the damned, while suffering, see the bliss of the elect. so to speak, before their eyes the joys and delights of the children of God in paradise. “You did evil in My eyes,” says the Lord, “and you have chosen the things that displease Me. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold, My servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry: behold, My servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty: behold, My servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded: behold, My servants shall praise for joyfulness of heart, and you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for grief of spirit.”[1] Ah, how terrible the howling of the damned under those circumstances! The Holy Scripture says of Esau, after he had been deprived by Jacob of his birthright and had lost his father’s blessing, that he “roared out with a great cry.”[2] Why? For although he had lost his birthright, he still had his father alive with him to console him in his sorrow; he did not secure the first blessing of his father, but he was not accursed on that account, and had still a second blessing to hope for: “And when he wept with a loud cry, Isaac being moved, said to him: In the fat of the earth, and in the dew of heaven from above shall thy blessing be.”[3] Nevertheless he “roared out with a great cry,” like a lion in his sorrow. Unhappy reprobate! how will you now roar and howl after having lost your eternal inheritance, the blessing and favor of your heavenly Father, the eternal kingdom of heaven, the whole world and everything, being moreover accursed by God and condemned to the fire of hell, when you see with the eyes of the mind your former brothers and sisters, surrounded with shining stars, seated on thrones of glory, and rejoicing in eternal delights! Ah, would that your eyes were buried in the deepest pit of darkness, that you might not be able to see heaven and its elect! Is it not true that you would then be freed from a great part of the hellish torments you have to suffer?
As the rich glutton saw Lazarus in Abraham’s bosom. Truly, what would not the rich glutton give if that view were shut out from him! “And lifting up his eyes,” says St. Luke, “when he was in torments, he saw.” Where did he lift his eyes to? What did he see? “Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his
- ↑ Faciebatis malum in oculis meis, et quæ nolui elegistis. Propter hoc hæc dicit Dominus Deus: Ecce servi mei conedent, et vos esurietis: ecce servi mei bibent, et vos sitietis: ecce servi mei lætabuntur, et vos confundemini: ecce servi mei laudabunt pro exultatione cordis, et vos clamabitis pro dolore cordis, et præ tristitia spirltus ululabitis.—Is. lxv. 12–14.
- ↑ Irrugiit clamore magno.—Gen. xxvii. 34.
- ↑ Cumque ejulatu magno fieret, motus Isaac dixit ad eum: in pinquedine terræ et in rore cœli desuper erit benedictio tua.—Ibid. 38–40.
