Page:Thefourlastthings.djvu/129

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My servants shall eat and you shall be hungry; behold, My servants shall drink and you shall be thirsty.

My servants shall rejoice and you shall be confounded; My servants shall praise for joyfulness of heart and you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for grief of spirit" (Is. lxv. 12, 13, 14). Who can tell how awful will be this hunger in Hell? The Psalmist says of the enemies of God that they shall suffer hunger like dogs (Ps. lviii. 7). The reprobate shall then be constantly tormented by the most ravenous hunger, by a hunger so great as to exceed beyond measure the hunger endured in times of famine, by a hunger which will torment them forever.

What have you done, O unhappy sinners! You have brought upon yourselves this everlasting pain. Had you but done penance in this life, you would not have become the prey of this eternal hunger. But you desired to eat and be filled in your lifetime, consequently you must now endure what Christ foretold would be your fate: "Woe to you that are filled, for you shall hunger." Let those especially lay this to heart who are accustomed wilfully to neglect the observance of the prescribed fasts, and to eat meat on abstinence days. For whosoever eats meat on the fasts of the Church without necessity and without being dispensed, commits a grievous sin. To do so is tantamount to defying the Church and voluntarily excluding one’s self from her blessing. And he who persists in this sin,