CHAPTER LXIV.
Means to avoid Purgatory — Confidence in God— St. Francis de Saks— St. Philip Neri and Sister Scholastica.
The fifth means for obtaining favour before the tribunal of God is to have great confidence in His Mercy. In Thee, O Lord, have [1] hoped; let me never be confounded, says the Prophet. [2] Surely He who said to the good thief, " This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise," well merits that we should have an unbounded confidence in Him. St. Francis de Sales avowed that if he considered his misery only, he deserved Hell; but full of humble confidence in the mercy of God and in the merits of Jesus Christ, he firmly hoped to share the happiness of the elect. " And what would our Lord do with His eternal life," said he, "if not to give it to us, poor, little, insignificant creatures as we are, who have no hope but in His goodness? Blessed be God! I have this firm confidence in the depth of my heart, that we shall live eternally with God. We shall one day be all united in Heaven. Take courage; we shall soon be there above."
" We must," he said again, " die between two pillows; the one, of the humble confession that we merit nothing but Hell; the other, of an entire confidence that God, in His mercy, will give us Paradise." Having one day met a gentleman who was filled with excessive fear of the judgments of God, he said to him, " He who has a true desire to serve God and to avoid sin, must in nowise allow himself to be tormented by the thought of death and judgment. If they are to be feared, it is not with that fear which dejects and depresses the vigour of the soul; but a fear tempered with confidence, and therefore salutary. Hope in God: who hopes in Him shall never be confounded."
