and fearful howlings and lamentations. Men crawl away and hide themselves in the darkest cellars so as to avoid the cannonballs; the soldiers in despair cry out: alas! it is all up with us! we must surrender! the city is taken, etc. What do you think, my dear brethren, would be the feelings of the Christian captives on the occasion? Truly, as far as sight and hearing are concerned they are as badly off as the Turks; they too must hide away to avoid the bombs and balls; but how do they feel at heart? There is not a doubt that they rejoice and exult the more vigorously the siege proceeds. The greater the despair of the soldiers engaged in the defence the greater the joy and hope of the Christians. Why? Oh, they think, now the time is at hand when the city must surrender to a Christian power, and we shall be freed from captivity and slavery. There, my dear brethren, you have in some degree a figure and picture of the state of mind of the just and of the wicked at the sight of the awful portents that are to herald the end of the world.
The wicked shall be frightened by those signs. The wicked, those who have a bad conscience, shall indeed wither away with fear and dismay, and seek to hide themselves under the earth; they will howl and moan and lament like the beleaguered Turks: alas! now all is up with us! We must surrender; there is an end to all the pleasures and delights we enjoyed on earth; honor and high places are no more; we must leave our wealth behind us; the last day is at hand; in a short time the terrible trumpet shall sound in our ears the words: arise, ye dead, and come to judgment! Soon shall we appear before our angry Judge, whom we have despised and made our enemy by our sins! Now the time is approaching when the shameful things we have kept hidden from men and not dared to mention even in the tribunal of penance shall be openly declared before the world! Soon shall we hear the awful words: “Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire.”[1] And we shall have to bid an eternal farewell to God, our supreme Good, to Mary the Mother of God, to all the angels and elect, and go down to hell with the devils! Alas! how great will be the terror and anguish of the wicked at the sight of the signs and portents of the last day!
The just shall be comforted by them. But what shall be the feelings of those just servants of God who have either kept inviolable fidelity to their Creator, or by true repentance have washed away their sins, and who have
- ↑ Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem æternum.—Matt. xxv. 41.
