the tempest? That Christian is even in this state, to whom the hour of death arrives before his conscience is made clean in the sight of God. " When your fear cometh as desolation .... then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer, therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way." (Prov. i. 27, 28, 31.) The time of death is a time of tempest and confusion; then will sinners call upon God to help them, but only for fear of hell, to which they see themselves so near, and without a sincere conversion, and therefore God will not hear them. And therefore also very justly they shall then reap truly the fruits of their evil life. Alas for them, it will not be enough to take the Sacraments. It is necessary to die hating sin and loving God beyond all things; but how can he hate forbidden pleasures, who, until that time, has loved them, so much? and how can he love God beyond all things, who, until that time, has loved the creature more than God?
The Lord called those virgins foolish and, indeed, they were so who wished to prepare their lamps when the bridegroom was nigh. A sudden death is dreaded by all, because there is then no time to settle our accounts. All confess that the saints were indeed wise, because they prepared for death before it came. And what are we doing? Do we wish to find ourselves in danger of being obliged to prepare for death when death is already near? therefore, now is the time in which we must do that, which we shall wish we had done when death is nigh. Oh, what anguish will the memory of the time we have lost, and even more, the time that has been badly spent, then cause us a time given by God to make ourselves worthy, but a time that is past, and which will never return! What anguish will it then give us to hear, " Thou canst be no longer steward."
There will be no more time for repentance, to frequent the Sacrament, to hear sermons, and to pray. What will be done, will be done. We shall then require a sounder mind, a quieter time to make our confession as it should be made, in order to resolve many points of grave scruple, and thus to ease our conscience; but " time will be no longer."
