he is at last surprised by death. Could such a man lay any claim to pity, mercy, or grace from the Judge whom he has despised? No! Such a thought would be a presumption that should arouse the indignation of any reasoning man.
Because after death the sinner is no longer related to Christ. Again; I go, for instance, along the street, and see a dog lying there, lamed and crippled, and howling most piteously; oh! I say to myself, that is only a brute beast; he may die there for all I care; and I go along my way in utter indifference, or at most, if the matter interests me in any way, I should in all probability ask some one to kill the dog in order to stop his howling. On the other hand, if I met even the lowliest mendicant in a similar condition, I should certainly try to help him if my heart were not of stone. Why so? Because he is a man who has the same nature, and therefore some relationship with myself. All we human beings are members of the same Head, and therefore we must sympathize with the misfortunes of our fellow-men, as St. Paul says: “If one member suffer anything, all the members suffer with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members of member.”[1] We have not the same feelings of sympathy and compassion for a dog or another animal, because they are not united with us by community of nature. Now tell me: is the sinner in any way related to our future Judge, so that He should have some reason for pitying the guilty one who is sentenced to eternal torments? As long as a Christian is in this life he is one of the members of Jesus Christ, from whose mystic body he is, so to speak, never separated, as long as he does not apostatize from the true faith; therefore on account of that relationship Christ is always full of pity for even the greatest and most wicked sinners; He is always running after them to offer them His grace, and He speaks inwardly to their hearts to warn and rescue them from the state of sin and bring them to heaven. But after death, on the day of judgment, he who persists in sin shall no longer be related to Christ, nor concern Him anymore than a dead dog now concerns me; for all relationship is broken off, and the sinner is not merely a rotten member, but is actually and completely separated from the body of Christ. Now an amputated foot, as we know, cannot cause pain; it may rot and be thrown out on the dung-hill like any other piece of carrion. “Depart from Me, you cursed,” shall Our Lord say to the repro-
- ↑ Si quid patitur unum membrum, compatiuntur omnia membra. Vos autem estis corpus Christi, et membra de membro.—I. Cor. xii. 26, 27.
