hast found is not thine, for thou hast always possessed it; it is ours, we have lost it through our own fault; thou shouldst then restore it to us.³⁵ “Let sinners, then, who have lost grace by their sins, run—let them run to the Virgin, and say with confidence: Restore to us our property, which thou hast found.”³⁶

Affections and Prayers.

Behold, O great Mother of God! at thy feet a miserable sinner, who has not once, but several times, voluntarily lost the divine grace, which thy Son had purchased for him by his death. O mother of mercy! I come to thee with a soul covered with wounds and sores; be not angry with me on that account, but have the greater pity on me, and assist me. I do not ask of thee earthly goods; I ask thee to obtain for me the grace of God and the love of thy Son. My mother, pray for me, and never cease to pray for me. It is through the merits of Jesus Christ and thy intercession that I am to be saved. Thy office is to intercede for sinners: I will then say, with St. Thomas of Villanova: “O our advocate, fulfil thy office!” recommend me to God and defend me. No cause, however desperate, is lost, when defended by thee. Thou, after Jesus, art the hope of sinners; thou art my hope. O Mary! I will not cease to serve thee, to love thee, and to have recourse to thee always. Do not then ever cease to pray for me, particularly when thou seest me in danger of again losing the grace of God. O Mary, O great mother of God, have pity on me.

THIRD POINT.
Charity of Mary.

Let us consider, in the third place, that Mary is so merciful an advocate, that she not only assists all who have recourse to her, but also goes in search of the miserable, in order to defend and save them. Behold how she invites us all, and encourages us to hope for every good, if we have recourse to her. In me is all hope of life and virtue. Come over to me all.³⁷ In explaining this passage, the devout Pelbart says: “She invites all, the just and sinners.”³⁸ The devil, according to St. Peter, goes about continually seeking whom he may devour.³⁹ But this divine mother, says Bernard da Bustis, goes about seeking whom she may save.⁴⁰ Mary is called the mother of mercy; because, like a mother, she cannot see her children in danger of being lost without giving them assistance. Mary pities all our miseries, and constantly seeks our salvation. And, says St. Germanus, who, after Jesus, has greater care of our salvation, than thou, O mother of mercy?⁴¹ St. Bonaventure says that Mary is so solicitous about the relief of the miserable, that she appears to desire nothing with greater ardor than to comfort them.⁴²

She certainly assists us as often as we have recourse to her; no one has ever been rejected by her, says the Idiot.⁴³ But this, adds Richard of St. Victor, is not enough for her; she anticipates our supplications, and obtains aid for us before we ask her prayers.⁴⁴ Moreover, the same author says, that Mary is so full of mercy, that, as soon as she sees misery, she instantly obtains relief, and cannot behold any one in distress without coming to his assistance.⁴⁵ It was thus she acted when she lived on this earth, as we learn from what happened at the marriage of Cana in Galilee; where, when the wine failed, she did not wait to be asked, but taking pity on the affliction and shame of the spouses, asked her Son to console them, saying: They have no wine.⁴⁶ Thus she induced him to change, by miracle, water into wine. But, says St. Bonaventure, if Mary’s compassion for the afflicted was so great while she was in this world, her pity for us is certainly much greater now that she is in heaven, where she has a better knowledge of our miseries, and greater compassion for us.⁴⁷ Novarino adds: If Mary, unasked, shows such readiness to afford relief, how much more careful will she be to console those who ask her prayers!⁴⁸

Ah! let us never cease to have recourse in all our necessities to the divine mother, who is always ready to obtain relief for all who pray to her. “You will find her ever ready to assist,”⁴⁹ says Richard of St. Laurence. And Bernardine da Bustis adds, that she desires more ardently to obtain graces for us, than we do to receive them.⁵⁰ Hence he says that, whenever we have recourse to her, we shall always find her hands full of graces and mercies.⁵¹ According to St. Bonaventure, Mary’s desire for our welfare and salvation is so great, that she feels offended not only with those who do her a positive injury, but also with those who neglect to ask favors from her.⁵² And, on the other hand, the saint affirms that they who invoke Mary’s intercession (that is, with a determination to amend their lives) are saved. Hence he calls her the salvation of those who invoke her.⁵³ Let us, then, always have recourse to the divine mother, and always say to her with the holy Doctor: “In thee, O Lady, have I hoped; may I not be confounded forever.”⁵⁴ No, O Lady, O mother of God, O Mary! I shall not be lost after having placed my hopes in thee after Jesus.

Affections and Prayers.

O Mary! behold at thy feet a miserable slave of hell, who implores thy mercy. I, indeed, deserve no good; but thou art the mother of mercy, and mercy is exercised in favor of those who are unworthy of it. The whole world calls thee the refuge and the hope of sinners; then thou art my refuge and my hope. I am a lost sheep; but to save the lost sheep, the Eternal Word came down from heaven, and became thy Son; he wishes that I have recourse to thee, and that thou assist me by thy prayers. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners. O great Mother of God! thou prayest for all; pray to thy Son also for me: tell him that I am thy Client, and that thou art my protectress: tell him that in thee, after him, I have placed all my hopes; tell him to pardon me, that I repent of all the insults I have offered to him; tell him to grant me in his mercy holy perseverance: tell him to grant me the grace to love him with my whole heart. In fine, tell him to save me. He does whatsoever thou askest. O Mary, my hope! in thee I trust; have pity on me.

1“O certe Dei nostri mira benignitas, qui suis reis te, Dominam, tribuit Advocatum, ut, quod volueris. pro nobis valeas impetrare” – Stim. am. p. 3, c. 19.

2“Grande privilegium, quod Maria apud Filium sit potentissima.” – St. Bonav. in Spec. lect. vi.

3Virgo potens, ora pro nobis.

4“Oratio Deiparæ habet rationem imperii; unde impossible est eam non exaudiri.” – P. 4, I. 15, c. 17, § 4.

5“Filius. quasi exsolvens debitum, petitiones tuas implet.” – Or. de Ingr. B. V.

6“Euge. euge, quæ debitorem habes Filium! Deo enim universi debemus, tibi autem ille debitor est.” – Or. de Sim. et Ann.

7“Omnipotens auxilium tuum, O Maria.” – Hymn 6 in depr. ad Deip.

8Cum autem eadem sit potestas Matris et Filii, ab omnipotente Filio omnipotens Mater effecta est.

9Quod Deus imperio, tu prece, Virgo, potes!

10“Pete quod vis; non enim inanis potest esse petitio tua.” – Rev. l. 6, c. 23.

11“Quia tu mihi nihil negasti in terra ego tibi nihil negabo in cœlo.” – Rev. l. 1, c. 24.

12Orat. de Exit. B. V.

13“Habes vires insuperabiles, ne clementiam tuam superet multitudo peccatorum. Nihil tuæ resistit potentiæ; tuam enim gloriam Creator existimat esse propriam.” – Or. de Ingr. B. V.

14“Nil tibi impossibile, cui possibile est desperatos in spem beatitudinis relevare.” – De Nat. B. V. s. 1.

15Serm. iii. in Dom. B. V.

16“Loquere, Domina, quia audit Filius tuus; et quacumque petieris, impetrabis.” – Depr. ad glor. V.

17“Sed oculi Dominæ super justos et peccatores, sicut oculi matris ad puerum, ne cadat, vel, si ceciderit, ut sublevet.” – De laud. B. M. l. 5.

18“Certe, Domina, cum te aspicio, nihil nisi misericordiam cerno.” – Stim, am. p. 3, c. 19.

19“Quid ad Mariam accedere trepidet humana fragilitas? Nihil austerum in ea, nihil terribile; tota suavis est.” – In sign. magn.

20“Quasi oliva speciosa in campis.” – Ecclus. xxiv. 19.

21“Advocata omnium iniquorum ad se confugientiam.” – De Laud. B. V. l. 2, a. 23.

22“Ego vocor ab omnibus Mater misericordiæ, et vere misericordia Filii mei fecit me misericordem.” – Rev. l. 2, c. 23.

23Rev. lib. I. cap. vi.

24Ideo miser erit, qui ad misericordiam, cum possit, non accedit.

25“Ipsa enim non misereri ignorat, et miseris non satisfacere nunquam scivit.” – Stim. am. p. 3, c. 13.

26Tu es Regina misericordiæ; et qui misericordiæ subditi, nisi miseri?

27“Tu Regina misericordiæ, et ego miserrimus peccator, subditorum maximus; rege nos ergo, O Regina misericordiæ.” – Paciucch. In Salve Reg. exc. 2.

28Publicum Valetudinarium.

29“Etiam diabolo exhiberes misericordiam, si humiliter peteret.” – Rev. extr. c. 50.

30“Quantumcumque homo peccet, si ex vera emendatione ad me reversus fuerit, statim parata sum recipere revertentem; nec attendo quantum peccaverit, sed cum quali voluntate venit; nam non dedignor ejus plagas ungere et sanare, quia vocor (et vere sum) Mater misericordiæ.” – Rev. l. 2, c. 23; l. 6, c. 117.

31“Respirate ad illam perditi peccatores, et perducet vos ad portum.” – Psalt. B. V. ps. 18.

32Quæramus gratiam, et per Madam quæramus.” – De Aquæd.

33“Cupientes invenire gratiam, quæramus Inventricem gratiæ.” – De Laud. B. M. l. 2. p. 5.

34“Ne timeas, Maria; invenisti enim gratiam.” – Luke, i. 30.

35“Currant igitur peccatores ad Virginem, qui gratiam amiserunt peccando; secure dicant: Redde nobis rem nostram, quam invenisti.” – In Luc. 1.

36“Advocata nostra. officium tuum imple.” – In Nat. B. V. conc. 3.

37“In me omnis spes vita et virtutis; transite ad me omnes.” – Ecclus. xxiv. 25.

38Omnes, justos et peccatores, invitat.

39“Circuit, quærens quem devoret.” – 1 Peter, v. 8.

40“Ipsa semper circuit, quæerens quem salvet.” – Marial. p. 3, s. 1.

41“Quis post tuum Filium ita generis humani curam gerit sicut tu?” – De sona Deip.

42“Undique sollicita de miseris. Solum misereri tu videris appetere.” – Stim. am. p. 3, c. 19.

43“Tanta est ejus benignitas, ut nemo ab ea repellatur.” – De cont. B. V. prol.

44“Velocius occurrit ejus pietas, quam invocetur, et causas miserorum anticipat.” – In Cant. c. 23.

45A Deo pietate replentur ubera tua, ut alicujus miseriæ notitia tacta, lac fundant misericordiæ, nec possis miserias scire et non subvenire.

46Vinum non habent.

47Magna erga miseros fuit misericordia Mariæ adhuc exsultantis in mundo, sed multo major est regnantis in cœlo.

48“Si tam prompta ad auxilium currit non quæsita, quid requisita præstitura est!” – Umbra virg. exc. 72.

49“Invenies semper paratam auxiliari.” – De Laud. B. M. l. 2, p. 1.

50Plus desiderat ipsa facere tibi bonum et largiri gratiam, quam tu accipere concupiscas.

51“Invenies eam in manibus plenam misericordia et largitate.” – Marial. p. 2, s. 5.

52In te, Domina, peccant, non solum qui tibi injuriam irrogant, sed etiam qui te non rogant.

53O salus te invocantium!

54In te, Domina, speravi; non confundar in æternum.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXXI

2010-09-27T00:09:00.001+01:00

Perseverance.

“He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved.” – Matt. xxiv. 13.

FIRST POINT.
Necessity of Perseverance. – Means of Defence against the Devil.

St. Jerome says that many begin well but few persevere.¹ Saul, Judas, Tertullian, began well, but ended badly, because they did not persevere in grace. The Lord, says St. Jerome, requires not only the beginning of a good life, but also the end:² it is the end that will be rewarded. St. Bonaventure says that the crown is given only to perseverance.³ Hence St. Laurence Justinian calls perseverance the “gate of heaven.”⁴ No one can enter paradise unless he finds the gate of heaven. My brother, at present you have renounced sin, and justly hope that you have been pardoned. You are then the friend of God: but remember that you are not yet saved. And when will you be saved? When you will have persevered to the end. He that shall persevere to the end, he shall he saved.⁵ Have you begun a good life? Thank the Lord for it: but St. Bernard warns you that to him who begins, a reward is only promised, and is given only to him who perseveres.⁶ It is not enough to run for the prize, you must run till you win it. So run, says St. Paul, that you may obtain.⁷

You have already put your hand to the plough, and you have begun to live well; but now you must tremble and fear more than ever. With fear and trembling work out your salvation.⁸ And why? Because if—which God forbid—you look back and return to a life of sin, God will declare you unfit for paradise. No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.⁹ At present, through the grace of God, you avoid evil occasions, you frequent the sacraments, and make meditation every day. Happy you if you continue to do so, and if, when he comes to judge you, Jesus Christ will find you doing these things. Blessed is that servant whom, when his lord shall come, he shall find so doing.¹⁰ But do not imagine that, now that you have begun to serve God, there is as it were an end, or a lack of temptations: listen to the advice of the Holy Ghost. Son, when thou comest to the service of God . . . prepare thy soul for temptation.¹¹ Remember that now more than ever you must prepare yourself for conflicts, because your enemies, the world, the devil, and the flesh, will arm themselves now more than ever to fight against you in order to deprive you of all that you have acquired. Denis the Carthusian says, that the more a soul gives itself to God, the more strenuously hell labors to destroy it.¹² And this is sufficiently expressed in the Gospel of St. Luke, where Jesus Christ says: When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest, and not finding it, he saith: I will return into my house whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then he goeth, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in, they dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first.¹³ When banished from a soul, the devil finds no repose, and does everything in his power to return: he even calls companions to his aid; and if he succeeds in re-entering, the second fall of that soul will be far more ruinous than the first.

Consider, then, what arms you must use in order to defend yourselves against these enemies, and to preserve your soul in the grace of God. To escape defeat, and to conquer the devil, there is no other defence than prayer. St. Paul says that we have to contend, not with men of flesh and blood like ourselves, but with the princes of hell. Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.¹⁴ By these words the Apostle wished to admonish us that we have not strength to resist such powerful enemies, and that we stand in need of aid from God. With his aid we shall be able to do all things. I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.¹⁵ Such is the language of St. Paul; such, too, should be our language. But this divine aid is given only to those who pray for it. Ask and you shall receive. Let us, then not trust in our purposes; if we trust in them, we shall be lost. Whenever the devil tempts us, let us place our entire confidence in the divine assistance, and let us recommend ourselves to Jesus Christ, and to the Most Holy Mary. We ought to do this particularly as often as we are tempted against chastity; for this is the most terrible of all temptations, and is the one by which the devil gains most victories. We have not strength to preserve chastity; this strength must come from God. And, said Solomon, as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent exalt God gave it, . . I went to the Lord, and besought him.¹⁶ In such temptations, then, we must instantly have recourse to Jesus Christ, and to his holy Mother, frequently invoking the most holy names of Jesus and Mary. He who does this, will conquer; he who neglects it, will be lost.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my God! “cast me not away from Thy face.” I know that Thou wilt never abandon me, unless I first abandon Thee. Experience of my own weakness makes me tremble lest I should again forsake Thee. Lord! it is from Thee I must receive the strength necessary to conquer hell, which labors to make me again its slave. This strength I ask of Thee for the sake of Jesus Christ. O my Saviour! establish between Thee and me a perpetual peace, which will never be broken for all eternity. For this purpose I ask Thy love. “He who loves not is dead.” O God of my soul, it is by Thee I must be saved from this unhappy death. I was lost; Thou knowest it. It is Thy goodness alone that has brought me into the state in which I am at present, in which I hope I am Thy friend. Ah, my Jesus! through the painful death which Thou didst suffer for my salvation, do not permit me ever more to lose Thee voluntarily. I love Thee above all things, I hope to see myself always bound with this holy love, and to die in the bonds of love, and to live for eternity in the chains of Thy love. O Mary! thou art called the mother of perseverance; through thee this great gift is dispensed. Through thy intercession I ask and hope to obtain it.

SECOND POINT.
We must Conquer the World.

Let us now see how we must conquer the world. The devil is a great enemy of our salvation, but the world is worse. If the devil did not make use of the world and of wicked men, by whom we mean the world, he would not obtain the victories which he gains. But says Jesus Christ, beware of men.¹⁷ Men are often worse than the devils; for these are put to flight when we pray and invoke the most holy names of Jesus and Mary. But when a person gives a becoming answer to wicked companions, who tempt him to sin, they redouble their efforts, they treat him with ridicule, upbraiding him with vulgarity and want of education; and when they can say nothing else, they call him a hypocrite, who only pretends to sanctity. To escape such derision and reproach, certain weak souls miserably associate with these ministers of Lucifer, and return to the vomit. My brother, be persuaded that, if you wish to lead a holy life, you must expect the ridicule and contempt of the wicked. The wicked, says the Holy Ghost, loathe them that are in the right way.¹⁸ He who lives in sin cannot bear the sight of those who live according to the Gospel. And why? Because their life is a continual reproach to him; and therefore to avoid the pain of remorse caused by the good example of others, he would wish that all should imitate his own wickedness. There is no remedy. The Apostle tells us that he who serves God must be persecuted by the world. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.¹⁹ All the saints have been persecuted. Who was more holy than Jesus Christ? The world persecuted him so as to cause him to bleed to death on a cross.

There is no help for this; for the maxims of the world are diametrically opposed to the maxims of Jesus Christ. What the world esteems, Jesus Christ has called folly. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.²⁰ And the world regards as folly what Jesus Christ has strongly recommended,—such as crosses, pains, and contempts. For the word of the cross, to them indeed that perish, is foolishness.²¹ But if the wicked revile and reproach us, let us console ourselves with the reflection that God blesses and praises us. They will curse, and Thou wilt bless.²² Is it not enough for us to be praised by God, by Mary, by the angels, the saints, and all good men? Let us, then, leave sinners to say what they please, and let us continue to please God, who is grateful and faithful to all who serve him. The greater the opposition and difficulty we meet in doing good, the more we shall please God and treasure up merits for ourselves. Let us imagine that we are alone with God in this world. When the wicked treat us with derision, let us recommend them to the Lord, let us thank him for giving us light, which he does not give to these miserable men, and let us continue our journey. Let us not be ashamed to appear like Christians; for, if we are ashamed of Jesus Christ, he protests that he will be ashamed of us on the day of judgment. For he that shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, of him the Son of man shall be ashamed, when He shall come in His majesty.²³

If we wish to save our souls, we must resolve to suffer, and to do violence to ourselves. How narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.²⁴ He who does not violence to himself, will not be saved. There is no remedy. If we wish to do good, we must act in opposition to our rebellious nature. In the beginning, it is particularly necessary to do violence to ourselves in order to root out bad habits, and to acquire habits of virtue. When good habits are once acquired, the observance of the divine law becomes easy, and even sweet. Our Lord said to St. Bridget, that when in the practice of virtue a person suffers the first punctures of the thorns with patience and courage, these thorns afterwards become roses. Be attentive, then, dearly beloved Christian. Jesus Christ now says to you, what he said to the paralytic: Behold, thou art made whole; sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee.²⁵ Remember, says St. Bernard, that if you have the misfortune of relapsing into sin, your relapse will be more disastrous than all your falls.²⁶ Woe, says the Lord, to them who begin to walk in the way of God, and afterward forsake it. Woe to you, apostate children.²⁷ Such sinners are punished as rebels against God’s light. They have been rebellious to the light.²⁸ The chastisement of these rebels, who have been favored by God with a great light, and have been afterward unfaithful to him, is, to remain in blindness, and thus die in their sins. But if the just man turn himself away from his justice . . . shall he live? All his justices which he hath done shall not be remembered; in the prevarication by which he hath prevaricated, and in his sin which he hath committed, in them he shall die.²⁹

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my God! such a chastisement I have often deserved, because I have, through the light which Thou gavest me, renounced sin, and have miserably returned to it. I infinitely thank Thy mercy for not having abandoned me in my blindness by leaving me entirely destitute of light, as I deserved. Great then, O my Jesus! are my obligations to Thee, and great should be my ingratitude, were I again to turn my back upon Thee. No, my Redeemer, the mercies of the Lord I will sing forever. I hope that during the remainder of my life, and for all eternity, I will always sing and praise Thy mercies by loving Thee always, and never more seeing myself bereft of Thy graces. The great ingratitude with which I have hitherto treated Thee, and which I now hate and curse above every evil, will serve to make me weep bitterly over the injuries I have done Thee, and to inflame me still more with the love of Thee, who, after I had given Thee so many grievous offences, have bestowed upon me so many great graces. Yes, I love Thee, O my God! worthy of infinite love. Henceforth Thou shalt be my only love, my only good. O eternal Father! through the merits of Jesus Christ I ask of Thee final perseverance in Thy grace and in Thy love. I know that Thou wilt grant it to me whenever I ask it. But who assures me that I shall be careful to ask this perseverance from Thee? Hence, O my God, I ask perseverance, and the grace always to ask it of Thee. O Mary, my advocate, my refuge, and my hope! obtain for me by thy intercession the gift of constancy in always asking of God the grace of final perseverance. Through the love which thou bearest Jesus Christ, I ask thee to obtain for me this gift.

THIRD POINT.
We must Struggle against the Flesh.—Recapitulation.

Let us come to the third enemy—that is, the flesh, which is the worst of all: and let us see how we must defend ourselves against its attacks. The first means is prayer: but this we have already considered. The second is, to avoid the occasion of sin; and let us now ponder well upon this means of overcoming the flesh. St. Bernardine says that the greatest of all counsels, and the one which is, as it were, the foundation of religion, is to fly from sinful occasions.³⁰ Being compelled by exorcisms, the devil once confessed that of all sermons, that which displeased him most was the sermon on avoiding the occasions of sin: and justly; for the devil laughs at all the resolutions and promises of penitent sinners who remain in the occasion of sin. The occasion of sins of the flesh, in particular, is like a veil placed before the eyes, which prevents the soul from seeing either its resolutions, or the lights received from God, or the truths of eternity: in a word, it makes it forget everything, and almost blinds it. The neglect of avoiding the occasions of sin was the cause of the fall of our first parents. God had forbidden them even to touch the forbidden fruit. God commanded us, said Eve, that we should not eat, and that we should not touch it.³¹ But through want of caution she saw, took, and ate it. She first began to look at the apple, she afterward took it in her hand, and then ate it. He who voluntarily exposes himself to danger, will perish in it.³² St. Peter tells us that the devil goeth about seeking whom he may devour.³³ And what, says St. Cyprian, does he do in order to enter again into the soul from which he has been expelled?³⁴ He seeks an occasion of sin. If the soul permit him to bring it again into the occasion of sin, he will enter again, and shall devour it. The Abbot Guerric says that Lazarus came forth from the grave bound hand and foot,³⁵ and after rising in this state, he died again. Miserable, this author means to say, is the man who rises from sin bound by the occasion of sin; though he should rise, he surely will die again. He, then, who wishes to be saved must forsake not only all sin, but the occasions of sin—that is, the companions, the house, the connections which lead to sin.

But you will say: I have changed my life, and now I have no bad motive, nor even a temptation, in the society of such a person. I answer: it is related that in Mauritania there are bears that go in search of the apes. As soon as they see a bear, the apes save themselves by climbing up the trees: but what does the bear do? He stretches himself, as if dead, under the tree; and when the apes descend, he springs up, seizes, and devours them. It is thus the devil acts: he makes the temptations appear dead; and when the soul exposes itself to the occasions of sin, he excites the temptation, which devours it. Oh! how many miserable souls, that practised mental prayer, frequented Communion, and might be called saints, have, by putting themselves into dangerous occasions, become the prey of hell? It is related in ecclesiastical history, that a holy matron, who devoted herself to the pious work of burying the martyrs, found one of them not dead. She brought him to her house: he recovered. What happened? By the proximate occasion, these two saints, as they might be called, first lost the grace of God, and afterward lost the faith.

The Lord commanded Isaias to proclaim that all flesh is grass.³⁶ Is it possible, says St. John Chrysostom, for hay not to burn when it is thrown into the fire?³⁷ And St. Cyprian says that it is impossible to stand in the midst of flames, and not be burned.³⁸ According to the prophet Isaias, our strength is like that of tow cast into the fire. And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow.³⁹ And Solomon says that it would be folly to expect to walk on red-hot coals, without being burned. Can a man walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?⁴⁰ Thus it is likewise folly to expose ourselves to the occasion of sin, and to expect not to fall. It is necessary then to fly from sin as from the face of a serpent. Flee from sins as from the face of a serpent.⁴¹ We ought, says Gualfrido, not only to avoid the bite or contact of a serpent, but should also abstain from approaching it.⁴² But you will say: My interest requires that I should frequent such a house, or that I should keep up a certain friendship. But if you see that such a house is for you a way to hell, there is no remedy; you must forsake it if you wish to save your soul. Her house is the way to hell.⁴³ The Lord tells you that if your right eye is a cause of damnation to you, you must pluck it out and cast it from you.⁴⁴ Mark the words; you must cast it, not beside you, but to a distance from you—that is, you must take away every occasion of sin. St. Francis of Assisi says, that the devil tempts spiritual souls, who have given themselves to God, in a way different from that in which he tempts the wicked. In the beginning he does not seek to bind them with a chain; he is content to hold them by a single hair: he then binds them with a slender thread; afterward with a cord; then with a chain; and thus drags them to sin. And therefore he who wishes to be free from the danger of perdition must, in the beginning, break all these hairs, he must avoid all occasions of sins, he must give up these salutations, presents, notes, and the like. And for those who have contracted a habit of committing sins against purity, it will not be enough to avoid proximate occasions: unless they fly even from remote occasions, they will relapse.

He who sincerely wishes to be saved, must, by often repeating with the saints, Let all be lost, provided God is not lost, labor continually to strengthen and renew his resolution of never again renouncing the friendship of God. But it is not enough to resolve never more to lose God; it is moreover necessary to adopt the means by which you may be preserved from the danger of losing him. The first means is, to avoid the occasions of sin; of this we have already spoken. The second is, to frequent the sacraments of penance and the Eucharist. In the house which is often swept there is no uncleanness. By the sacrament of penance the soul is purified; by it it obtains not only the remission of sins, but also help to resist temptations. The Communion is called the bread of heaven; because as the body cannot live without earthly food so the soul cannot live without this celestial bread. Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you.⁴⁵ But on the other hand, to those who frequently eat this bread, is promised eternal life. If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever.⁴⁶ Hence the Council of Trent calls the Communion a medicine which delivers us from venial, and preserves us from mortal sins.⁴⁷ The third means is meditation, or mental prayer. Remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.⁴⁸ He who keeps before his eyes the eternal truths—death, judgment, eternity—will not fall into sin. God enlightens us in meditation. Come ye to Him, and be enlightened.⁴⁹ In meditation God speaks to us, and makes known to us what we are to avoid, and what we are to do. I will lead her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart.⁵⁰ Meditation is the blessed furnace in which divine love is lighted up. In my meditation a fire shall flame out.⁵¹ To preserve the soul in the grace of God, it is, as has been already said, absolutely necessary always to pray, and to ask for the graces we stand in need of. They who do not make mental prayer, will scarcely pray for God’s graces; and by neglecting to pray for them, they will certainly be lost.

It is necessary then to adopt the means of salvation, and to lead a life of order and regularity. It is necessary, after rising in the morning, to make the Christian acts of thanksgiving, love, oblation, and a purpose of avoiding sin, along with a prayer to Jesus and Mary that they may preserve you from sin during the day: you should afterward make your meditation, and hear Mass. During the day you ought to make a spiritual reading, visit the Blessed Sacrament and an image of the divine Mother. In the evening, say the rosary, and make an examination of conscience. Go to Communion several times in the week, according as your director may advise: you should ordinarily go to confession to the same confessor. It would also be very profitable to make the spiritual exercises in some religious house. It is likewise necessary to honor the Most Holy Mary by some special devotion—such as by fasting on Saturdays. She is called the Mother of perseverance, and she promises to obtain it for all who serve her. They that work by me shall not sin.⁵² Above all, it is necessary to ask of God holy perseverance, and especially in the time of temptation, invoking then more frequently the names of Jesus and Mary as long as the temptation continues. If you act in this manner, you will certainly be saved; if not, you will certainly be lost.⁵³

Affections and Prayers.

My dear Redeemer! I thank Thee for the lights which Thou now givest me, and for the means of salvation which Thou makest known to me. I promise to endeavor to persevere in the practice of them. I see that Thou wishest for my salvation; and I wish to be saved principally to please Thy heart, which so ardently desires my salvation. O my God I will no longer resist the love which Thou entertainest for me. This love has made Thee bear me with so much patience when I offended Thee. Thou callest me to Thy love, and I desire only to love Thee. I love Thee, O infinite Goodness! I love Thee, O infinite Good! Ah! I entreat Thee, through the merits of Jesus Christ, not to permit me to be ever again ungrateful to Thee; either make me cease to be ungrateful to Thee, or make me cease to live. Lord! Thou hast already begun the work; bring it to perfection. Confirm, O God! that which Thou hast wrought in me.⁵⁴ Give me light, give me strength, give me love. O Mary! who art the treasurer of graces, assist me, accept me for thy servant, and pray to Jesus for me. Through the merits of Jesus Christ first, and then through thy prayers. I hope for salvation.

1“Incipere multorum est, perseverare paucorum.” – Cont. Jovin. l. 1.

2“Non quæruntur in Christianis initia. scd finis.” – Ep. ad Fur.

3“Sola perseverantia coronatur.” – Diæl. Sal. l. 8, c. 2.

4“Paradisi janua.” – De obed. c. 26.

5“Qui perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit.” – Matt. xxiv. 13.

6“Inchoantibus præmium promittitur, sed perseverantibus datur.” – De modo bene viv. s. 6.

7‘Sic currite ut comprehendatis.” – 1 Cor. ix. 24.

8“Cum metu et tremore vestram salutem operamini.” – Phil. ii. 12.

9“Nemo mittens manum suam ad aratrum, et respiciens retro, aptus est regno Dei.” – Luke, ix. 62.

10“Beatus ille servus, quem, cum venerit Dominus ejus, invenerit sic facientem.” – Matt. xxiv. 46.

11“Fili, accedens ad servitutem Dei, sta in justitia et timore, et præpara animam tuam ad tentationem.” – Ecclus. ii. 1.

12Quanto quis fortius nititur Deo servire, tanto acrius contra eum sævit adversarius.

13“Cum immundus spiritus exierit de homine, ambulat per loca inaquosa, quærens requiem; et non inveniens, dicit: Revertar in domum meam, unde exivi. . . . Tunc vadit et assumit septem alios spiritus secum, nequiores se; et ingressi, habitant ibi. Et fiunt novissima hominis illius pejora prioribus.” – Luke, xi. 24.

14“Non est nobis colluctatio adversus carnem et sanguinem, sed adversus principes et potestates.” – Eph. vi. 12.

15“Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat.” – Phil. iv. 13.

16“Et ut scivi quoniam aliter non possem esse continens, nisi Deus det, . . . adii Dominum, et deprecatus sum illum.” – Wis. viii. 21.

17“Cavete autem ab hominibus.” – Matt. x. 17.

18“Abominantur impii eos qui in recta sunt via,” – Prov. xxix. 27.

19“Omnes qui pie volunt vivere in Christo Jesu, persecutionem patientur.” – 2 Tim. iii. 12.

20“Sapientia enim hujus mundi stultitia est apud Deum.” – 1 Cor. iii. 19.

21“Verbum enim crucis pereuntibus quidem stultitia est.” – 1 Cor. i. 18.

22“Maledicent illi, et tu benedices.” – Ps. cviii. 28.

23“Nam, qui me erubuerit et meos sermones, hunc Filius hominis erubescet, cum venerit in majestate sua.” – Luke, ix. 26.

24“Arcta via est, quæ ducit ad vitam.” – Matt. vii. 14. “Regnum cœlorum vim patitur, et violenti rapiunt illud.” – Matt. xi. 12.

25“Ecce sanus factus es; jam noli peccare, ne deterius tibi contingat.” – John, v. 14.

26“Audis recidere, quam incidere. esse deterius.” – In Cant. s. 54.

27“Vae filii desertores.” – Isa. xxx. 1.

28“Ipsi fuerunt rebelles lumini.” – Job, xxiv. 13.

29“Si autem averterit se justus a justitia sua, . . . numquid vivet? Omnes justitiæ ejus, quas fecerat, non recordabuntur; . . . in pectato suo morietur.” – Ezek. xviii. 24.

30“Inter consilia Christi, unum celeberrimum quasi religionis fundamentum est, fugere peccatorum occasiones.” – T. i. s. 21, a. 3.

31“Præcepit nobis Deus, ne comederemus, et ne tangeremus illud.” – Gen. iii. 3.

32“Qui amat periculum in illo peribit.” – Ecelus. iii. 27.

33“Circuit quærens quem devoret.” – T Peter, v. 8.

34“Explorat an sit pars, cujus aditu penetretur.” – De zelo et liv.

35Prodiit ligatus manibus et pedibus.

36“Clama: Omnis caro fenum.” – Isa. xl. 6.

37“Lucernam in fenum pone, ac tum aude negare quod fenum exuratur.” – In Ps. l. hom. 1.

38“Impossibile est flammis circumdari, et non ardere.” – De Singul. cler.

39“Et erit fortitudo vestra ut favilla stupæ.” – Isa. i. 31.

40“Numquid potest homo . . . ambulate super prunas, ut non comburantur plantæ ejus?” – Prov. vi. 27.

41“Quasi a facie colubri, fuge peccata.” – Ecclus. xxi. 2.

42Fuge etiam tactus, etiam accessum.

43“Viæ inferi, domus ejus.” – Prov. vii. 27.

44“Si oculus tuus dexter scandalizat te, erue eum, et projice abs te.” – Matt. v. 29.

45“Nisi manducaveritis carnem Filii hominis, et biberitis ejus sanguinem, non habebitis vitam in vobis.” – John. vi. 54.

46“Si quis manducaverit ex hoc pane, vivet in æternum.” – John. vi. 52.

47“Antidotum quo liberemur a culpis quotidianis, et a peccatis mortalibus præservemur.” – Sess. 13; cap. 2.

48“Memorare novissima tua, et in æternum non peccabis.” – Ecclus. vii. 40.

49“Accedite ad eam, et illuminamini.” – Ps. xxxiii. 6.

50“Ducam earn in solitudinem, et loquar ad cor ejus.” – Osee, ii. 14.

51“In meditatione mea exardescet ignis.” – Ps. xxxviii. 4.

52“Qui operantur in me non peccabunt.” – Ecclus. xxiv. 30.

53We must here remark that the means of perseverance so much recommended by St. Alphonsus are nothing else than a good Rule of Life, which is given in the last part of this volume. – ED.

54“Confirma hoc, Deus, quod operatus es in nobis.” – Ps. lxvii. 29.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXX

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Prayer.

“Ask, and it shall be given you; for every one that asketh, receiveth.” – Luke, xi. 9, 10.

FIRST POINT.
Efficacy of Prayer.

Not only in this, but in a thousand places in the Old and the New Testament, God promises to hear all who pray to him. Cry to me, and I will hear thee.¹ “Call upon me, and I will deliver you from all dangers.”² If you ask anything in My name, that I will do.³ Whatsoever you shall ask through my merits, I will grant. You shall ask whatever you will, and it shall he done unto you.⁴ Ask as much as you wish: all that you ask will be given you. There are many other similar passages. Hence Theodoret has said that prayer is one, but can obtain all things. St. Bernard says that when we pray, the Lord will give either the grace we ask, or one that is more useful to us.⁵ The prophet animates us to pray by assuring us that God is all mercy to those who invoke his aid. Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild, and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Thee.⁶ The words of St. James are still more encouraging. If any of you want wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth abundantly to all men, and upbraideth not.⁷ This apostle tells us that when we pray to the Lord, he opens his hands, and gives us more than we ask. He giveth to all men abundantly, and upbraideth not. He does not reproach us with the offences that we have offered to him; but, when we pray to him, he appears to forget all the injuries that we have done him.

St. John Climacus used to say that prayer in a certain manner forces God to grant us whatsoever we ask of him. “Prayer piously offers violence to God.”⁸ But it is, as St. Tertullian says, a violence which is dear to him, and which he desires from us.⁹ Yes; for, as St. Augustine says, God has a greater desire to give us his graces, than we have to receive them.¹⁰ The reason is, because God is of his own nature infinite goodness. Hence he feels an infinite desire to impart his goods to us. Hence St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say, that God feels as it were under an obligation to the soul that prays to him; because by prayer it opens to him the way by which he can satisfy his desire of dispensing his graces to us. David says that the goodness of God, in instantly hearing all who pray to him, showed him that he was his true God. In what day soever I shall call upon Thee, behold, know Thou art my God.¹¹ Some, observes St. Bernard, complain that God is wanting to them; but the Lord far more justly complains that many are wanting to him by neglecting to ask his graces. Of this precisely the Redeemer appears to have complained one day to his disciples. Hitherto you have not asked anything in My name: ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.¹² As if he said: Do not complain of me if you do not enjoy complete happiness; complain of yourselves for not having asked my graces: ask me for them henceforth, and you shall be satisfied.

Hence, in their conferences, the ancient monks came to the conclusion, that there is no exercise more conducive to salvation than to pray always, and say: “Lord, assist me; incline unto my aid, O God.”¹³ The Venerable Paul Segneri used to say of himself, that in his meditations he was at first accustomed to spend his time in pious affections; but, having afterward learned the great efficacy of prayer, he endeavored generally to employ himself in petitions to God. Let us always do the same. We have a God who loves us to excess, and who is solicitous for our salvation, and therefore he is always ready to hear all who ask his graces. The princes of the earth, says St. Chrysostom, give audience only to a few; but God gives audience to all who wish for it.¹⁴

Affections and Prayers.

Eternal God! I adore Thee, and I thank Thee for all the benefits Thou hast bestowed upon me,—for having created me, for having redeemed Me through Jesus Christ, for having made me a Christian, for having waited for me when I was in sin, and for having so often pardoned me. Ah, my God! I should never have offended Thee, if in my temptations I had recourse to Thee. I thank Thee for the light by which Thou now makest me understand that my salvation consists in praying to Thee, and in asking graces of Thee. Behold, I entreat Thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to give me a great sorrow for my sins, holy perseverance in Thy grace, a good death, heaven, but above all, the great gift of Thy love, and perfect resignation to Thy most holy will. I well know that I do not deserve these graces, but Thou hast promised them to all who ask them of Thee through the merits of Jesus Christ; through these merits I hope and ask for them. O Mary! thy prayers are always heard; pray for me.

SECOND POINT.
Necessity of Prayer.

Let us also reflect on the necessity of prayer. St. Chrysostom says that, as the body without the soul is dead, so the soul is dead without prayer. He also teaches that, as water is necessary to prevent the decay of plants, so prayer is necessary to preserve us from perdition.¹⁵ God wills that all men be saved,¹⁶—and is unwilling that any be lost. The Lord . . . dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any one should perish, but that all should return to penance.¹⁷ But he also wishes that we ask him for the graces necessary for salvation. For, on the one hand, it is impossible for us to observe the divine commands, and save our souls, without the actual assistance of God; and on the other, ordinarily speaking, God will not give us his graces unless we ask them from him. Hence, the holy Council of Trent has declared that God has not commanded impossibilities; because he either gives us the proximate and actual grace to fulfil his precepts, or he gives us the grace to ask him for this actual aid.¹⁸ St. Augustine teaches, that God gives without prayer the first graces, such as vocation to the faith and to repentance; but all other graces, and particularly the gift of perseverance, he gives only to those who ask them.¹⁹

Hence, theologians, after St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, and others, teach, that for adults prayer is necessary as a means of salvation; so that, without it, it is impossible to be saved. And the most learned Lessius says that this doctrine must be held as of faith.²⁰

The Scriptures are clear on this point. We ought always to pray.²¹ Pray, lest ye enter into temptation.²² Ask, and you shall receive.²³ Pray without ceasing.²⁴ The words, we ought, pray, ask, according to St. Thomas (3 part, qu. 39, art. 5) and the generality of theologians, imply a strict precept, which binds under grievous sin particularly in three cases. First, when a person is in the state of sin; secondly, when he is in danger of death; and thirdly, when he is in great danger of falling into sin. Theologians teach that, ordinarily, he who neglects prayer for a month, or at most, for two months, is guilty of a mortal sin (Less., loco citato). The reason is, because prayer is a means without which we cannot obtain the helps necessary for salvation.

Ask, and you shall receive. He who asks, receives; then, says St. Teresa, he who does not ask, does not receive. And before her, St. James said the same thing. You have not, because you ask not.²⁵ Prayer is particularly necessary to obtain the virtue of continence. And, said the wise man, as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, . . I went to the Lord, and besought Him.²⁶ Let us conclude this point. He who prays, is certainly saved; he who does not pray, is certainly lost. All the elect are saved by prayer; all the damned are lost by neglect of prayer, and their greatest despair is, and will be forever, caused by the conviction, that they had it in their power to save their souls so easily by prayer, and that now the time of salvation is no more.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Redeemer! how have I been able hitherto to live in such forgetfulness of Thee? Thou wert prepared to grant me all the graces that I should ask of Thee; Thou only didst wait for me to ask them. But I have thought only of indulging my senses, and have been indifferent about the privation and loss of Thy love and of Thy graces. Lord! forget all my ingratitude, and have mercy on me. Pardon me all the displeasure I have given Thee, and grant me perseverance. O God of my soul! give me the grace always to ask Thy aid not to offend Thee. Do not permit me to be, as I have hitherto been, negligent in the performance of this duty. Grant me light and strength always to recommend myself to Thee, and particularly when my enemies tempt me to offend Thee again. Grant, O my God! this grace through the merits of Jesus Christ, and through the love which Thou bearest to him. O Lord! I have offended Thee enough. I wish to love Thee during the remainder of my life. Give me Thy love; and may this love remind me to ask Thy aid whenever I am in danger of losing Thee by sin. Mary, my hope after Jesus! through thy intercession I hope for the grace to recommend myself in all my temptations to thee and to thy son. Hear me, O my Queen! through the love which thou bearest to Jesus Christ.

THIRD POINT.
Conditions of Prayer.

Lastly, let us consider the conditions of prayer. Many pray, and do not obtain the object of their prayers, because they do not pray as they ought. You ask, says St. James, and receive not, because you ask amiss.²⁷ To pray well, it is necessary, in the first place, to pray with humility. God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.²⁸ God rejects the petitions of the proud, but does not allow the humble to depart without hearing all their prayers. The prayer of him that humbleth himself shall pierce the clouds, . . . and he will not depart till the Most High behold.²⁹ This holds, even though they have been hitherto sinners. A contrite and humble heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.³⁰ Secondly, it is necessary to pray with confidence. No one hath hoped in the Lord, and hath been confounded.³¹ Jesus Christ has taught us to call God, in our petitions for his graces, by no other name than that of Father, in order to make us pray with the same confidence with which a child has recourse to a parent. He, then, who prays with confidence, obtains every grace. All things whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive, and they shall come unto you.³² And who, says St. Augustine, can fear that the promises of God, who is truth itself, will be violated?³³ God, says the Scripture, is not like men, who promise, but do not perform, either because they intend to deceive, or because they change their purpose. God is not as a man, that he should lie, nor as the son of man, that He should be changed. Hath He told then, and will He not do?³⁴ And why, adds the same St. Augustine, should the Lord so earnestly exhort us to ask his graces, if he did not wish to bestow them upon us? By his promises he has bound himself to grant us the graces we ask from him. “By promising,” says St. Augustine, “he has made himself a debtor.”³⁵

But some will say: I am a sinner, and therefore I do not deserve to be heard. In answer, St. Thomas says that the efficacy of prayer to obtain graces depends, not on our merits, but on the divine mercy.³⁶ Every one, says Jesus Christ, that asketh receiveth;³⁷ that is, says the author of the Imperfect Work, “every one, whether he be a just man or a sinner.”³⁸ But the Redeemer himself takes away all fear, saying: Amen, amen, I say to you: If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you.³⁹ As if he said: Sinners, if you are without merits, I have merits before my Father. Ask, then, in my name, and I promise that you will receive whatsoever you ask. But it is necessary to know that this promise does not extend to temporal favors, such as health, goods of fortune, and the like; for God often justly refuses these graces, because he sees that they would be injurious to our salvation. “The physician,” says St. Augustine, “knows better than the patient what is useful to him.”⁴⁰ The holy Doctor adds, that God refuses to some through mercy, what he gives to others through wrath.⁴¹ Hence we should ask temporal blessings only on condition that they will be profitable to the soul. But spiritual graces, such as pardon of sins, perseverance, divine love, and the like, should be asked absolutely, and with a firm confidence of obtaining them. If, says Jesus Christ, you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him!⁴²

Above all, perseverance in prayer is necessary. In his commentary on the eleventh chapter of St. Luke, Cornelius a Lapide says, that the Lord “wishes us to persevere in prayer even to importunity.”⁴³ This may be inferred from the following passages of Scripture: We ought always to pray.⁴⁴ Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times. Pray without ceasing.⁴⁵ It may be also inferred from our Lord’s repeated exhortations to prayer. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.⁴⁶ It might be sufficient to have said, ask; but no; the Lord wishes us to understand that we ought to imitate beggars, who do not cease to ask, to entreat, and to knock at the gate, until they receive an alms. But final perseverance, in particular, is a grace which is not obtained without continual prayer. We cannot merit this grace of perseverance; but, according to St. Augustine, it may be merited in a certain manner. “This gift,” says the holy Doctor, “can be suppliantly merited; that is, it may be obtained by supplication.”⁴⁷ Let us, then, if we wish to be saved, pray always, and never cease to pray. And let all confessors and preachers, if they desire the salvation of souls, never cease to exhort their penitents or hearers to prayer. And, in conformity with the advice of St. Bernard, let us always have recourse to the intercession of Mary. Let us ask grace, and ask it through Mary: for what she asks she obtains, and her prayer cannot be fruitless.”⁴⁸

Affections and Prayers.

My God! I hope that Thou hast already pardoned me; but my enemies will not cease to fight against me till death. Unless Thou dost assist me, I shall lose Thee again. Ah! through the merits of Jesus Christ, I ask holy perseverance. Do not permit me to be separated from Thee. And I ask the same grace for all who are at present in the state of grace. I hope, with certainty in Thy promise, that Thou wilt give me perseverance if I will continue to ask it from Thee. But I fear that in my temptations I shall neglect to have recourse to Thee, and that thus I shall relapse into sin. I therefore ask of Thee the grace never more to neglect prayer. Grant that in the occasions in which I shall be in danger of relapsing, I may recommend myself to Thee, and may invoke the aid of the most holy names of Jesus and Mary. My God! this I purpose and hope to do with the assistance of Thy grace. Hear me for the sake of Jesus Christ. O Mary, my Mother! obtain for me the grace that in all dangers of losing God, I may have recourse to thee and to thy Son.

1“Clama ad me, et exaudiam te.” – Jer. xxxiii. 3.

2“Invoca mc. . . . eruam te.” – Ps. xlix. 15.

3“Si quid petieritis me in nomine meo, hoc faciam.” – John, xiv. 14.

4“Quodcumque volueritis, petetis, et fiet vobis.” – 7ohn, xv. 7.

5“Aut dabit quod petimus, aut quod nobis noverit esse utilius.” – In Quadr. s. 5.

6“Tu, Domine, suavis et mitis et multæ misericordiæ omnibus invocantibus te.” – Ps. lxxxv. 5.

7“Si quis vestrum indiget sapientia, postulet a Deo, qui dat omnibus affluentur, et non improperat.” – James, i. 5.

8“Oratio pie Deo vim infert.” – Scala spir. gr. 28.

9“Hæc vis Deo grata est.” – Apolog. c. 39.

10“Plus vult ille dare, quam nos accipere.” – Serm. 105. E. B.

11“In quacumque die invocavero te; ecce cognovi quoniam Deus meus es.” – Ps. lv. 10.

12“Usque modo non petistis quidquam in nomine meo; petite, et accipietis, ut gaudium vestrum sit plenum.” – John, xvi. 24.

13“Deus, in adjutorium meum intende.” – Ps. lxix. 2.

14Aures principis paucis patent, Dei vero omnibus volentibus.

15“Non minus quam arbores aquis, precibus indigemus.” – De or. Deo, l. 1.

16“Omnes homines vult salvos fieri. “ – 1 Tim. ii. 4.

17“Nolens aliquos perire, sed omnes ad pœnitentiam reverti.” – 2 Peter, iii. 9.

18“Deus impossibilia non jubet; sed jubendo monet, et facere quod possis, et petere quod non possis.” – Sess. vi. c. xi.

19“Constat alia Deum dare etiam non orantibus, sicut initium fidei; alia nonnisi orantibus præparasse, sicut usque in finem perseverantiam.” – De done, pers. c. 16.

20“Fide tenendum est, orationem adultis ad salutem esse necessariam, ut colligitur ex Scripturis.” – De Just. l. 2, c. 37. d. 3.

21“Oportet semper orare.” – Luke, xviii. 1.

22“Vigilate et orate, ut non intretis in tentationem.” – Luke, xxii. 40.

23“Petite, et dabitur vobis.” – Matt. vii. 7.

24“Sine intermissione orate.” – 1 Thess. v. 17.

25“Non habetis, propter quod non postulatis.” – James, iv. 2.

26“Et ut scivi, quoniam aliter non possem esse continens, nisi Deus det . . . adii Dominum, et deprecatus sum.” – Wis. viii. 21.

27“Petitis. et non accipitis, eo quod male petatis.” – James, iv. 3.

28“Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam.” – Ibid. iv. 6.

29“Oratio humiliantis se nubes penetrabit; . . . et non discedet, donec Altissimus aspiciat.” – Ecclus. xxxv. 21.

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

31“Nullus speravit in Domino, et confusus est.” – Ecclus. ii. 11.

32“Omnia quæcumque orantes petitis, credite quia accipietis, et evenient vobis.” – Mark, xi. 24.

33“Quis falli timeat, cum promittit Veritas?” – Conf. l. 12. c. 1.

34“Non est Deus quasi homo, ut mentiatur, nec ut filius hominis, ut mutetur. Dixit ergo, et non faciet?” – Num. xxiii. 19.

35“Promittendo, debitorem se Deus fecit.” – Serm. 110, E. B.

36“Oratio in impetrando non innititur merito, sed divinæ misericordiæ.” – 2. 2. q. 178, a. 2.

37“Omnis qui petit, accipit.” – Matt. vii. 8.

38“Omnis, sive justus, sive peccator sit.” – Hom. 18.

39“Amen, amen, dico vobis: si quid petieritis Patrem in nomine meo, dabit vobis.” – John, xvi. 23.

40“Quid infirmo sit utile, magis novit medicus quam ægrotus.” – Ap. S. Prosp. sent. 212.

41“Deus negat propitius quæ concedit iratus.” – Serm. 354, E. B.

42“Si vos, cum sitis mali, nostis bona data dare filiis vestris; quanto magis Pater vester de cœlo dabit spiritum bonum petentibus se!” – Luke, xi. 13.

43“Vult nos esse perseverantes in oratione, usque ad importunitatem.” – In Luc. xi.

44“Oportet semper orare, et non deficere.” – Luke, xviii. 1.

45“Sine intermissione orate.” – 1 Thess. v. 17.

46“Petite, et dabitur vobis; quærite, et invenietis; pulsate, et aperietur vobis.” – Luke, xi. 9.

47“Hoc Dei donum suppliciter emereri potest.” – De dono persev. c. 6.

48“Quæramus gratiam, et per Mariam quæramus; quia, quod quærit, invenit, et frustrari non potest.” – Serm. de Aquæd.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXIX

2010-08-27T01:40:00.002+01:00

Heaven.

“Your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” – John, xvi. 20.

FIRST POINT.
Entrance of a Soul into Paradise.

Let us at present animate ourselves with the hope of heaven, to bear patiently the afflictions of this life, and to offer them to God in return for the sufferings which Jesus Christ endured for the love of us. All these afflictions, sorrows, persecutions, and tears, will one day have an end, and will, if we save our souls, become to us sources of joy and happiness in the kingdom of bliss. This is the ground of courage and hope which the Saviour holds out to us. Your sorrow shall be turned into Joy.¹ Let us then this day make some reflections on the joys of heaven. But what shall we be able to say on these joys, when the most enlightened of the saints knew not how to give us an idea of that happiness which God has prepared for his faithful servants? David could only say that paradise is a good exceedingly to be desired. How lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts.² But, my beloved St. Paul, do you, at least, who had the happiness of being rapt up into heaven, declare to us some of the things you have seen. No, exclaims the Apostle, what I have seen it is impossible to describe. The delights of heaven are secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter.³ They are so great that they only who enjoy them are able to comprehend them. All that I can say of them, says the Apostle, is, that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him.⁴ No man living has ever seen, or heard, or conceived the beauty, the harmony, the delights which God has prepared for those who love him.

At present it is impossible for us to comprehend the happiness of heaven, because we have no idea but of earthly enjoyments. Were a horse capable of reasoning, he would, if he expected a rich feast from his master, imagine it to consist in excellent hay and oats; for these are the only species of food of which he has any idea. It is thus we form our notions of the happiness of heaven. It is beautiful in the summer to behold at night the starry heaven; it is delightful in the spring to stand on the shore when the sea is unruffled, and to see in its bosom the rocks covered with seaweed, and the fishes gliding through the waters; it is also delightful to be in a garden full of fruits and flowers, ornamented with flowing fountains, and enlivened by the flutter and singing of birds: in such a scene one is tempted to exclaim: Oh! what a paradise! what a paradise! But far different are the delights of heaven. To form some imperfect idea of them, let us reflect that in heaven is an all-powerful God, who has pledged himself to make the soul that loves him happy. Do You wish, says St. Bernard, to know what is in heaven? “There is nothing there that gives displeasure; there is everything that delights.”⁵

O God! what will be the sentiments of the soul on its entrance into that happy kingdom? Let us represent to our minds a young maiden, who, after consecrating herself to the love of Jesus Christ, dies and quits this world. The soul of the young maiden is presented for judgment: the Judge embraces her and pronounces the sentence of her salvation. Her angel-guardian meets and congratulates her; she thanks him for his assistance, and the angel then says: “Rejoice, O happy soul! thy salvation is now secure; come and behold the face of thy Lord.” Behold, the soul now passes beyond the clouds, the spheres, the stars, and enters into heaven. O God! what will be her feelings on first setting her foot in this happy country, and beholding, for the first time, this city of delights! The angels and the saints will come to meet her, and will receive her with a joyous welcome. What shall be her consolation in rejoining there her relatives or friends, who have been already admitted into heaven, and in meeting her holy advocates!

The soul will wish to bend her knees to venerate these saints, but they will say: See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow-servant.⁶ She will thence be carried to kiss the feet of Mary, the Queen of heaven. What tenderness will not the soul experience in first beholding this divine Mother, who gave her so much assistance in the work of her salvation; for then the soul will see all the graces she obtained through the intercession of Mary, who will embrace her with love and tenderness. This Queen of heaven will then conduct the soul to Jesus, who will receive her as his spouse, and will say: Come from Libanus, my spouse . . . thou shalt be crowned.⁷ My spouse, rejoice: there is now an end to tears, to sufferings, and to fears: receive the eternal crown I have purchased for you by my blood. Jesus himself will then present her to receive the benediction of his divine Father, who shall embrace and bless her, saying: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,⁸ and shall bestow upon her the same happiness which he himself enjoys.

Affections and Prayers.

Behold, O my God! at Thy feet an ungrateful sinner, whom Thou hast created for heaven, but who has so often, for the sake of a wretched pleasure, renounced Thee to Thy face, and has consented to be condemned to hell. But I hope Thou hast already pardoned me all the injuries I have done Thee, for which I am always sorry, and will be sorry as long as I live. Of these injuries I desire to receive from Thee new pardon. But, O God! although my sins have been already forgiven, it will still be always true that I have dared to afflict Thee, my Redeemer, who hast given Thy life to bring me to Thy kingdom. But may Thy mercy be forever praised and blessed, O my Jesus! for having borne me with so much patience, and for having bestowed upon me multiplied graces, instead of chastising me as I deserved. I see, my dear Saviour! that Thou ardently desirest my salvation, and that Thou wishest to bring me to Thy kingdom, that I may love Thee forever; but it is Thy wish that I should first love Thee here on earth. Yes; I wish to love Thee. Though there were no heaven, I would wish to love Thee while I live, with my whole soul and with all my strength. It is enough for me to know that Thou, my God, desirest to be loved by me. My Jesus! assist me by Thy grace; do not abandon me. My soul is immortal: I must then either love Thee or hate Thee for all eternity. Ah! it is my wish to love Thee for eternity, and I wish to love Thee without reserve here, that I may love Thee without reserve hereafter. Dispose of me as Thou pleasest, chastise me as Thou wishest; do not deprive me of Thy love, and then do with me what Thou wishest. My Jesus! Thy merits are my hope. O Mary! I place great confidence in thy intercession. Thou didst deliver me from hell when I was in sin; now that I wish to give myself to God, obtain for me the grace to save my soul, and to become a saint.

SECOND POINT.
Happiness of Heaven.

When the soul has once entered into the happy kingdom of God, there will be nothing to molest it.⁹ God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying-,nor sorrow shall be any more; for the former things are passed away. And He that sat on the throne said: Behold I make all things new.¹⁰ In heaven there is no infirmity, no poverty, no distress; there are no longer the vicissitudes of days and nights, nor of cold and heat; but a perpetual day always serene, an eternal spring always delightful. There are no persecutions; no envy. In that kingdom of love, all love one another tenderly; and each rejoices in the good of the other as if it were his own. There are no fears; because the soul, being confirmed in grace, can no longer sin nor lose her God. Behold I make all things new. Everything is new; everything gives consolation and content.¹¹ The sight will be filled with delight in beholding this city of perfect beauty. How delightful the view of a city in which the streets are of crystal, the palaces of silver, the ceilings of gold, and all adorned with festoons of flowers! Oh! how much more beautiful the city of paradise! how splendid the appearance of these citizens, who are all clothed in royal robes; for, as St. Augustine says, they are all kings. How delightful must it be to behold Mary, who will appear more beautiful than all paradise! But what must it be to see the Lamb of God, the Heavenly Spouse, Jesus! St. Teresa had one transient glimpse of one of the hands of Jesus Christ, and was struck senseless by its beauty. The smell will be regaled with odors, but with the odors of paradise. The ear will be delighted with celestial harmony. St. Francis once heard from an angel a single stroke on a violin, and almost died through joy. What then must it be to hear the whole choir of saints and angels chanting the glories of God! They shall praise Thee forever and ever.¹² What must it be to hear Mary praising God! St. Francis de Sales says that, as the singing of the nightingale surpasses that of all other birds, so the voice of Mary is far superior to that of all the other saints. In a word, in heaven are found all the delights which can be desired.

But the joys we have been hitherto considering are the least of the blessings of heaven. The good which constitutes heaven is God himself, the Sovereign Good. The reward which God promises us, is not merely the beauty, the harmony, and the other joys of this blessed city; the chief reward is God himself,—that is, to see and love God face to face. I am thy reward exceeding great.¹³ St. Augustine says that, if God showed his face to the damned, “hell would be instantly turned into a paradise If delights.”¹⁴ And he adds that, were a departed soul allowed the choice of seeing God and enduring the torments of hell, or of being delivered from them and deprived of the sight of God, “it would prefer to see the Lord, and to suffer these torments.”

During the present life, we cannot comprehend the delight of seeing and loving God face to face: but we may form some notion of it by considering that divine love is so enchanting, that, even in this life, it has sometimes raised up from the earth, not only the souls, but even the bodies of the saints. St. Philip Neri was once lifted up into the air along with a bench which he had grasped. St. Peter Alcantara was also elevated from the earth, and a tree which he held was torn up from the roots. St. Vincent, while he was tormented, spoke, says St. Augustine, in such a manner, that one person appeared to suffer and another to speak.¹⁵ St. Lawrence, while he was on the red-hot gridiron, upbraided the tyrant, saying: “Turn and eat.”¹⁶ “Yes,” says St. Augustine; “for St. Lawrence, inflamed with the fire of divine love, was insensible to the burning heat of the fire.”¹⁷ Besides, how great the sweetness which a sinner experiences on this earth even in weeping over his sins! Hence, St. Bernard used to say: “If it is so sweet to weep for Thee, O my God! what must it be to rejoice in Thee?”¹⁸ What sweetness does not a soul experience when, by a ray of light, God unfolds to it in prayer his goodness, the mercies he has shown it, and the love which Jesus Christ has borne, and still bears, to it! In such moments, the soul melts and faints away through love. Yet in this life we do not see God as he is; we see him only in the dark. We now see through a glass in a dark manner: but then face to face.¹⁹ At present there is a veil before our eyes, and God is seen only with the eyes of faith; but what will be our joy when the veil is removed, and we see God face to face? We shall then see the infinite beauty of God: his infinite greatness, his justice, his perfection, his amiableness, and his infinite love for us.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Sovereign Good! I am that wretch who has turned his back upon Thee, and renounced Thy love. I therefore am undeserving of seeing or of loving Thee. But, to show mercy to me. Thou hast not shown mercy to Thyself, but hast condemned Thyself to a painful and ignominious death, on an infamous gibbet. Thy death, therefore, makes me hope that I shall one day see and enjoy Thee face to face, and that I shall then love Thee with all my strength. But, now that I am in danger of losing Thee forever, now that I am conscious of having lost Thee by my sins, what shall I do during the remainder of my life? Shall I continue to offend Thee? No, my Jesus! I detest with a sovereign hatred the offences I have offered Thee. I feel a sovereign sorrow for having insulted Thee, and I love Thee with my whole heart. Wilt Thou cast off a soul that repents and loves Thee? No: I know, O my Redeemer! that Thou hast said that Thou wilt not reject any one that comes to Thee with a penitent heart. Him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out.²⁰ My Jesus! I renounce all things, and turn to Thee. I embrace Thee, and unite Thee to my heart: do Thou also embrace me, and unite me to Thy heart. I dare to speak in this manner, because I speak and converse with infinite Goodness. I speak with a God who was content to die for the love of me. My dear Saviour! grant me perseverance in Thy love. My dear Mother Mary! through the love which thou didst bear to Jesus Christ, obtain for me this perseverance. Such is my hope, such is my desire.

THIRD POINT.
Heaven is Eternal.

In this life, the greatest pain which afflicts souls that are in desolation and love God, arises from the fear of not loving him, and of not being loved by him. Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred.²¹ But in heaven the soul is certain that it loves God, and that he loves it. It sees that it is happily lost in the love of its Lord, and that he embraces it as a beloved child, and that this love will not be dissolved for all eternity. These blessed flames will be augmented by the increased knowledge which the soul will then have of the greatness of the love of God, in becoming man and dying for us; of his love in instituting the Most Holy Sacrament, in which a God becomes the food of a worm. Then also will the soul clearly see all the graces which God has bestowed upon it in delivering it from so many temptations and so many dangers of perdition; it will then understand that the tribulations, infirmities, persecutions, and losses, which it called misfortunes and divine chastisements, were all love, all means intended by divine Providence to conduct it to heaven. It will see particularly the patience of God in bearing with it after so many sins, and the mercies he had shown it in giving it so many lights and invitations to his love. From that blessed mountain it will behold so many souls in hell, condemned for fewer sins than it had committed, and will see that it is saved, that it is in the possession of God, and secure against all danger of ever losing that Sovereign Good for all eternity.

The blessed then will forever enjoy that felicity which, during each moment of eternity, will be always as new as at the first moment of its enjoyment. The soul will always desire and always possess that joy. It shall be always satisfied, and always thirsty: forever thirsty, and always satiated with delights: because the desire of heaven begets no pain, and its possession produces no tediousness. In a word, as the damned are vessels full of wrath, so the blessed are vessels filled with happiness, so that they have nothing more to desire. St. Teresa says that even in this life, when God introduces a soul into the cellar of wine—that is, of his love, it becomes happily inebriated, so that it loses all affections for earthly things. But in entering into paradise, how in more perfectly, as David says, will the elect be inebriated with the plenty of God’s house.²² In seeing God face to face, and in embracing its Sovereign Good, the soul will be so inebriated with love that it will happily lose itself in God—that is, it will entirely forget itself, and will think only of loving, of praising, and of blessing the infinite Good which it possesses.

When, therefore, the crosses of this life afflict us, let us animate ourselves with the hope of heaven to bear them patiently. St. Mary of Egypt, being asked at the end of her life by the Abbot Zozimus, how she had been able to live for so many years in such a desert, replied: With the hope of heaven. When the dignity of Cardinal was offered to St. Philip Neri, he threw up the cap in the air, exclaiming, Paradise! Paradise! At the mention of paradise, Brother Giles, of the Order of St. Francis, was raised up from the ground through joy. Let us likewise, when we are afflicted by the miseries of this life, raise up our eyes to heaven, and console ourselves, saying with a sigh, Heaven! Heaven! Let us reflect that if we be faithful to God, all these sorrows, miseries, and fears will one day have an end, and we shall be admitted into that blessed country, where we shall enjoy complete happiness as long as God will be God. Behold, the saints are expecting us, Mary is expecting us, and Jesus stands with a crown in his hand, to make us kings in that eternal kingdom.

Affections and Prayers.

My dear Jesus! Thou hast taught me this prayer—Thy kingdom come. I therefore now pray that Thy kingdom may come into my heart, so that Thou mayest possess it entirely, and that my soul may possess Thee, its Sovereign Good. O my Jesus! Thou hast spared nothing in order to save me and to acquire my love; save me then, and let my salvation consist in loving Thee always in this life and in the next. I have so often turned my back upon Thee, and yet Thou assurest me that Thou wilt not disdain to embrace me for all eternity in heaven, with as much love as if I had never offended Thee. And knowing this, can I ever love anything else but Thee, who wishest to bestow heaven upon me after I had so often deserved hell? Ah, my Lord! would that I had never offended Thee! Oh! were I born again I would always love Thee. But what is done is done. I can now do no more than give Thee the remainder of my life. Yes, I give it entirely to Thee. I consecrate myself entirely to Thy love. Depart from my heart, all earthly affections; give place to my God, who wishes to possess it entirely. Yes; take possession of my whole being, my Redeemer, my Love, and my God! From this day forward I will think only of pleasing Thee. Assist me by Thy grace. I hope in Thy merits. Augment in me continually Thy love, and the desire of pleasing Thee. Heaven! Heaven! When, O Lord! shall the day come when I shall see Thee face to face, and embrace Thee, without fear of ever more losing Thee? Ah, my God! keep Thy hand upon me, that I may never more offend Thee. O Mary! when shall I see myself at thy feet in heaven? Assist me, my Mother: do not permit me to be lost, and to go forever to a distance from thee and thy Son.

1“Tristitia vestra vertetur in gaudium,” – John, xvi. 20.

2“Quam dilecta tabernacula tua. Domine virtutum.” – Ps. lxxxiii. 2.

3“Arcana verba, quæ non licet homini loqui.” – 2 Cor. xii. 4.

4“Oculus non vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit, quæ præparavit Deus iis qui diligunt illum.” – 1 Cor. ii. 9.

5“Nihil quod nolis sit, totum sit quod velis.” – De Divers. s. 16.

6“Vide ne feceris: conservus enim tuus sum.” – Apoc. xxii. 9.

7“Veni de Libano, sponsa mea, veni: coronaberis.” – Cant. iv. 8.

8“Intra in gaudium Domini tui.” – Matt. xxv. 21.

9Nihil est quod nolit!

10“Absterget Deus omnem lacrymam ab oculis eorum; et mors ultra non erit; neque luctus, neque clamor, neque dolor erit ultra; quia prima abierunt. Et dixit, qui sedebat in throno: Ecce, nova facio omnia.” – Apoc. xxi, 4.

11Totum est quod velit.

12“In sæcula sæculorum laudabunt te.” – Ps. lxxxiii. 5.

13“Ego sum merces tua magna nimis.” – Gen. xv. 1.

14“Continuo infernus in amænum converteretur paradisum.” – De Tripl. Habit. c. 4.

15“Tamquam alius torqueretur, alius loqueretur.” – Serm, 275, E. B.

16Versa, et manduca.

17“Hoc igne accensus, flammarum non sentit incendia.” – Serm. 206, E. B.

18“Si adeo dulce est flere pro te, quam dulce erit gaudere de te?” – Seal. claustr. c. 6.

19“Videmus nunc per speculum in ænigmate: tunc autem facie ad faciem.” – 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

20“Eum qui venit ad me, non ejiciam foras.” – John, vi. 37.

21“Nescit homo, utrum amore an odio dignus sit.” – Eccles. ix. 1.

22“Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuæ.” – Ps. xxxv. 9.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXVIII

2010-07-29T18:32:00.001+01:00

The Remorse of the Damned.

“Their worm dieth not.” – Mark, ix. 47.

FIRST POINT.
The Little for which the Damned are Lost.

According to St. Thomas, this worm which dieth not is to be understood of remorse of conscience, which will eternally torment the damned in hell. The remorse which will gnaw the hearts of the reprobate will be many; but the most excruciating will be, first, the thought of the trifles for which they are damned; secondly, the thought of the little which they required to do in order to save their souls; and thirdly, the thought of the great good which they have lost. After Esau had eaten the pottage of lentils for which he had sold his birthright, the Scripture says that, through sorrow and remorse for the loss, he began to roar aloud.¹ Oh! how will the damned howl and roar at the thought of having, for a few momentary poisoned pleasures, lost an eternal kingdom of delights, and of having condemned themselves forever to a continual death! Hence they will weep far more bitterly than Jonathan did when he saw himself condemned to death by his father for having eaten a little honey. I did but taste a little honey, and behold I must die.² O God! what torture will each of the damned feel in thinking that he was the cause of his own damnation! At present our past life appears to us but a dream, a moment. But what will he who is in hell think of the fifty or sixty years which he spent on this earth, when he will be in the abyss of eternity, and, after the lapse of a hundred and a thousand millions of years, will see that his hell only begins? But were these fifty or sixty years all years of pleasure? Perhaps a sinner living without God, always feels happy in his sins! How long do the pleasures of sin last? Only for a few moments. All the remaining hours of the man who lives at enmity with God are full of pain and bitterness. But what will these moments of pleasure appear to the unhappy damned? How will he view that last sin in particular, by which he brought himself to perdition? Then he will say: For a miserable brutal pleasure, which lasted but a moment, and which was scarcely indulged when it vanished like air, I must burn in this fire, in despair, and abandoned by all, as long as God will be God—for all eternity.

Affections and Prayers.

Lord! enlighten me, that I may feel the injustice which I have done Thee, and the eternal chastisements I have deserved, by offending Thee. My God! I feel a great remorse for having offended Thee; but this pain consoles me. Hadst Thou sent me to hell, as I deserved, the thought of the trifle for which I was damned should be the hell of my hell. But now this remorse, I say, consoles me; because it encourages me to hope for pardon from Thee, who hast promised to pardon all who repent. Yes, my Lord! I repent of having outraged Thee. I embrace this sweet pain of remorse. I even entreat Thee to increase it, and to preserve it in my heart till death, that I may always weep bitterly over the offences I have offered to Thee. My Jesus! pardon me. O my Redeemer! who, to procure mercy for me, hadst not mercy on Thyself, but condemnedst Thyself to die through pain in order to deliver me from hell, have mercy on me. Grant that my remorse for having offended Thee may keep me always sorrowful, and, at the same time, inflame my whole soul with love for Thee, who hast loved me so tenderly, who hast borne with me so patiently, and who now, instead of chastising me, enrichest me with Thy lights and graces. I thank Thee, O my Jesus! and I love Thee. I love Thee more than myself. I love Thee with my whole heart. Thou knowest not how to despise a soul that loves Thee. I love Thee. Do not banish me from Thy face. Receive me, then, into Thy friendship, and do not permit me ever more to lose Thee. Mary, my Mother! accept me for thy servant, and bind me to Jesus, thy Son. Ask him to pardon me, to give me his love and the grace of perseverance till death.

SECOND POINT.
The Little that was Required for their Salvation.

St. Thomas says that the principal pain of the reprobate will consist in seeing that they are damned for nothing, and that, if they wished, they could with so much facility acquire for themselves the glory of Paradise.³ The second remorse of conscience, then, will arise from the thought of the little that was necessary to be done for the attainment of salvation. A person who was damned appeared to St. Humbert, and said to him that the most excruciating pain which he suffered in hell was caused by the thought of the trifles for which he was lost, and of the little which he required to do in order to save his soul. The unhappy soul will then say: Had I mortified myself by not looking at such an object; had I overcome human respect at such a time; had I avoided such an occasion of sin, such a companion, such a conversation, I should not now be damned. If I had gone to confession every week; if I had frequented the confraternity; if I had read every day a spiritual book; if I had recommended myself to Jesus Christ and to Mary, I should not have relapsed into sin. I have so often purposed to do these things, but have either neglected my resolutions, or after having begun to practise these exercises, I gave them up, and therefore I am lost.

The torture of this remorse will be increased by the good examples of virtuous friends and companions, which the reprobate has witnessed; and still more by the gifts which God has given him for the salvation of his soul; gifts of nature, such as good health; gifts of fortune, which were so many talents which the Lord had given him, that he might make a good use of them, and become a saint; gifts of grace; so many lights, inspirations, calls, and so many years given to him that he might repair the evil which he had done. But he will see that, in the miserable state to which he is reduced, there is no remedy. He will hear the angel of the Lord proclaiming and protesting that time shall be no more. And the angel whom I saw standing . . . swore by Him that liveth forever and ever . . . that time shall be no longer.⁴ Oh! what cruel swords will all these gifts and graces be to the heart of the unhappy reprobate, when he sees that the time in which he could repair his eternal ruin is already past! With tears and despair he and his companions will say: The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.⁵ He will say: if the fatigues to which I had submitted for my damnation had been borne for God, I should have become a great saint; and now what advantage do I derive from them but pain and remorse, which will torment me for eternity? Ah! the thought that it was in his power to be forever happy, and that he must be forever miserable, will torture the damned more than the fire and all the other torments of hell.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Jesus! how hast Thou been able to bear with me? I have so often turned my back upon Thee, and Thou hast not ceased to seek after me. I have so often offended Thee, and Thou hast pardoned me. Ah! impart to me a portion of that sorrow which Thou didst feel in the Garden of Gethsemane for my sins, and which made Thee there sweat blood. I am sorry, O my Redeemer! for having so badly repaid Thy love. O accursed pleasures! I detest and curse you. You have made me lose the grace of my Lord. My Beloved Jesus! I now love Thee above all things, and I renounce all unlawful gratifications, and purpose to die a thousand times, rather than ever more offend Thee. Ah! through that affection with which Thou dost love me on the cross, and offered for me Thy divine life, give me light and strength to resist temptations, and to have recourse to Thy aid whenever I shall be tempted. O Mary, my hope! thou art all-powerful with God; obtain for me holy perseverance, obtain for me the grace never more to be separated from his holy love.

THIRD POINT.
The Great Good that the Damned have Lost.

The third remorse of the damned shall arise from seeing the great good which they have lost. St. John Chrysostom says that the reprobate will be tormented more by the loss of paradise than by the pains of hell!⁶ A certain princess once said: If God gives me a reign of forty years, I will renounce paradise. The unhappy princess reigned for forty years; but now that her soul has departed from this world, what does she say? Certainly she has changed her sentiments. Oh! how great at present must be her affliction and despair at the thought of having, for the enjoyment of an earthly reign of forty years, lost for eternity the kingdom of heaven!

But the torment which will most grievously torture the damned for eternity will arise from the conviction that they have lost heaven and God, their sovereign good, not by any unlucky accident, nor by the malevolence of others, but by their own fault. They will see that they have been created for paradise, and that God placed in their hands the choice of procuring for themselves eternal life or eternal death. Before man is life and death; . . . that which he shall choose shall be given him.⁷ Thus they will see that they had it in their power, if they wished, to be eternally happy, and that they have voluntarily precipitated themselves into that pit of torments, from which they can never escape, and from which no one will ever deliver them. They will see among the elect many of their companions, who were placed in the same, or perhaps in greater, danger of sinning, and who saved their souls because they restrained their passions by recommending themselves to God, or, if they fell into sin, soon repented and gave themselves to God. But because they would not give up sin, they have in the end unhappily gone to hell—they have fallen into that sea of torments without any hope of remedy for all eternity.

Brother, if you too have been so foolish as, by your own free acts, to lose paradise and God for a miserable pleasure, endeavor as soon as possible to apply a remedy, now that you have time. Do not voluntarily continue in your foolishness. Tremble lest you should have to weep over your folly for all eternity. Who knows but this consideration which you now read is the last call which God will give you? Perhaps, if you do not now change your life, if you commit another mortal sin, the Lord will abandon you, and, in punishment of that sin, send you to suffer forever among that crowd of fools who are now in hell, and confess their error (therefore we have erred), but confess it with despair, because they see that it is forever irreparable. When the devil tempts you again to sin, remember hell, have recourse to God and to the Most Holy Virgin. The thought of hell will preserve you from hell, because it will make you have recourse to God. Remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.⁸

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Sovereign Good! how often have I lost Thee for nothing! how often have I deserved to lose Thee forever! But I am consoled by the words of Thy prophet: Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.⁹ I must not, then, despair of finding Thee again, O my God! if I sincerely seek Thee. Yes, my God! I now sigh for Thy grace more than for any other good. I am content to be deprived of all things, even of life, rather than see myself deprived of Thy love. I love Thee, O my Creator! above all things; and, because I love Thee, I am sorry for having offended Thee. O my God! whom I have lost and despised, pardon me immediately, and enable me to find Thee again; for I wish never more to lose Thee. If Thou dost admit me again to Thy friendship, I will leave all things, and will seek to love Thee alone. I hope to do so through Thy mercy, Eternal Father! Hear me for the love of Jesus Christ: pardon me, and give me the grace never more to be separated from Thee. If I voluntarily lose Thee again, I ought to fear that Thou wilt abandon me. O Mary, O advocate of sinners! obtain for me the grace to make peace with God, and afterward keep me under thy protection, that I may never more lose him.

1“Irrugiit clamore magno.” – Gen. xxvii. 34.

2“Gustans gustavi paululum mellis, et ecce morior.” – 1 Kings, xiv. 43.

3Principaliter dolebunt quod pro nihilo damnati sunt. et facillime vitam poterant consequi sempiternam.

4“Et angelus quem vidi stantem . . . juravit per viventem in sæecula sæculorum . . . quia tempus non erit amplius.” – Apoc. x. 5.

5“Transiit messis, finita est æstas, et nos salvati non sumus.” – Jer. viii. 20.

6Plus cœlo torquentur, quam gehenna.

7“Ante hominem vita et mors, bonum et malum: quod placuerit ei, dabitur illi.” – Ecclus. xv. 18.

8“Memorare novissima tua. et in æternum non peccabis.” – Ecclus. vii. 40.

9“Lætetu r cor quærentium Dominum.” – Ps. civ. 3.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXVII

2010-07-21T17:17:00.002+01:00

The Eternity of Hell.

And these shall go into everlasting punishment.” – Matt. xxv. 46.

FIRST POINT.
Hell is Eternal.

Were hell not eternal, it would not be hell. Torments which continue but a short time, are not a severe punishment. The man who is afflicted with an, abscess or cancer submits to the knife or the cautery. The pain is very sharp; but, because it is soon over, the torture is not very great. But, should the incision or cauterization last for a week, or for an entire month, how frightful should be his agony! A slight pain in the eye, or in the teeth, when it lasts for a long time, becomes insupportable. Even a comedy, a musical entertainment, would it continue for an entire day, produces intolerable tediousness. And would it last for a month, or for a year, who could bear it? What then must hell be, where the damned are compelled, not to listen to the same comedy or the same music, nor to submit merely to pains in the eyes, or in the teeth, or to the torture of the knife, or of the red-hot iron, but to suffer all pains and all torments? And for how long? For all eternity. They shall be tortured forever and ever.¹

This belief in eternity is an article of faith; it is not .an opinion, but a truth attested by God in so many places in Holy Scripture. Depart from Me, you accursed, into everlasting fire. And these shall go into everlasting punishment.² Who shall suffer eternal punishment in destruction.³ Every one shall be salted with fire.⁴ As salt prevents putrefaction, so the fire of hell, while it tortures the damned, performs the office of salt by preserving their life.

Now, how great would be the folly of the man who, for the sake of a day’s amusement, would voluntarily condemn himself to be shut up in a dungeon for twenty or thirty years! If hell lasted but a hundred, or even but two or three years, it would be the extreme of folly in a Christian to condemn himself to fire for two or three years for the vile pleasure of a moment. But there is not the question of thirty, of a hundred, or of a hundred thousand years; but there is question of eternity; there is question of suffering forever the same torments—torments which will never end, and will never be mitigated in the slightest degree. The saints then had reason, as long as they were on this earth, and in danger of being lost, to weep and tremble. Blessed Isaias, even while he lived in the desert in fasting and penitential rigors wept and said: Ah! unhappy me, who am. not as yet free from the danger of losing my soul.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my God! if Thou hadst sent me to hell, as I have often deserved, and hadst afterward drawn me from it, how deeply should I feel my obligations to Thee! What a holy life would I have begun! And now that Thou hast shown me greater mercy by preserving me from falling into that place of woe, what shall I do? Shall I again offend Thee and provoke Thy wrath, that Thou mayest send me to burn in that prison of rebels against Thy majesty, where so many are buried in fire for fewer sins than I have committed? Ah, my Redeemer! I have hitherto done so; and instead of availing myself of the time which Thou gavest me to weep over my sins, I have spent it in provoking Thee still more. I thank Thy infinite goodness for having borne with me so long. If Thy goodness were not infinite, how couldst Thou have borne with me? I thank Thee for having waited for me till now with so much patience. I thank Thee in a most special manner for the light which Thou now givest me, by which Thou makest me see my .folly, and the injury I have done Thee in insulting Thee so often by my sins. My Jesus! I detest them, and am sorry for them with my whole heart. Through the merits of Thy Passion, pardon me, and assist me with Thy grace, that I may never more offend Thee. I now have just reason to fear that, if I commit another mortal sin, Thou wilt abandon me. My Lord! I entreat Thee to place this just fear before my eyes whenever the devil will tempt me to offend Thee again. My God I love Thee; I do not wish ever more to lose Thee; assist me by Thy grace. O most holy Virgin! do thou also assist me. Obtain for me the grace always to have recourse to thee in my temptations, that I may never again lose my God. Mary, after Jesus, thou art my hope.

SECOND POINT.
The Weight of Eternity.

He that enters hell, will not depart from it for all eternity. This thought made David tremble and say; Let not the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit Shut her mouth upon me.⁵ As soon as the damned fall into that pit of torments, its mouth is closed never to be opened. In hell there is a gate for admission, but none for egress. “There will be a descent,” says Eusebius. “but there will be no ascent.”⁶ In explaining the words of the Psalmist, this author says, and let not the pit shut her mouth; because when it shall have received them, it will be closed above and opened downward!⁷ As long as the sinner remains on this earth, he may hope to reverse the sentence of his damnation; but as soon as death overtakes him in sin, all his hopes are at an end forever. When the wicked man is dead, there shall be no hope any more.⁸ Perhaps the damned may flatter themselves with a false hope, and thus find some relief in their despair. The man who is mortally wounded, confined to his bed, and given over by his physicians, may console himself with the hope of finding a physician or a remedy to heal his wounds. The man who is condemned to the galleys for life may also find comfort in the expectation of being one day delivered from his chains. And may not the damned at least say: Who knows but I shall one day escape from this prison? and thus delude himself with this false hope. No: in hell there is no hope, whether true or false; there is no perhaps. I will set before thy face.⁹ The unhappy damned will always see the sentence of their reprobation written before their eyes. In it they will read, that they will weep forever in that pit of torments. And many shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always.¹⁰ Hence the damned not only suffer the torments of each moment, but in each moment they endure the pain of eternity, saying, What I now suffer, I must suffer forever. “They bear,” says Tertullian, “the weight of eternity.”¹¹

Let us then pray to the Lord in the words of St. Augustine: “Here burn, here cut, here spare not, that you may spare for eternity.”¹² The chastisements of this life pass away: Thy arrows pass; but the pains of the next life last forever, the voice of Thy thunder in a wheel.¹³ Let us dread these punishments. Let us dread that thunder of eternal damnation which will issue from the mouth of the Judge in passing sentence against the wicked. “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.” The Psalmist says: “The voice of thy thunder in a wheel.” A wheel is a figure of eternity, which has no end. I have drawn my sword out of its sheath, not to he turned back.¹⁴ The punishment of hell will be great; but what ought to terrify us more is, that it will be irrevocable.

But the unbeliever say: Can it be just to punish a sin which lasts but a moment, with eternal torments? But how, I ask, can a sinner, for a momentary pleasure, dare to insult a God of infinite majesty? St. Thomas says that, even in human judgments, the punishment of crime is measured, not from its duration, but from its malice.¹⁵ Hell is but a small punishment for mortal sin; an offence against infinite majesty deserves infinite chastisement. “In every mortal sin,” says St. Bernardine Sienna, “an infinite insult is offered to God; but an infinite injury merits infinite punishment.”¹⁶ But, because, says St. Thomas, a creature is not capable of suffering pain infinite in point of intensity, God inflicts punishment infinite in extension or duration.¹⁷

Besides, since the damned are incapable of making satisfaction for their sins, their punishment should be necessarily eternal. In this life penitent sinners can atone for their iniquities only in as much as the merits of Jesus Christ are applied to them. But, from the application of these merits the reprobate are excluded. Hence, since they cannot appease the anger of God, and since their sin is eternal, their punishment also must be eternal. He shall not give to God his ransom. . . . And he shall labor forever.¹⁸ Hence Belluacensis says: “There sin can be forever punished, and can never be expiated;”¹⁹ for, according to St. Augustine, “there the sinner cannot repent.”²⁰ Therefore the wrath of the Lord shall be always provoked against him. The people with whom the Lord is angry forever.²¹ Moreover, the damned, though God should wish to pardon them, are unwilling to be pardoned; for their will is obstinate and confirmed in hatred against God. And St. Jerome says that the reprobate “are insatiable in the desire of sinning.”²² Hence, because the damned refuse to be healed, their wounds are incurable. Why is my wound desperate, so as to refuse to be healed?²³

Affections and Prayers.

Then, my Redeemer! if at this hour I were damned, as I have deserved, I should be obstinate in hatred against Thee, my God! who hast died for me. O God! what a hell should it be to hate Thee, who hast loved me so tenderly, who art infinite beauty, infinite goodness, and worthy of infinite love! Then if I were now in hell, I should be in such an Unhappy state, that I would not even wish for the pardon which Thou now offerest to me. My Jesus, I thank Thee for the mercy Thou hast shown me; and since I now can obtain pardon, I wish to love Thee. Thou offerest me pardon, and I ask it from Thee, and hope for it through thy merits. I am sorry for all the offences I have committed against Thee, O infinite Goodness! Pardon me, then. I love Thee with my whole soul. Ah, Lord! what evil hast Thou done me, that I should have to hate Thee forever as my enemy? And what friend have I ever had who has done and suffered so much for me as Thou, O my Jesus! hast done and suffered for me? Ah, do not permit me ever more to fall into enmity with Thee, and to lose Thy love. Take me out of life, sooner than permit this sovereign evil to befall me. O Mary! take me under thy protection, and do not permit me ever more to rebel against God and against thee.

THIRD POINT.
Eternity is Unchangeable.

In this life death is greatly feared by sinners; but in hell it will be most ardently desired. Men shall seek death, and shall not find it; and they shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them.²⁴ Hence St. Jerome has written: “O death, how sweet should you be to those to whom you have been so full of bitterness.”²⁵ David says, that death will feast on the damned. Death shall feed upon them.²⁶ In explaining this passage, St. Bernardine observes that as, in feeding, sheep eat the blades of grass, and leave the roots untouched; so death feeds on the damned: it kills them every moment, but leaves them life in order to continue to kill them by pains for all eternity. Thus, according to St. Gregory, the damned die every moment without ever dying. Delivered up to avenging flames, they will die always. A man who dies through pain is an object of pity to all who behold him. Perhaps the damned, too, experience commiseration from others? None; they die every moment, and have not, and never will have, any one to take compassion on them. The Emperor Zeno, being one day shut up in a pit, continually cried out: For pity’s sake, open this grave and release me. But no one heard him, and he was found dead, after having eaten the flesh off his arms. The damned cry out from the pit of hell, says St. Cyril of Alexandria, but no one comes to deliver them—no one feels compassion for them.²⁷

And for how long will this their misery last? Forever, forever. In the spiritual exercises of Father Paul Segneri, written by Muratori, it is related that in Rome, a devil in the body of a man possessed, being asked how long he would remain in hell, began to beat his hand against a chair, and answered in a rage: Forever, forever! At hearing this great sermon of two words, forever, forever, many students of the Roman seminary, who were present, made a general confession, and changed their lives. Poor Judas! he has spent more than eighteen hundred years in hell, and his hell is still at its commencement. Poor Cain, he is in fire for more than five thousand eight hundred years, and his hell is at its beginning. Another devil was asked how long it was since he had been sent to hell. He answered, Yesterday. “Flow,” said the person who asked him, “could it be yesterday, when you are damned for more than five thousand years? He replied: Oh! if you knew what is meant by eternity, you would easily conceive how a thousand years, compared with it, are but a moment. If an angel said to one of the damned: You will leave hell, but only after the lapse of as many ages as there are drops of water in the ocean, leaves on the trees, or grains of sand in the sea; he would feel greater joy than a beggar would at hearing of his elevation to a throne. Yes; all these ages will pass away, they will be multiplied an infinite number of times, and hell will be at its commencement. Each of the damned would make this compact with God: Lord, increase my pain as much as Thou wishest, let it last as long as Thou pleasest; but put an end to it, and I am content. But this end will never take place. In hell, the trumpet of divine justice will sound nothing else but these words—forever, forever, never, never.

The damned will ask the devils what is the hour of the. night. Watchman, what of the night?²⁸ When will it end? When will these trumpets, these shrieks, this stench, these flames, these torments cease? Their answer is never, never. And how long will they last? Forever, forever. Ah Lord! give light to so many blind Christians, who, when entreated not to damn themselves, say: If I go to hell, I must have patience. O God! they have not patience to bear the least cold, to remain in an overheated room, or to submit to a buffet on the cheek. And how can they have patience to remain in a sea of fire, trampled by the devils, and abandoned by God and by all, for all eternity!

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, Father of mercies! Thou dost not abandon him who seeks Thee. Thou hast not forsaken them that seek Thee, O Lord.²⁹ I have hitherto turned my back upon Thee so often, and Thou hast not abandoned me: do not abandon me now that I seek Thee. I repent, O Sovereign Good! of having made so little account of Thy grace, which I have exchanged for nothing. Look at the wounds of Thy Son. Listen to his cries, which implore Thee to pardon me; and grant me pardon. O my Redeemer! remind me always of the pains Thou hast suffered for me, of the love Thou hast borne me, and of my ingratitude, by which I have so often deserved hell, that I may always bewail the injury I have done Thee, and that I may live always burning with Thy love. Ah, my Jesus! how can I but burn with Thy love, when I reflect that for so many years I ought to burn in hell, and continue to burn in it for all eternity; when I remember that Thou hast died in order to deliver me from it, and that Thou hast with so much mercy rescued me from that land of misery! Were I in hell, I should now hate Thee there, and should have to hate Thee forever: but now I love Thee, and will love Thee forever. Thou lovest me, and I also love Thee. Thou wilt love me forever unless I forsake Thee. Ah, my Saviour! save me from the misfortune of ever leaving Thee, and then do with me whatsoever Thou pleasest. I merit every punishment, and I accept every chastisement, that Thou mayest deliver me from the punishment of being deprived of Thy love. O Mary, my refuge! how often have I condemned myself to hell, and thou hast preserved me from it. Ah, deliver me now from sin, which alone can deprive me of the grace of God, and bring me to hell.

1“Cruciabuntur die ac nocte in sæcula sæculorum.” – Apoc. xx. 10.

2Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem æternum. . . Et ibunt hi in supplicium æternum.” – Matt. xxv. 41, 46.

3“Pœnas dabunt in interitu æternas.” – 2 Thess. i. 9.

4“Omnis igne salietur.” – Mark, ix. 48.

5“Neque absorbeat me profundum, neque urgeat super me puteus os suum.” – Ps. lxviii. 16.

6Descensus erit, reditus non erit.

7“Quia, cum susceperit reos, claudetur sursum, et aperietur deorsum.” – De Epiph. et Inf. hom. 3.

8“Mortuo homine impio, non erit ultra spes.” – Prov. xi. 7.

9“Statuam contra faciem tuam.” – Ps. xlix. 21.

10“Alii in vitam æternam, et alii in opprobrium, ut videant semper.” – Dan. xii. 2.

11Pondus æternitatis sustinent.

12Hic ure, hic seca; hic non parcas, ut in æternum parcas.

13“Sagittæ tuæ transeunt, vox tonitrui tui in rota.” – Ps. lxxvi. 19.

14“Eduxi gladium meum de vagina sua irrevocabilem.” – Ezek. xxi. 5.

15“Non, quia homicidium in momento committitur, momentanea pœna punitur.” – 1. 2. q. 87, a. 3.

16“In omni peccato mortali infinita Deo contumelia irrogatur: infinitæ autem injuriæ infinita debetur pœna.” – T. ii. s. 12, a. 2, c. 2.

17Comp. Theol. p. 1, c. 183.

18“Non dabit Deo placationem suam; . . . laborabit in æternum.” – Ps. xlviii. 8, 9.

19“Culpa semper potent ibi puniri, et nunquam potent expiari.” – Spec. Mor. l. 2, p. 3, d. 3.

20Ibi peccator pœnitere non potest.

21“Cui iratus est Dominus in æternum.” – Mal. i. 4.

22Insatiabiles sunt in desiderio peccandi.

23“Factus est dolor perpetuus, et plaga desperabilis renuit curari.” – Jer. xv. 18.

24“Quærent mortem, et non invenient eam; et desiderabunt mori, et fugiet mors ab eis.” – Apoc. ix. 6.

25“O mors, quam dulcis esses, quibus tam amara fuisti!” – Apud. S. Bonnav. Sol. c. 3.

26“Mors depascet eos.” – Ps. xlviii. 15.

27“Lamentantur, et nullus eripit: plangunt, et nemo compatitur.” – Orat. de exitu anni.

28“Custos, quid de nocte?” – Isa. xxi. 11.

29“Non dereliquisti quærentes te, Domine.” – Ps. ix. 11.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXVI

2010-07-17T23:32:00.004+01:00

The Pains of Hell.

“And these shall go into everlasting punishment.” – Matt, xxv. 46.

FIRST POINT.
The Pain of Sense.

In committing sin, the sinner does two evils. He abandons God, the Sovereign Good, and turns to creatures. For My people have done two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns—broken cisterns—that can hold no water.¹ Since, then, by turning to creatures the sinner offends God, he will be justly tortured in hell by the same creatures by fire, and by devils: in this punishment consists the pain of sense. But because his greatest guilt and the malice of his sin consists in turning his back on God, his principal torment, his hell, will be the pain of loss, or that pain arising from having lost God.

Let us first consider the pain of sense. It is of faith, that there is a hell. In the middle of the earth there is a prison reserved for the chastisement of rebels against God. What is this hell? It is what the glutton who was damned called a place of torments.² A place of torments, where all the senses and powers of the damned will have their proper torment, and where, the more a person has offended God by any sense, the more he will be tortured in that sense. By what things a man sinneth, by the same also he is tormented.³ As much as she hath glorified herself and lived in delicacies, so much torments and sorrow give ye to her. – Apoc. xviii. 7. The sight will be tormented with darkness. A land, says Job, that is dark, and covered with the mist of death.⁴ How pitiable the condition of a man who is shut up in a dark cave for forty or fifty years, or during his whole life! Hell is a dungeon closed up on every side, into which a ray of the sun, or of any other light, shall never enter. He shall never see the light.⁵ The fire of this world sends forth light; but the fire of hell is utterly dark. The voice of the Lord divided the fire.⁶ In explaining these words, St. Basil says, that the Lord will separate the light from the fire, so that this fire will burn, but will not illuminate. Albertus Magnus expounds them more briefly, and says that God “will divide the flame from the heat.”⁷ The very smoke that issues from that fire shall form a storm of darkness which, according to St. Jude, will blind the damned. To whom the storm of darkness is reserved forever.⁸ St. Thomas teaches that the damned have only the light which serves to increase their torments.⁹ In that glimmering light they will see the deformity of their associates, and of the devils, who will assume horrible forms in order to increase the terrors of the damned.

The sense of smell will also be tormented. How painful to be confined in a close room along with a putrid corpse! Out of their carcasses, says the Prophet Isaias, shall rise a stink.¹⁰ The damned must remain in the midst of so many millions of the reprobate, who, though forever alive to pain, are called carcasses on account of the stench which they send forth. St. Bonaventure says, that if the body of one of the damned were placed on this earth, it would, by its stench, be sufficient to cause the death of all men. Miserable fools! the greater the number of the damned in hell, the more insufferable will be their torments. “There,” says St. Thomas, “the society of the reprobate will cause, not a diminution, but an increase of misery.”¹¹ Their sufferings are more intolerable on account of the stench, on account of the shrieks of the damned, and on account of the narrowness of the place. In hell, they will be one over the other, like sheep gathered together in the winter. They are, said David, laid in hell like sheep.¹² They will be even like grapes pressed under the wine-press of God’s wrath. And he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty.¹³ From this will arise the pain of immobility. Let them become immovable as a stone.¹⁴ Thus, in whatsoever position the damned will fall into hell after the last day, in that they must remain, without ever changing their posture, and without ever being able to move hand or foot, as long as God will be God.

The sense of hearing will be tormented by the unceasing howling and wailing of those miserable beings, who are sunk in an abyss of despair. The devils will torment the damned by continual noises. The sound of dread is always in his ears.¹⁵ How painful to a person longing for sleep to hear the groans of a sick man, the barking of a dog, or the screams of an infant! But, oh! how miserable the condition of the damned, Who must listen incessantly for all eternity to the clamor and cries of the companions of their torments! The damned will be tormented by a ravenous hunger. They shall suffer hunger like dogs.¹⁶ But they never will have a morsel of bread. Their thirst will be so great that all the waters of the ocean will not be able to quench it; but they will never be allowed a single drop. The rich glutton asked for a drop of water; but he has not as yet had it, and he never, never will have it.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Lord! behold at Thy feet one who has so much despised Thy grace and Thy chastisements! Miserable should I be, O my Jesus! if Thou hadst not taken pity on me. How many years should I be in that fetid furnace; in which so many of my companions are now burning! Ah, my Redeemer! why does not this thought make me burn with Thy love? How can I ever again think of offending Thee? Ah, my Jesus! may I never more displease Thee. Strike me dead a thousand times rather than permit me ever again to insult Thee. Since Thou hast begun, complete the work. Thou hast taken me out of the abyss of so many sins, and hast so lovingly called me to love Thee. Ah! grant that I may spend for Thee all the time which Thou now givest me. How ardently should the damned desire a day or an hour of the time granted to me! And shall I continue to spend it in offending Thee? No, my Jesus! through the merits of that blood, which has hitherto delivered me from hell, do not permit it. I love Thee, O Sovereign Good! and because I love Thee I am sorry for having offended Thee. I wish never more to offend Thee, but to love Thee forever. Mary, my Queen and my Mother! pray to Jesus for me, and obtain for me the gift of perseverance and of his holy love.

SECOND POINT.
The Fire of Hell.

The pain which most severely torments the senses of the damned arises from the fire of hell, which tortures the sense of touch. The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly is fire and worms.¹⁷ Hence, in passing sentence, the Lord makes special mention of it. Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.¹⁸ Even in this life, the pain of fire is the greatest of all torments; but according to St. Augustine, our fire, compared with the fire of hell, is but painted fire.¹⁹ St. Vincent Ferrer says, that in comparison with the fire of hell our fire is cold. The reason is, that the fire of this earth has been created for our use; but God has made the fire of hell purposely to torment the damned. As Tertullian remarks: “Fire which is made for the use of man in this world, is very different from that which is used for the justice of God.”²⁰ The wrath of God lights up this avenging fire. A fire is kindled in my rage.²¹ Hence, the Prophet Isaias calls the fire of hell the spirit of heat. If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion . . . by the spirit of burning.²² The damned will be sent, not to the fire, but into the fire. “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.” Thus, like a piece of wood in the furnace, they will be surrounded by fire. They will have an abyss of fire below, an abyss of fire above, and an abyss of fire on every side. If they touch, or see, or breathe, they touch, and see, and breathe nothing but fire. They will live in fire, like a fish in water. But this fire will not only surround the damned, but will also enter into their very bowels to torment them. Their bodies will become all fire. Thus, this fire will burn the bowels, the heart, the brain, the blood within the veins, and even the marrow within the bones. Each of the damned will be in himself a furnace of fire. Thou shalt make them as a furnace of fire.²³

Some cannot bear to walk under a strong sun, or to remain in a close room before a large fire; they cannot endure a spark that flies from a candle; and still they fear not the devouring flames of hell. Which of you, says the Prophet Isaias, can dwell with devouring fire?²⁴ As a wild beast devours a lamb, so the fire of hell devours the damned; but it devours them without ever causing death. “Fools,” says St., Peter Damian, addressing the unchaste, “continue, continue to indulge your flesh; a day will come when your impurities, like pitch, will nourish and increase within your bowels the flame which will torment you in hell.”²⁵ St. Jerome says that this fire will bring with it all the pains and torments to which men are subject on this earth—pains in the sides, in the head, in the bowels, in the nerves. In this fire the damned will suffer even the pain of cold.²⁶ Let him, says Job, pass from the snow waters to excessive heat.²⁷ But we must always keep in mind, that all the torments of this earth are, as St. Chrysostom says, but the shadow of the pains of hell.

The powers of the soul will also have their proper torment. The damned will be tormented in the memory by the remembrance of the time which was given to them in this life, that they might save their souls, and which they spent in procuring their own damnation; by the remembrance of the graces which they have received from God, and of which they have not profited. They will be tormented in the understanding by thinking of the great good which they have lost in losing heaven and God, and that this loss is forever irreparable. In the will, by seeing that they will be refused whatsoever they ask. The desire of the wicked shall perish.²⁸ The miserable beings will never have anything which they desire, and will be forever afflicted with the eternal torments which they abhor. They would wish to be rid of these torments, and to enjoy peace; but in these torments they will forever remain, and peace they will never find.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Jesus! Thy blood and Thy death are my hope. Thou hast died to deliver me from eternal death. Ah, Lord! who hast partaken more of Thy merits than I, who have so often deserved hell? Ah! do not allow me to live any longer ungrateful to the great graces Thou hast bestowed upon me. Thou hast delivered me from the fire of hell, because Thou wishest me to burn, not in that tormenting fire, but with the sweet flames of Thy love. Assist me, then, that I may satisfy Thy desire. Were I now in hell, I could never more love Thee. But since I am able to love Thee, I wish to love Thee. I love Thee, O infinite Goodness! I love Thee, O my Redeemer! who hast loved me so tenderly. How have I been able to live so long in forgetfulness of Thee? I thank Thee for not having been forgetful of me. Hadst Thou forgotten me, I should now either be in hell or without sorrow for my sins. This sorrow which I feel in my heart for having offended Thee, and my desire to love Thee ardently, are gifts of Thy grace, which still assist me. I thank Thee for them, O my Jesus! I hope for the future to give Thee the remainder of my life. I wish to think only of serving and pleasing Thee. Remind me always of the hell I have deserved, and of the graces Thou hast bestowed upon me, and do not permit me ever again to turn my back upon Thee, and to condemn myself to that pit of torments. O Mother of God! pray for me a sinner. Thy intercession has delivered me from hell. Deliver me also, O my Mother, by thy prayers, from sin, which alone can again condemn me to hell.

THIRD POINT.
The Pain of Loss.

But all these torments are nothing, compared with the pain of loss. Hell does not consist in the darkness, stench, shrieks, and fire; the pain which constitutes hell is, the pain of having lost God. “Let torments,” says St. Bruno, “be added to torments, and let them not be deprived of God.”²⁹ And St. John Chrysostom says that a thousand hells are not equal to this pain.³⁰ According to St. Augustine, if the damned enjoyed the vision of God, “they should feel no pain, and hell should be converted into a paradise.”³¹ To conceive some notion of this pain, consider that, should a person lose a jewel worth a hundred crowns, the loss would occasion great pain, but were the jewel worth two hundred crowns, his pain is doubled; and if it were worth four hundred crowns, the pain is still greater. In a word, the pain which he suffers increases in proportion to the value of what he has lost. What have the damned lost? They have lost God, who is an infinite good. Hence St. Thomas says that the pain of the damned is, in a certain manner, infinite.³²

This pain is dreaded only by the saints. St. Ignatius of Loyola used to say: Lord, I am willing to bear every pain, but not the pain of being deprived of Thee. But because they live in the midst of darkness, sinners who are content to live for months and years without God do not understand this pain. However, they will know at death the great good which they lose. At its departure from this world, the soul, as St. Antonine says, instantly sees that it has been created for God.³³ Hence it will suddenly rush forward to embrace its Sovereign Good: but, if it be in sin, God will cast it off. If a dog sees a hare, what efforts does he not make to break his chains and seize his prey. At its separation from the body, the soul is naturally drawn to God, but sin drags it away and sends it to hell, at a distance from him. Your iniquities, says the Prophet Isaias, have divided between you and your God.³⁴ The entire, then, of the hell of the damned consists in that first word of the sentence of their condemnation—Depart from Me, you cursed. Go, Jesus Christ shall say; I do not wish you ever again to see my face. When Absalom heard that David condemned him never more to appear before him, he said: Tell my father either to permit me to see his face, or to put me to death.—2 Kings, xiv. 24. To one of his grandees, whom he saw guilty of irreverence in the church, Philip II. said: “Do not dare ever again to appear in my presence.” So great was the pain which the nobleman felt, that, after having returned home, he died of grief. What will be the anguish of the reprobate at the hour of death, when God will say to him: Begone; I will never see you again! I will hide my face from thee; . . . all evils and afflictions shall find them.³⁵ On the day of judgment Jesus Christ will say to the reprobate: You are no longer mine; I am no longer yours. Call his name not, my people; for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.³⁶

With what pain does a son at the death of a father, or a wife at the death of a husband, say: My father, my husband, I shall never see you again! Ah! if we now heard the wailing of one of the damned, and asked him why he weeps so bitterly, his answer would be: I weep because I have lost God, and shall never see him more. Perhaps the miserable man can love God in hell, and can resign himself to his will? No, if he could do this, hell would not be hell. The unhappy being can never resign himself to the divine will. Neither can he love his God; he hates and will hate him forever; and his hell will consist in the conviction that God is an infinite good, and that he is compelled to hate him, while he sees that he is worthy of infinite love. When St. Catharine asked a devil who he was, he said: “I am that wicked wretch that is deprived of the love of God.”³⁷ The damned will hate and curse God; and in cursing God, they will also curse the benefits he has conferred upon them; they will curse the benefits of creation, of redemption, of the sacraments, particularly the sacraments of baptism and penance, and, above all, the most holy sacrament of the altar. They will hate all the angels and saints, but especially their angel-guardians and their holy advocates, and above all the divine Mother. But they will principally hate the Three Divine Persons, and among them they will hate in a special manner the Son of God, who once died for their salvation; they will curse his wounds, his blood, his pains, and his death.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my God! Thou then art my supreme and infinite Good and I have so often voluntarily lost Thee! I knew that in committing sin I gave Thee great displeasure, and that I lost Thy grace; and with this knowledge I have consented to sin! Ah! if I did not see Thee, O Son of God, nailed to the cross in order to die for me, I should not have courage to ask or hope for pardon from Thee. Eternal Father! look not on me, but behold Thy beloved Son, who asks mercy for me; hear him, and pardon me. I ought at this moment to be in hell, without any hope of being ever more able to love Thee, or to recover Thy lost grace. My God! I am sorry above all things for the injury I have done Thee in renouncing Thy friendship, and despising Thy love for the miserable pleasures of this world. Oh! that I had died a thousand times, rather than have offered Thee so great an insult! How could I have been so blind and foolish! I thank Thee, O my Lord! for giving me time to repair the evil I have done. Since, through Thy mercy, I am not in hell, and can love Thee, O my God! I wish to love Thee. I will wait no longer to convert myself entirely to Thee. I love Thee, O infinite goodness! I love Thee, my life, my treasure, my love, my all. Remind me always, O Lord! of the love which Thou hast borne to me, and of the hell which I have deserved, that this thought may continually excite me to make acts of love, and to say always, I love Thee, I love Thee, I love Thee. O Mary, my Queen, my hope and my Mother, if I were in hell, I could never more love thee. I love thee, O my Mother! and in thee, after Jesus, I trust that I shall never again cease to love my God and thee. Assist me; pray to Jesus for me.

1“Duo enim mala fecit populus meus: me dereliquerunt, fontem equæ vivæ; et foderunt sibi cisternas, cisternas dissipatas, quæ continere non valent aquas.” – Jer. ii. 13.

2“In hunc locum tormentorum.” – Luke, xvi. 28.

3“Per quæ peccat quis, per hæc et torquetur.” – Wis. xi. 17.

4“Terram tenebrosam, et opertam mortis caligine.” – Job, x. 21.

5“Usque in æternum non videbit lumen.” – Ps. xiviii. 20.

6“Vox Domini intercedentis flammam ignis.” – Ps. xxviii. 7.

7Dividet a calore splendorem.

8“Quibus procella tenebrarum servata est in æternum.” – Jud. 13.

9“Quantum sufficit ad videndum illa quæ torquere possunt.” – Suppl, q. 97, a. 4.

10“De cadaveribus eorum ascendet fœtor.” – Isa. xxxiv. 3.

11Ibi miserorum societas, miseriam non minuet, sed augebit.

12“Sicut oves in inferno positi sunt.” – Ps. xlviii. 15.

13“Et ipse calcat torcular vini furoris iræ Dei.” – Apoc. xix. 15.

14“Fiant immobiles quasi lapis.” – Exod. xv. 16.

15“Sonitus terroris semper in auribus illius.” – Job, xv. 21.

16“Famem patientur ut canes.” – Ps. lviii. 15.

17“Vindicta carnis impii, ignis et vermis.” – Ecclus. vii. 19.

18“Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem æternum.” – Matt. xxv. 41.

19In cujus comparatione, noster hic ignis depictus est.

20“Longe alius est ignis qui usui humano, alius qui Dei justitiæ deservit.” – Apolog. c. 48.

21“Ignis succensus est in furore meo.” – Jer. xv. 14.

22“Si abluerit Dominus sordes . . . in spiritu ardoris.” – Isa. iv. 4.

23“Pones eos ut clibanum ignis.” – Ps. xx. 10.

24“Quis potent habitare de vobis cum igne devorante?” – Isa. xxxiii. 14.

25“Veniet dies, imo nox, quando libido tua vertetur in picem, qua se perpetuus ignis in tuis visceribus nutriat.” – De Cœlib. sac. c. 3.

26In uno igne omnia supplicia sentiunt in inferno peccatores.

27“Ad nimium calorem transeat ab aquis nivium.” – Job, xxiv. 19.

28“Desiderium peccatorum peribit.” – Ps. cxi. 10.

29“Addantur tormenta tormentis, ac Deo non priventur.” – Serm. de jud. fin.

30“Si mille dixeris gehennas. nihil par dies illius doloris.” – Ad pop Ant. hom. 48.

31“Nullam pœnam sentirent, continuo infernus converteretur in paradisum.” – De Tripl. Hab. c. 4.

32“Pœna damnati est infinita, quia est amissio boni infiniti.” – 1. 2. q. 87, a. 4.

33“Separata autem anima a corporis gravamine, intelligit Deum summum bonum et quia ad illum est creata.” – P. 4, t. 14, c. 5, § 10.

34“Iniquitates vestræ diviserunt inter vos et Deum vestrum.” – Isa. lix. 2.

35“Abscondam faciem meam ab eo, et invenient eum omnia mala.” – Deut. xxxi. 27.

36“Quia vos non populus meus. et ego non ero vester.” – Os. i. 9.

37Ego sum ille nequam privatus amore Dei.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXV

2010-07-15T20:36:00.001+01:00

The General Judgment.

“The Lord shall be known when He executeth judgments.” – Ps. ix. 17.

FIRST POINT.
The General Resurrection.

At present there is no one in this world more despised than Jesus Christ. There is more respect shown to a peasant than to the Lord; for we are afraid to insult a peasant, or provoke him to anger, lest he should seek revenge. But insults are offered to God, and are repeated as wantonly as if he could not avenge them whenever he pleases. The wicked, says Job, looked upon the Almighty as if He could do nothing.¹ Therefore the Redeemer has appointed a day of general judgment, and which is called in the Scripture, the day of the Lord; on which Jesus Christ will make known the greatness of his majesty. The Lord shall be known when He executeth judgments.² Hence that day is called, not a day of mercy and pardon, but a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery.³ Yes, for then the Lord will come to repair the honor which sinners have sought to take from him on this earth. Let us examine how the judgment of this great day will take place.

The coming of the Judge will be preceded by fire. A fire shall go before Him.⁴ Fire will descend from heaven, and shall burn the earth and all things upon the earth. The earth, and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up.⁵ Thus palaces. churches, villas, cities, kingdoms, all must be reduced to one heap of ashes. This house, defiled by sins, must be purified by fire. Behold the end of all the riches, pomps, and pleasures of this earth! After the death of all men, the trumpet will sound, and all will rise again.⁶ “As often,” says Jerome, “as I consider the day of judgment, I tremble; that trumpet appears always to sound in my ears, Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment.”⁷ At the sound of this trumpet, the souls of the just will descend to be united to the bodies with which they served God in this life; and the unhappy souls of the damned will come up from hell to take possession of the accursed bodies with which they offended God.

Oh! how great will be the difference between the bodies of the just and the bodies of the damned! The just will appear whiter, more beautiful, and more resplendent than the sun. Then the just shall shine as the sun.⁸ Happy he who knows how to mortify his flesh in this life by refusing it forbidden pleasures; and who, to keep it under greater check, imitates the saints, by denying it even lawful gratifications, and by treating it with severity and contempt. Oh! how great wilt then be the happiness of those who will have practised mortification of the flesh! We may estimate it from the words which St. Peter of Alcantara addressed after death to St. Teresa: “O happy penance, which merited for me so great glory.”⁹ But, on the other hand, the bodies of the reprobate will appear black and hideous, and will send forth an intolerable stench. Oh! how great the pain of the damned in taking possession of their bodies! Accursed body, the soul will say, to indulge you, I have brought myself to perdition. And the body will say: Accursed soul! why have you, who had the use of reason, allowed me the pleasures which have merited for you and me the eternal torments of hell?

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Jesus and my Redeemer, who will be one day my judge, pardon me before that day arrives. Turn not away Thy face from me.¹⁰ Thou art now a Father to me: and, like a father, receive into Thy friendship a son who casts himself with sorrow at Thy feet. My Father, I ask pardon. I have offended Thee; I have unjustly forsaken Thee. Thou didst not deserve such treatment from me. I repent of it; I am sorry for it with my whole heart. Turn not away Thy face from me; do not cast me off as I deserved. Remember the blood which Thou hast shed for me, and have pity on me. My Jesus, I wish for no other judge than Thee. “I willingly,” said St. Thomas of Villanova, “submit to the judgment of him who died for me, and who, that he might not condemn me, has condemned himself to the cross.” St. Paul has said the same. Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus, that died.¹¹ My Father, I love Thee, and, for the future, I will never more depart from Thy feet. Forget the injuries I have done Thee, and give me a great love for Thy goodness. I desire to love Thee more than I have offended Thee; but if Thou dost not assist rue, I shall not be able to love Thee. Assist me, O my Jesus! make me always grateful to Thy love, that on the day of judgment I may be found in the valley of Josaphat, among the number of Thy lovers. O Mary, my Queen and my advocate! assist me now; for if I am lost, thou wilt not be able to help me on that day. Thou prayest for all; pray also for one who glories in being thy devoted servant, and who places so much confidence in thee.

SECOND POINT.
The Valley of Josaphat.

After their resurrection, all men will be told by the angels to go to the valley of Josaphat, that there they may be judged, Nations, nations, in the valley of destruction; for the day of the Lord is near.¹² When the whole human race will be assembled, the angels will come and separate the reprobate from the elect. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just.¹³ The just will stand on the right, and the wicked will be driven to the left. How great would be the pain that you would feel at being driven away from a party of pleasure, or at being expelled from the church! But how much greater will be the pain of those who are banished from the society of the saints! “What think you,” says, the author of the Imperfect Work, “must be the confusion of the wicked, when, after being separated from the just, they will be abandoned?”¹⁴ This confusion alone would, according to St. Chrysostom, be sufficient to constitute a hell for the reprobate. The son will be separated from the father, the husband from the wife, and the master from the servant. One shall be taken and one shall be left.¹⁵ Tell me, my brother, what place do you think will fall to you? Would you wish to be found at the right hand? If you do, abandon the life which leads to the left.

In this life the princes of the earth and the worldly rich are deemed fortunate, but the saints, who live in poverty and humiliations, are despised. O faithful souls who love God, be not troubled at seeing yourselves in contempt. and tribulations on this earth: Your sorrow shall be turned into joy.¹⁶ On the day of judgment you will be called truly fortunate, and will have the honor of being declared as belonging to the court of Jesus Christ. Oh! how beautiful will then be the appearance of St. Peter of Alcantara, who was despised as an apostate! of St. John of God, who was treated as a fool! of St. Peter Celestine, who, after having renounced the papal throne, died in a prison! Oh! how great will then he the honors of so many martyrs who have been torn to pieces by their executioners! Then shall every man have praise from God.¹⁷ But on the other hand, how horrible will be the appearance of Herod, of Pilate, of Nero, and so many other great men of this earth, who are now damned! O lovers of the world, in the valley, in the valley I expect you. There, without doubt you will change your sentiments, there you will weep over your folly. Miserable beings, who for the sake of making a figure for a short time on the theatre of this world, will afterward have to act the part of reprobate in the tragedy of judgment. The elect will then be placed on the right; according to the apostle, they will, for their greater glory, be raised in the air above the clouds, and will go with the angels to meet Jesus Christ descending from heaven. We shall be taken up together with them to meet Christ into the air.¹⁸ But the damned, like so many goats destined for the slaughter, will be compelled to remain at the left, waiting for the Judge, who will publicly pronounce sentence of condemnation against all his enemies.

But behold the heavens are already opened, the angels come to assist at the Judgment, carrying the symbols of the Passion of Jesus Christ. “When,” says St. Thomas, “the Lord comes to judge, the sign of the cross and the other emblems of his passion shall be exhibited.”¹⁹ The cross especially will appear. And then, says the Redeemer, shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.²⁰ Oh! says Cornelius à Lapide, how great, at the sight of the cross, will be the wailing of sinners who, during, life, disregarded their own salvation, which the Son of God purchased at so dear a price! Then, says St. Chrysostom, “shall the nails complain of thee; the wounds, the cross of Christ shall speak against thee.”²¹ The holy apostles and all their imitators will act as assessors at the general judgment, and shall, together with Jesus Christ, judge the nations. The just shall shine. . . . They shall judge nations.²² Mary, the Queen of angels and saints, will also come to assist at the judgment. Lastly, the eternal Judge will come seated on a throne of majesty and light. And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with much: power and majesty.²³ At their presence, says the prophet Joel, the people shall he in grievous pains.²⁴ The sight of Jesus Christ will console the elect; but in the reprobate it will excite more pain than hell itself. “It would,” says St. Jerome, “be easier to bear the pains of hell than the presence of the Lord.”²⁵ St. Teresa used to say: “My Jesus, afflict me with every pain, but do not allow me to see Thy countenance enraged against me on that day.” And St. Basil says, “This confusion surpasses all torture.”²⁶ Then will be verified the prediction of St John, that the damned will call upon the mountains to fall upon them, and to hide them from the sight of an angry judge. And they shall say to the mountains and rocks: Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.²⁷

Affections and Prayers.

O my dear Redeemer! O Lamb of God, who hast come into the world, not to punish, but to pardon sins; ah! pardon me immediately: pardon me before the arrival of that day on which Thou wilt judge me. Then the sight of Thee, O divine Lamb! who hast borne with me so long and with so much patience, should, if I were lost, be the hell of hells. Ah! I say again, pardon me soon; draw me by Thy merciful hand from the abyss into which my sins have cast me. I repent, O sovereign Good! of having offended Thee, and of having offended Thee so grievously. I love Thee, my judge, who hast loved me so tenderly. Ah! through the merits of Thy death, grant me a great grace, which will transform me from a sinner into a saint. Thou hast promised to hear all who pray to Thee. Cry to me and I will hear thee.²⁸ I do not. ask earthly goods: I ask Thy grace. Thy love, and nothing else. Hear me, O my Jesus! through the love which Thou didst bear to me when Thou didst die on the cross for my salvation. My beloved Judge, I am a criminal, but a criminal who loves Thee more than he does himself. Have pity on me. Mary, my Mother! come to my aid, and come immediately: now is the time that thou canst assist me. Thou didst not abandon me when I lived in forgetfulness of thee and of God; come to my relief now that I am resolved to serve thee always. and never more to offend my Lord. O Mary! after Jesus, thou art my hope.

THIRD POINT.
The Eternal Sentence.

But, behold! the judgment already begins. The books, which shall be the consciences of each individual, are opened. The judgment sat, and the books were opened.²⁹ The witnesses against the reprobate will be—first, the devils, who, according to St. Augustine, will say: “Most just God, declare him to be mine who was unwilling to be yours.”³⁰ Secondly, they will be their own consciences: Their own conscience bearing witness to them.³¹ The very walls of the house in which they have offended God will bear testimony, and will cry for vengeance against them. The stone shall cry out of the wall.³² Finally, the Judge himself, who has been present at all the insults offered to him, will give evidence against the sinner. I am the Judge and the witness, saith the Lord.³³ St. Paul says, that then the Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness.³⁴ He will make known to all men the most secret and shameful sins of the reprobate, which they concealed even in the tribunal of confession. I will discover thy shame to thy face.³⁵ The Master of the Sentences, along with other authors, is of opinion that the sins of the elect will not be manifested; but will, according to the words of David, be covered: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.³⁶ But St. Basil teaches that with a single glance all will see, as in a picture, the sins of the damned. If, says St. Thomas (De Hum. chr. a. 25), in the garden of Gethsemane, at the words of Christ, “I am He,” the soldiers who came to take him prisoner fell prostrate on the ground, what will be the condition of the damned when, sitting in judgment, he will say to them: Behold, I am He whom you have so much despised?

But now comes the sentence. Jesus Christ will first turn to the elect, and address them in these consoling words: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.³⁷ So great was the consolation which St. Francis of Assisi felt when he learned by revelation that he was predestined, that he could not contain himself. How great will be the joy of the elect in hearing the Judge say to him: Come, blessed children, come to a kingdom; for you there are no more pains, no more fears; you are and shall be saved forever. I bless the blood which I have shed for you, and I bless the tears which you have shed for your sins. Let us ascend into Paradise, where we shall remain together for all eternity The most holy Mary will also bless her servants, and will invite them with her to heaven. And thus, singing Allelujas, the elect will enter heaven in triumph, to possess, to praise, and to love God forever. But on the other hand, the reprobate, turning to Jesus Christ, will say to him: What will become of us? Since, the Judge will say, you have renounced and despised my grace, depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.³⁸ Depart; begone from Me; I wish neither to see nor to hear you ever more. You cursed, go, and since you have despised my blessing, go accursed. And where, O Lord, will they go? Into fire, into hell, to burn both in soul and in body. And for how many years, or for how many ages? Into everlasting fire; for all eternity; as long as God shall be God. After this sentence, says St. Ephrem, the reprobate will take leave of the angels, of the saints, of relatives, and of the divine Mother. “Farewell, ye just! farewell, O cross! farewell, O paradise! fathers and children, for we shall never see any of you again! farewell, O Mary, Mother of God!”³⁹ Then, in the middle of that valley, a pit will be opened, into which the devils and the damned will fall. O God! they will see those gates closed, never to be opened, never, never for all eternity. O accursed sin, to what a melancholy end will you one day lead so many poor souls! O unhappy souls, to whom this unhappy end is reserved!

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Saviour and my God! what sentence shall I receive on that day? If, O my Jesus! Thou now demandest an account of my life, what could I say to Thee but that I deserve a thousand hells? Yes, it is true, O my divine Redeemer! I deserve a thousand hells but remember that I love Thee, and that I love Thee more than myself: and for the insults I have committed against Thee, I feel so great a sorrow, that I would be content to have suffered every evil rather than have offended Thee. Thou, O my Jesus! condemnest obstinate sinners, but not those who repent and wish to love Thee. Behold me penitent at Thy feet; make me feel that Thou pardonest me. But this Thou hast declared by the mouth of Thy prophet. “Turn ye to me, saith the Lord of Hosts, and I will turn to you.” (Zac. i. 3). I give up all things; I renounce all the pleasures and goods of this world; I turn to Thee, and embrace Thee. O my beloved Redeemer! Ah! receive me into Thy heart, and there inflame me with Thy holy love; but inflame me in such a manner, that I shall never again think of separating from Thee. O my Jesus! save me. and let my salvation consist in loving Thee always, and in singing Thy mercies forever. The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever.⁴⁰ Mary, my hope, my refuge, and my Mother, assist me, and obtain for me holy perseverance. No one has been lost who has had recourse to thee. To thee I recommend myself: have pity on me.

1“Et quasi nihil posset facere Omnipotens, æstimabant eum.” – Job, xxii. 17.

2“Cognoscetur Dominus judicia faciens.” – Ps. ix. 17.

3“Dies iræ, dies tribulationis et angustiæ, dies calamitatis et miseriæ.” – Soph. i. 15.

4“Ignis ante ipsum præcedet.” – Ps. xcvi. 3.

5“Terra et quæ in ipsa sunt opera exurentur.” – 2 Peter, iii. 10.

6“Canet enim tuba, et mortui resurgent.” – 1 Cor. xv. 52.

7Quoties diem judicii considero, contremisco; semper videtur illa tuba insonare auribus meis: Surgite mortui, venite ad judicium.

8“Tunc justi fulgebunt sicut sol.” – Matt. xiii. 43.

9“O felix pœnitentia, quæ tantam mihi promeruit gloriam.” – In ejus off. lect. 6.

10“Non avertas faciem tuam a me.” – Ps. xxvi. 9.

11“Quis est qui condemnet? Christus Jesus, qui mortuus est pro nobis.” – Rom. viii. 34.

12“Populi, populi, in valle concisionis; quia juxta est dies Domini.” – Joel, iii. 14.

13“Exibunt angeli, et separabunt malos de medio justorum.” – Matt. xiii. 49.

14“Quomodo putas impios confundendos, quando, segregatis justis, fuerint derelicti!” – In Matth. hom. 54.

15“Unus assumetur, et unus relinquetur.” – Matt. xxiv. 40.

16“Tristitia vestra vertetur in gaudium.” – John, xvi. 20.

17“Tunc laus erit unicuique a Deo.” – 1 Cor. iv. 5.

18“Rapiemur cum illis in nubibus obviam Christo in aera.” – 1 Thess. iv. 16.

19“Veniente Domino ad judicium, signum Crucis et alia Passionis indicia demonstrabuntur.” – Comp. theol. p. 1, c. 244.

20“Tunc parebit signum Filii hominis; et tunc plangent omnes tribus terræ.” – Matt. xxiv. 30.

21Clavi de te conquerentur, cicatrices contra te loquentur, crux Christi contra te perorabit.

22“Fulgebunt justi. . . . Judicabunt nationes.” – Wis. iii. 7, 8.

23“Et videbunt Filium hominis venientem in nubibus cœli, cum virtute multa et majestate.” – Matt. xxiv. 30.

24“A facie ejus cruciabuntur populi.” – Joel, ii. 6.

25Damnatis melius esset inferni pœnas. quam Domini præesentiam, ferre.

26Superat omnem pœnam confusio ista.

27“Dicunt montibus et petris: Cadite super nos, et abscondite nos a facie sedentis super thronum, et ab ira Agni.” – Apoc. vi. 16.

28“Clama ad me, et exaudiam te.” – Jer. xxxiii. 3.

29“Judicium sedit, et libri aperti sunt.” – Dan. vii. 10.

30“Æquissime Judex, judica esse meum, qui tuus esse noluit.” – De Sal, Doc. c. 62.

31“Testimonium recidente illis conscientia ipsorum.” – Rom. ii. 15.

32“Lapis de pariete clamabit.” – Hab. ii. 11.

33“Ego sum Judex et testis, dicit Dominus.” – Jer. xxix. 23.

34“Illuminabit abscondita tenebrarum.” – 1 Cor. iv. 5.

35“Revelabo pudenda tua in facie tua.” – Nah. iii. 5.

36“Beati, quorum remissæ sunt iniquitates, et quorum tecta sunt peccata.” – Ps. xxxi. 1.

37“Venite, benedicti Patris mei. possidete paratum vobis regnum a constitutione mundi.” – Matt. xxv. 34.

38“Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem æternum.” – Matt. xxv. 41.

39“Valete, Justi! vale, Crux! vale. Paradise! valete. patres ac filii! nullum si quidem vestrum visuri sumus ultra. Vale, tu quoque, Dei Genitrix, Maria!” – De Variis Torm. inf.

40“Misericordias Domini in æternum cantabo.” – .Ps. ixxxviii. 2.

Preparation for Death - Consideration XXIV

2010-07-09T19:06:00.002+01:00

The Particular Judgment.

“We must all be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ.” – 2 Cor. v. 10.

FIRST POINT.
The Guilty Soul before its Judge.

Consider the appearance, the accusation, the examination, and the sentence. With regard to the appearance of the soul before its Judge, it is the common opinion of theologians, that the particular judgment takes place at the very moment of death; and that on the very spot where the soul is separated from the body, it is judged by Jesus Christ, who will not send, but will come himself to judge it according to its works. At what hour you think not the Son of man will come.¹ “He will,” says St. Augustine, “Come in love to the good, in terror to the wicked.”² Oh! how great will be the terror of the soul the first time it sees the Redeemer, and sees his countenance full of wrath! Who, says the prophet Nahum, stand before the face of His indignation?³ This thought made Father Louis da Ponte tremble so as to shake the cell in which he lay. Hearing the Dies Iræ sung, and reflecting on the terror of the soul when it is presented before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, the venerable P. Juvenal Ancina took, and afterward executed, the resolution of forsaking the world. The sight of the wrath of the Judge will announce the sentence. The wrath of the King is as messengers of death.⁴ St. Bernard says that the soul will suffer more in seeing the indignation of Jesus Christ, than in hell itself.⁵ When presented before an earthly judge, criminals have been known to perspire with a cold perspiration. Such was the confusion which Piso felt at the thought of appearing as a criminal before the senate, that he killed himself. How great is the pain of a child, or of a vassal, in appearing before an angry parent or an enraged sovereign! Oh, how much greater will be the pain and confusion of the soul when it beholds Jesus Christ enraged against it for the insults which it offered to him during life! They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.⁶ The soul will see in wrath the Lamb that bore with it so patiently during life, and that there is no hope of appeasing his anger. This shall make the soul call upon the mountains to fall upon it and to hide it from the fury of the wrathful Lamb.⁷ Speaking of judgment, St. Luke says: Then they shall see the Son of Man.⁸ Oh! what pain will the sight of the judge in the form of man excite in the soul of the sinner! The sight of a Man-God who died for his salvation will upbraid him with his ingratitude. When the Saviour ascended into heaven, the angels said to the disciples: This Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen Him going into heaven.⁹

With the same wounds with which he ascended into heaven, Jesus Christ will come to judge the soul. “Great joy of the beholders,” says the Abbot Rupert, “great terror of those who are in expectation.”¹⁰ The wounds of the Redeemer will console the just and terrify the wicked. When Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph, whom you sold, the Scripture tells us that, through fear, they were silent and unable to utter a word.¹¹ His brethren could not answer him, being struck with exceeding great fear. Now what answer will the sinner make to Jesus Christ? Will he dare to ask mercy when he must first render an account of his abuse of the mercy which he has received? “With what face,” says Eusebius Emissenus, “will you, who are to be first judged for contempt of mercy, ask for mercy?”¹² What, then, will become of him? Where, says St. Augustine, will he fly? He will behold an angry judge above; hell open below; on one side his own sins accusing him; on the other, the devils ready to inflict chastisement; and within, the remorse of his conscience. “Above shall be an enraged Judge; below, a frightful chaos; on the right, sins accusing him; on the left, the devils dragging him to punishment; within, a burning conscience: beset in this manner, whither will the sinner fly!”¹³

Affections and Prayers.

O my Jesus! I will always call Thee Jesus. Thy name consoles and encourages me, because it reminds me that Thou art my Saviour, Who didst die for my salvation, Behold me at Thy feet. I acknowledge that I have deserved hell as often as I have offended Thee by mortal sin. I am unworthy of pardon, but Thou hast died to merit pardon for me. Pardon me, then, immediately, O my Jesus! before Thou comet to judge me. I shall not then be able to ask pardon: I can now ask it from Thee, and I hope for it. Thy wounds will then fill me with terror, but now they give me confidence. My dear Redeemer! I am sorry above all things for having offended Thy infinite goodness. I purpose to submit to every pain, every loss, rather than forfeit Thy grace. I love Thee with my whole heart. Have pity on me. “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy.” O Mary, Mother of mercy! obtain for me a great sorrow for my sins, pardon, and perseverance in thy divine love. I love thee, O my queen, and trust in thee.

SECOND POINT.
Nothing will Remain Hidden.

Consider the accusation and scrutiny: The judgment sat and the books were opened.¹⁴ There will be two books, the Gospel and conscience. In the Gospel will be read what the accused should have done, and in his conscience what he has done. “Each individual,” says St. Jerome, “will see what he has done.”¹⁵ In the balance of divine justice, not riches nor dignities, nor nobility, but works only, will have weight. Thou art weighed in the balance, said Daniel to Balthasar, and art found wanting.¹⁶ “Neither his gold,” says Father Alvarez, “nor his wealth, but the king alone, is weighed.”¹⁷ The accusers will then come forward; and first of all the devil. “The devil,” says St. Augustine, “will be at hand, and will recite the words of your profession. He will charge us before our face with what we have done, he will state the day and the hour in which we have sinned.”¹⁸ He will recite the words of your profession—that is, he will bring forward the promises we have made and afterward violated: he will recount all our sins, pointing to the day and hour in which they were committed. According to St. Cyprian, he will then say to the Judge, “I have suffered neither stripes nor scourges for these men.”¹⁹ I have suffered nothing for this ungrateful sinner; and, to become my slave, he has forsaken you, who have died for his salvation: he therefore belongs to me. Their angel guardians will also, as Origen says, accuse sinners; each of them will say: I have labored so many years for the salvation of that man, but he has despised my admonitions. Thus “his very friends will then despise him.”²⁰ The very walls within which he sinned shall bear witness against the sinner. The stone shall cry out of the wall.²¹ His own conscience will accuse him. Their conscience, says St. Paul, bearing witness to them . . . in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men.²² Their very sins, says St. Bernard, will speak. and say, “You have made us; we are your works; we shall note desert you.”—Lib. Med. cap. ii. Finally, according to St. Chrysostom, the wounds of Jesus Christ will accuse the sinner; “the nails shall complain of thee, the wounds and the cross of Christ shall speak against thee.” The examination will now begin.

I, says the Lord, will search Jerusalem with lamps.²³ The lamp, says Mendozza, penetrates every corner of the house. In explaining the words with lamps, Cornelius a Lapide says, that God shall then place before the sinner the examples of the saints, all the lights and inspirations bestowed upon him during his life, and all the years that had been given him that he might do good. He hath called against me the time.²⁴ The sinner shall have to render an account of every glance of the eye. According to the prophet Malachi, the Lord shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold.²⁵ As gold is refined by removing the dross, so our good works, confessions and communions will be subjected to a severe examination. When I shall take a time, I will judge justices.²⁶ In fine, St. Peter tells that at judgment, the just will scarcely be saved. If the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?²⁷ If the sinner must answer for every idle word, what account will he have to give for consenting to so many bad thoughts, for uttering so many obscene words? Speaking of the authors of scandal, who have robbed him of so many souls, the Lord says: I will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps.²⁸ With regard to works, the Judge will say: Give her of the fruit of her hands.²⁹ Reward him according to the works which he has performed.

Affections and Prayers.

Ah, my Jesus! wert Thou now to reward me according to my works, hell would be my lot. O God how often have I myself written the sentence of my condemnation to that place of torments! I thank Thee for the patience with which Thou hast borne me so long. O God! were I now obliged to appear before Thy judgment-seat. what account should I have to render of my past life! Enter not into judgment with Thy servant. Ah Lord! wait for me a little longer, do not judge me yet. Wert Thou now to judge me, what should become of me? Wait for me, since Thou hast treated me with so many mercies hitherto, grant me this new favor, infuse into my heart a great sorrow for my sins. I am sorry, O infinite Good! for having so often despised Thee. I love Thee above all things. Eternal Father! pardon me for the love of Jesus Christ; and through his merits, grant me holy perseverance. My Jesus! I hope for all things from Thy blood. Most holy Mary, in thee I trust. “Turn, then, O most gracious advocate, thy eyes of mercy toward us.” Behold my miseries, and have pity on me.

THIRD POINT.
The Sentence.

In fine, to obtain eternal life, the soul must be found, at judgment, to have led a life conformable to the life of Jesus Christ. Whom he foreknew, he predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son.³⁰ It was this that made Job tremble. What shall I do when God shall rise to judge me and when he shall examine, what shall I answer him?³¹ Philip II, rebuking a domestic for having told him a lie, said to him: Is it thus you deceive me? The domestic went home, and died of grief. What will the sinner do? what answer will he make to Jesus Christ, his Judge? He will, like the man in the Gospel, who came to the feast without the nuptial garment; remain silent, because he will not know what to answer. His very sins will close the sinner’s mouth. All iniquity shall stop her mouth.³² St. Basil says that the sinner will then suffer more from shame than from the very fire of hell.³³

Finally, the Judge will pass sentence. Depart from Me ye cursed into everlasting fire.³⁴ Oh! what an awful thunder-clap will that sentence be to the sinner! “Oh! how frightfully,” says Denis, the Carthusian, “will that thunder resound!”³⁵ “He,” says St. Anselm, “that does not tremble at such thunder, sleeps not, but is dead.”³⁶ Eusebius writes, that the terror of sinners at hearing the sentence of their condemnation, will be so great, that, if they could, they would die again.³⁷ “The wicked shall be seized with such dismay at the sight of the Judge pronouncing sentence, that, were they not immortal, they should die a second time.” There is then no more time for prayer, no more intercessors whom the sinner can invoke. “There,” says St. Thomas of Villanova, “there is no opportunity of praying; there no intercessor, no friend, no father, shall assist.”³⁸ To whom will the sinner then have recourse? Is it to God, whom he has so much despised? “Who,” says St. Basil, “shall deliver you? Is it that God whom you have insulted?”³⁹ Perhaps he may have recourse to the saints, or to Mary? No: for then the stars—that is, his holy advocates—shall fall from heaven, and the moon, which represents Mary, shall not give her light.⁴⁰ “Mary,” says St. Augustine, “will fly from the gate of heaven.”⁴¹

“O God! with what indifference,” exclaims St. Thomas of Villanova, “do we listen to persons speaking on judgment! We appear to feel as little as if the sentence of condemnation could not fall upon ourselves, or as if we were not to be judged.⁴² And is it not,” says the same saint, “great folly to entertain security in so perilous an affair.”⁴³ My brother, St. Augustine admonishes you not to say: Will God really send me to hell?⁴⁴ Say it not, says the holy Doctor; for even the Jews did not persuade themselves that they should be exterminated. So many of the damned did not believe that they would be cast into hell, but afterward the final vengeance came upon them. An end is come, the end is come. . . . Now I will accomplish My anger in thee, and will judge thee.⁴⁵ And thus, as St. Augustine says, the same will also happen to you. “The day of judgment will come, and you shall find the threats of God verified.”⁴⁶ At present it depends on us to choose whatever sentence we please. It is in our power, says St. Eligius, to determine the character of the sentence which we shall receive. What then must we do? We must adjust our accounts before judgment. Before judgment prepare thee justice.⁴⁷ St. Bonaventure says that, to escape the danger of failing in business, prudent merchants frequently review and settle their accounts. The Judge may be appeased before judgment, but not during judgment,” says St. Augustine.⁴⁸ Let us then say with St. Bernard: “I desire to present myself before Thee already judged, and not to be judged.”⁴⁹ O my Judge, I wish to be judged and punished during life, which is a time of mercy and pardon; for after death will be the time of justice.

Affections and Prayers.

My God! if I do not appease Thee now, there will then be no more time for turning away Thy anger. But how shall I, who have so often despised Thy friendship for miserable beastly pleasures, be able to appease Thy wrath? I have repaid with ingratitude Thy immense love. How can a creature ever make sufficient satisfaction for having offended the Creator? Ah, my Lord! I thank Thee, for giving me in Thy mercy a means of appeasing Thy anger and satisfying Thy justice. I offer Thee the blood and death of Jesus Christ, Thy Son, and behold! I see a superabundant atonement and satisfaction made to Thee. To appease Thy anger, my repentance is also necessary. Yes, my God! I repent with my whole heart of all the injuries I have done Thee. Judge me now, O my Redeemer! I detest above all things all the offences I have offered to Thee. I love Thee with my whole heart and above all things, and I purpose to love Thee always, and to die rather than ever offend Thee again. Thou hast promised to pardon all who repent. Ah! judge me now, and absolve me from my sins. I accept the punishment which I deserve, but reinstate me in Thy grace, and preserve me in it till death. Such is my hope. O Mary, my Mother! I thank thee for all the mercies which thou hast obtained for me. Ah! continue to protect me to the end.

1“Qua hora non putatis, Filius hominis veniet.” – Luke, xii. 40.

2“Veniet vobis in amore, impiis in tremore.” – Serm. 181. E. B. App.

3“Ante faciem indignationis ejus, quis stabit?” – Nahum, i. 6.

4“Indignatio regis, nuntii mortis.” – Prov. xvi. 14.

5Mallet esse in inferno.

6“Videbunt in quem transfixerunt.” – John, xix. 37.

7“(Montes), cadite super nos, et abscondite nos ab ira Agni.” – Apoc. vi. 16.

8“Tunc videbunt Filium hominis.” – Luke, xxi, 27.

9“Hic Jesus, qui assumptus est a vobis in cœlum, sic veniet, quemadmodum vidistis eum euntem in cœlum.” – Acts, i. 11.

10“Grande gaudium intuentium, grandis timor expectantium.” – De Op. Sp. S. l. 9, c. 8.

11“Ego sum Joseph, quem vendidistis. . . . Non poterant respondere fratres, nimio terrore perterriti.” – Gen. xlv. 3.

12Qua fronte misericordiam petes, primum de misericordim contemptu judicandus?

13“Superius erit Judex iratus, inferius horrendum chaos, a dextris peccata accusantia, a sinistris dæmonia ad supplicium trahentia, intus conscientia urens; quo fugiet peccator sic comprehensus.” – Ap. S. Bonav. Diæt. sal. t. 9.

14“Judicium sedit et libri aperti sunt.” – Dan. vii. 10.

15Videbit unusquisque quod fecit.

16 “Appensus es in statera, et inventus es minus habens.” – Dan. v. 27.

17Non aurum, non opes, in stateram veniunt; solus rex appensus est.

18“Præsto erit diabolus ante tribunal Christi, et recitabuntur verba professionis nostræ: objiciet nobis in faciem quidquid fecimus, in qua die peccavimus, in quo loco.” – De Sal. Doc. c. 62.

19“Ego pro istis, nec alapas accepi, nec flagella sustinui.” – De. Op. et Eleem.

20“Omnes amici ejus spreverunt eam.” – Lam. i. 2.

21“Lapis de pariete clamabit “ – Hab. ii. 11.

22“Testimonium reddente illis conscientia ipsorum . . . in die, cum judicabit Deus.” – Rom. ii. 15.

23“In illo tempore, scrutabor Jerusalem in lucernis.” – Soph. i. 12.

24“Vocavit adversum me tempus.” – Lam. i. 15.

25“Purgabit filios Levi, et colabit eos quasi aurum.” – Mal. iii. 3.

26“Cum accepero tempus, ego justitias judicabo.” – Ps. lxxiv. 3.

27“Si justus vix salvabitur, impius et peccator ubi parebunt?” – 1 Peter, iv. 18.

28“Occurram eis quasi ursa, raptis catulis.” – Os. xiii. 8.

29“Date ei de fructu manuum suarum.” – Prov. xxxi. 31.

30“Quos præscivit, et prædestinavit conformes fieri imaginis Filii sui.” – Rom. viii. 29.

31“Quid faciam, cum surrexerit ad judicandum Deus? Et cum quæsierit, quid respondebo illi?” – Job, xxxi. 14.

32“Omnis iniquitas oppilabit os suum.” – Ps. cvi. 42.

33“Horridior quam ignis erit pudor.” – Orat. de fut. jud.

34“Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem æternum.” – Matt. xxv. 41.

35“Oh! quam horribiliter personabit tonitruum illud.” – De Quat. Nov,. a. 26.

36“Qui non tremit ad tantum tonitruum, non dormit, sed mortuus est.” – Medit. 2.

37Tantus terror invadet malos, cum viderint judicem sententiam proferentem, ut, nisi essent immortales, iterum morerentur.

38“Non ibi precandi locus; nullus intercessor assistet, non amicus, non pater.” – Dom. I Adv. conc. 2.

39“Quis te eripiet? Deus ne ille quem contempsisti?” – Oratio de Pænit.

40“Luna non dabit lumen suum.” – Matt. xxiv. 29.

41“Fugiet a janua paradisi Maria.” – Ad Fratres in er. ser. 10.

42“Heu! quam securi hæc dicimus et audimus, quasi nos non tangeret hæc sententia, aut quasi dies ille nunquam esset venturus!’’ – Dom. 1 Adv. conc. 1.

43“Quænam est stulta securitas in discrimine tanto.” – De S. Mart. conc. 1.

44Numquid Deus vere damnaturus est?

45“Finis venit, venit finis . . . nunc complebo furorem meum in te, et judicabo te.” – Ezek. vii. 6.

46“Veniet judicii dies, et invenies verum quod minatus est Deus.” – In Ps. lxxiii.

47“Ante judicium, para justitiam tibi.” – Ecelus. xviii. 19.

48Judex, ante judicium piacari potest, in judicio non potest.

49“Volo judicatus præsentari, non judicandus.” – In Cant. s. 55.