Preparation for Death/XII. THE IMPORTANCE OF SALVATION
CONSIDERATION XII
The Importance of Salvation
"We beseech you, brethren, .... to do your own business." 1 Thess. iv. 10, 11.
First Point.
THE "business" of eternal salvation is assuredly an affair which is to us more important than any other, and yet it is the most neglected by Christians. They spare neither time nor diligence to attain that post, or to gain that lawsuit. To conclude hat marriage, how many counsels, how many steps are taken? they neither eat nor sleep. And yet to secure eternal salvation, What do they do? how do they live? They do nothing, nay, they do all things to lose it; and the larger number of Christians so live, as if death, judgment, hell, heaven, and eternity could not be an article of faith, but fables invented by the poets. If they lose a lawsuit or a harvest, what grief do they not feel? What pains do they not take to repair the loss? If they lose a horse or a dog, what diligence do they not exercise to find it? They lose the grace of God; they sleep, they jest, and they laugh. Wonderful fact! All are ashamed to be called negligent in the affairs of the world, and yet how many are not ashamed to neglect the affairs of eternity, which is all-important! They deem the saints to be wise, since they have attended solely to their salvation; and then they attend to all other things of the world, and not at all to the soul! But, says S. Paul, do you, my brethren, do you, attend only to that great concern which you have, of your eternal salvation; for this is the affair which is important to you. " We beseech you, brethren, .... to do your own business." Let us then be persuaded that eternal salvation is for us the concern of the last importance the one concern; and that it is an irreparable concern if ever we make a mistake.
It is the most important concern: yes, since it is an affair of the greatest consequence; it concerns the soul, which if lost all is lost. S. Chrysostom tells us that the soul ought to be more precious to us than all the goods of the world. It is sufficient to know, in order to understand this, that God Himself has given His Son to die to save our souls: " God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." (S. John iii. 16.) And the Eternal Word did not refuse to purchase them with His own Blood. "Ye are bought with a price." (i Cor. vi. 20.) So that, as a holy Father observes, " The redemption of man was effected at so precious a price, that man seemed to be of equal value with God." Hence our Blessed Lord said, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (S. Matt. xvi. 26.) If the soul, then, be of so great value, for what worldly goods truly, shall a man exchange and so lose it?
S. Philip Neri had reason to call him mad, who does not attend to the salvation of his soul. If on this earth there were men mortal as well as immortal, and the mortal men beheld those who were immortal wholly concerned with the things of this world in the acquiring honours, possessions, and in worldly amusements they would certainly exclaim, " Oh, madmen that ye are. You are able to gain eternal goods, and do you strive after these alone which are miserable and transitory? And is it for these that you condemn yourselves to eternal pains in the next life? Leave us, unhappy, who can only think of these earthly things, for whom all will end in death." But no since we are all immortal, how is it that so many endanger the soul for the miserable pleasures of this world? How is it, says Salvian, that Christians believe that there is a judgment, a hell, an eternity, and yet live without fearing them.
Affections and Prayers.
Ah, my God, how have I spent the many years which Thou hast given to me to the end that I might attain eternal salvation! Thou, my Redeemer, hast purchased my soul with Thy Blood, and Thou hast consigned it to me to the intent that I might attend to its salvation; and I have only attended to the losing of it, by offending Thee, Who has so greatly loved me. I thank Thee, that still to me Thou art giving time to repair this great loss which I have made. I have lost my soul and Thy bountiful favour. Lord, I repent, and grieve with my whole heart. Alas! pardon me, for I resolve from this day forth to sacrifice everything, even life, rather than Thy friendship. I love Thee above every good, and I resolve to love Thee ever, O Highest Good, worthy of infinite love. Help me, my Jesus, in order that this my resolution may not be like other past resolutions, which are all so many betrayals. Make me to die rather than to turn again and offend Thee, and cease to love Thee.
Second Point.
The "business" of eternal salvation is not only the most important, but it is the only "business" that we have to do in this life. " But one thing is needful." S. Bernard weeps over the foolishness of Christians, saying that "the trifles of children are called trifles, but the trifles of grown-up people are called business." These trifles of adults are the greater trifles. Our Blessed Lord asks, "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" (S. Matt. xvi. 26.) If you save this, my brother, it matters not if in this world you may be poor, afflicted, and despised; if you are saved, you will have no further woes, and you will be happy for all eternity. But if, on the other hand, you lose your soul, what will it serve you in hell, to have had all the pleasures of the world, and to have been rich and honoured? If the soul is lost, pleasures, honours, riches are lost all is lost.
How will you answer Jesus Christ in the day of account? If a king had commanded his ambassador to transact some important business in a city, and he, instead of attending there to the business committed to him, attended solely to banquets, plays, and festivities; and by this means had badly executed his business, what account could he give to the king on his return? But, O God! what a much greater account will he have to render in that judgment, to the Lord, he who was placed on the earth not to amuse himself, not to amass riches, not to acquire honours, but to save his soul if he shall have attended to everything rather than to his soul? The worldly take thought of the present only; not of the future. S. Philip Neri once, in Rome, conversing with a young man of ability named Francis Zazzera, who was attached to the world, thus addressed him: "My son, you will make a large fortune; you will become a noted advocate; afterwards you will become a prelate, perhaps even at length a cardinal, and who knows, it may be a Pope; and then? and then? " " Go," he said in conclusion, " think upon these two last words.", Francis retired home thinking upon these two words: and then and then? He left his worldly studies, and entered into the same congregation of S. Philip, and began to attend to God alone.
The one " business," since we have but one soul. Benedict XII. was asked to grant a prince a favour which he could not concede without sin. The Pope answered the ambassador: " Tell your prince that, if I had two souls, I would lose one of them, and keep the other for myself; but as I have only one, I cannot, neither do I desire to betray it." S. Francis Xavier said, " that there is but one good and one evil in the world: the one good is to save, the one evil is to lose the soul." S. Teresa used to repeat to her nuns these words, " My sisters, one soul, one eternity; " wishing to say, " one soul lose this and all is lost; one eternity lose the soul once and it is lost for ever." Wherefore David prayed, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, which I will require, even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life." (Ps. xxvii. 4.) Lord, one thing I ask of Thee save my soul, and I ask nothing more.
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. " (Phil ii. 12.) He who does fear and tremble lest he be lost, will not save himself; therefore we must labour and do violence to ourselves to obtain salvation. " The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." (S. Matt. xi. 12.) To obtain salvation, it is needful that at our death, our life should be found like that of Jesus Christ " conformed to the image of His Son." (Rom. viii. 29.) On the one hand, we must labour to avoid every occasion of sin; on the other, we must avail ourselves of the means necessary to obtain salvation. S. Bernard says, " The kingdom will not be given to the idle, but to those who are labouring willingly for the cause of God." Every one would wish to save himself without trouble. Great truth! S. Augustine says, that the devil so labours, and sleeps not, in the work of thy destruction, whilst thou art altogether careless in the matter of thy eternal weal or woe; " The enemy watches, and do you sleep?"
Affections and Prayers.
O my God, I thank Thee that at this time Thou allowest me to be at Thy feet and not in that hell which I have so often deserved. But what would avail me this life, which Thou art preserving to me, if I should continue to live deprived of Thy grace? Ah, may this never be my case! O my Chief Good, I have turned away from Thee. I have lost Thee this now grieves me with all my heart: I would rather have died. I have lost Thee, but Thy Prophet makes me believe that Thou art all Goodness, and to be found of the soul that seeks Thee. " The Lord is good .... to the soul that seeketh Him." (Lam. iii. 25.) If, O King of my soul, if I have fled from Thee in the time past, now I seek Thee, and none beside Thee. With my every affection I love Thee. Accept me, do not disdain to make Thyself beloved by that heart that once despised Thee. " Teach me to do the thing that pleaseth Thee;" (Ps. cxliii. 10,) and that I may follow Thy entire will. Alas! my Jesus, save this soul, on behalf of which Thou hast poured out Thy Blood and Thy Life; and save me by giving me grace to love Thee, in this life and the next! I hope for this through Thy merits.
Third Point.
Salvation is the important, only, and irreparable " business." Eusebius says that " it is manifestly beyond every error to neglect the business of eternal salvation;" for there is no error like it in its consequences, for all errors but this, have their remedies. If a person lose his property, he may be able to recover it in some other way; if he lose a place, he may be able to regain it; even if he should lose this life and yet be saved, there is a remedy in all these cases. But for him who is lost, there is no further help. We die once; the soul lost once, it is lost for ever. Nothing now remains but to weep for ever in hell with those wretched ones, where the greatest punishment which torments them, will be the thought, that for them to remedy their misery, the time of all help has passed by. " The summer is ended, and we are not saved?" (Jer. viii. 20.) Ask the wise ones of this world, who are in that pit of fire, what sentiments they now hold, whether they are contented to have made their future on earth, now that they are condemned to this eternal prison; hear how they weep and say, " On this account we erred." But what does it avail them to know the mistake they have committed, now that there is no escape from eternal condemnation? What grief would not any one feel in this world who had been able at a little cost to mend some defect in his palace, and yet one day afterwards, should find it fallen down: he would have good cause to reflect upon his own carelessness when he could no further remedy it.
This will be the greatest punishment of the lost; the thought that they have destroyed the soul, and that they are condemned for their own sin. " O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in Me is thine help." (Hos. xiii. 9.) S. Teresa says, that if any one lose, through their own fault, a coat; a ring, even the smallest trifle, he has no peace, he neither eats nor sleeps. O God! what grief will the condemned feel at that moment in which he enters hell, when he finds himself so shut up in that prison of torments and reflects upon his disgrace, and sees that through all eternity it can never be blotted out! Then he will say, I have lost my soul, lost heaven, lost God. I have lost all, and for ever, and for what? By my own fault.
But some will say, if I have committed this sin, wherefore am I condemned? "It may be, that still I may be saved." I answer, that it may be still nay, I say it is much easier to be condemned; since Holy Scripture threatens with condemnation such obstinate transgressors as thou art now. "Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord." (Isa. xxx. i.) " Woe unto them! for they have fled from me." (Hos. vii. 13.) Do you not by this sin, place your eternal salvation in great peril and doubt? And is this a matter to be placed in peril? It is not as if it concerned a house, a place; it concerns, says S. Chrysostom, the perishing in an eternity of torments, and the losing of an eternal heaven. And this matter, which signifies your all in all, you jeopardise by a " it is possible." You say, " Perchance, who knows I may not be condemned, I trust that afterwards God will pardon me." But in the meantime? In the meantime already you condemn yourself to hell. Tell me, would you throw yourself down a well, saying, " Who knows perhaps I may escape death?" No: how then dare you to make your salvation hang upon so feeble a hope, upon a " who knows?" Oh! how many have lost themselves by this most accursed hope. Do you not know, that the hope of the wilful shiner is not hope but delusion and presumption, which excites God not to pity, but to greater wrath. If you say that you cannot trust yourself now, to resist the temptation and the passion which governs you, how will you be able to resist afterwards, when by the habit of sin your strength of resistance will be diminished and not increased? Since, on the one hand, the soul will be more blinded and hardened in its wickedness; and, on the other, it will be wanting in the divine help. Do you hope, perchance, that God will increase this light and grace, after you have increased your sins?
Affections and Prayers.
O my Jesus, ever recall to me the death which Thou sufferedst for me, and give me confidence. I tremble, lest at my death the devil should make me despair, by showing me how great betrayals of Thee I have committed; how many promises have I not made not to offend Thee any more, by a sight of the light which Thou hast given me; and afterwards, have I not turned back and cast Thee behind me through the hope of pardon? And then because Thou hast not chastised me, have I not, even for this very reason, greatly injured Thee? Because Thou hast shown so great pity towards me, have I not the more outraged Thee? My Redeemer, give me great grief on account of my sins ere I depart this life. I repent, O Highest Good, of having offended Thee. I promise Thee henceforth rather to die than to leave Thee. But meanwhile, grant me to feel that which Thou spakest to S. Mary Magdalene, " Thy sins are forgiven thee; " and before death comes to me, make me to feel very sorry for my sins; otherwise, I should fear that my death would prove to me unquiet and unhappy. In my last moments, O my Crucified Jesus, " be not a terror unto me, Thou art my hope in the day of evil." (Jer. xvii. 17.) Should I die ere I have wept over my sins, and have loved Thee, Thy wounds and Thy Blood would inspire me then with terror rather than with confidence. I do not ask Thee then for consolations and earthly possessions in this life; I ask of Thee sorrow and love. Hear me, my dear Saviour, for the sake of that love which led Thee for me to sacrifice Thy life on Mount Calvary.