Preparation for death/XX. THE FOLLY OF THE SINNER
CONSIDERATION XX
The Folly of the Sinner
"The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." i Cor. iii. 19.
First Point.
THE Venerable John Avila would divide the world into two prisons, one for those who do not believe, the other for those who believe and yet live in sin far from God, to whom belonged the prison of fools. But the great misery and disgrace of those unhappy ones is, that they deem themselves to be wise and prudent, whilst they are the most stupid and foolish people in the world; and what is worst of all is, that the number of these is innumerable. Some are mad for the honours, others for the pleasures and the defilements of this world. And these, then, dare to call the saints fools, who despise the goods of this world, that they may gain eternal salvation, and the True Good, which is God. They call it foolishness to accept insults and to pardon injuries; foolishness to deprive themselves of the pleasures of the senses, and to embrace the mortifications; to renounce honours and riches, and to love solitude, and a life both humble and hidden. But they do not observe, that their wisdom is called foolishness by the Apostle, " The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." (i Cor. iii. 19.) Ah, one day they will truly confess their folly; but when? When there will be no further remedy, and they will say in despair, " We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour." (Wisd. v. 4.) Ah, wretched that we have been, we counted folly, the life of the saints, but now we know that we have been the fools. " Behold, how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints." (Wisd. v. 5.) Behold, they are now collected into the happy number of the children of God, and they have made their lot with the saints, which will be an eternal one, which will make them blessed for ever, and we shall be placed amongst the slaves of the devil, condemned to burn in a pit of torment for all eternity. The lost will continue their lamentation, " We have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us." (Wisd. v. 6.) Therefore, we have been deceived by having chosen to close our eyes to the Divine light; and that which will make us the more unhappy is, that for our error there is not, and there will not be, any remedy while God shall be God.
What folly, then, for a worthless gain, for a little vapour, for a brief delight, to lose the favour of God! What does not a subject do, to obtain the favour of his prince? O God, for one miserable gratification to lose the Highest Good, which is God! to lose heaven, to lose even peace in this life by granting an entrance of sin into the soul, by which its remorse will ever torment it, and condemn it voluntarily to eternal misery.
Would you catch at that forbidden pleasure if, by touching it, you were afterwards to have your hand burnt, or to be enclosed within a sepulchre for a year? Would you commit that sin if it cost you the loss of a large sum of money? And after you know and believe, that by sinning you forfeit heaven and God, and will be for ever condemned to the fire will you still sin?
Affections and Prayers.
O God of my soul, what should I have been at this moment if Thou had not shown to me so many mercies? I should have been in hell, in the place of fools; as I have been. I thank Thee, O Lord, and I pray Thee, not to abandon me in my blindness; I deserve to be deprived of Thy light, but I see that Thy favour has not forsaken me. I feel that it calls me with tenderness, wishing me to ask for pardon of Thee, and to hope for great things from Thee, notwithstanding the great offences that I have committed against Thee. Yes, my Saviour, I hope to be accepted of Thee as a son. I am, indeed, not worthy thus to be called, because so often I have insulted Thee to Thy face. " Father, I have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and am. not worthy to be called Thy son." But I know that Thou searchest out the lost sheep, and that Thy consolation is to embrace Thy lost children. My dear Father, I repent that I have offended Thee, I cast myself at and I embrace Thy feet, and I will not go if Thou dost not pardon and bless me. " I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me." Bless me, O my Father, and may Thy blessing give me great grief for my sins, and great love towards Thee. I love Thee, O my Father, I love Thee with all my heart. Do not allow me to be separated from Thee again; deprive me of all things, save of Thy love.
Second Point.
Poor sinners! They toil, they weary themselves to acquire earthly knowledge or the art of gaining the good things of this life which have to end in a short time; whilst they neglect the good things of that life which shall never end. They lose their reason in such wise that they become not fools only, but brute beasts; and so living, they do not consider what is good and what is evil, but they follow the brutish instincts of sense, alone embracing that which of the present is pleasing to the flesh, without thinking of what they lose, and of that eternal ruin which they have drawn down upon themselves this is to act like brutes, not like men. S. Chrysostom says, " We call him a man who preserves intact the image of man. But what is the image of man? To be rational." To be a man is to be rational, that is, to act according to reason and not according to sensual appetite. If God were to give a beast the use of reason, and it were to act according to reason, we should say it acted like a man; so, on the other hand, when man acts according to sense, contrary to reason, we say, that man acts like a beast.
" Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! " (Deut. xxxii. 29.) He who acts with prudence, according to reason, foresees the future, which is what must follow at the end of life, death, judgment, and after that, heaven or hell. Oh how much wiser is the peasant who saves his soul, than the king who loses it! " Better is a poor and wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished." (Eccles. iv. 13.) O God! would he not be accounted mad by all, who, to gain more present pleasures, risks the loss of all his goods? And he, who for one brief satisfaction, loses his soul and risks its loss for ever shall we not hold him to be foolish? This causes the ruin of so many souls which are lost the care for present goods and ills alone, and the carelessness for those which are eternal.
God has certainly not placed us in the world to grow rich, to gain honours, or to gratify our senses, but to obtain eternal life; " And the end everlasting life." (Rom. vi. 22.) To follow this ought to be our aim; " One thing is needful." (S. Luke x. 42.) But this end is that which sinners most despise; they think only of the present, they walk down to death, they approach the threshold of eternity, and they know not where they go. S. Augustine asks, " What would you say to a pilot, who, being asked where he was going, said that he did not know?" would not every one exclaim " This fellow steers the ship to destruction!" " Such an one," he concluded, "is he who runs out of the way." Such are these wise ones of the world, who know how to amass wealth, to follow pleasures, to obtain places; but who do not know, how to save the soul. The glutton was wise in making riches, but " he died, and was buried, and in hell he lifted up his eyes." (S. Luke xvi. 22, 23.) Alexander the Great was wise in acquiring so many kingdoms, but after a few years he died and was lost for ever. How many miserable ones now weep and cry in hell, " What hath pride profited us? and what advantage hath the hoarding of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow." (Wisd. v. 8, 9.) As a shadow they are gone, and nought remains of them now, but weeping and eternal suffering.
" Before man is life and death, and good and evil, that which he shall choose shall be given him." (Ecclus. xv. 18.) My fellow Christian, in this life are placed before you life and death, that is, either to deprive yourself of the pleasures of this life to gain life eternal, or to accept them with death eternal. What do you say? Which will you choose? Choose as a man, and not as a beast; choose as a Christian who has faith, and says, " What is a man profited if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (S. Matt. xvi. 26.)
Affections and Prayers.
Ah my God, Thou hast endowed me with reason; Thou hast given me the light of faith, whilst in time past I have acted like a brute beast, losing Thy grace for the sake of the miserable pleasures of my senses, which are passed away as a wind, leaving nothing save remorse of conscience, and an account with Thy Divine justice. " Enter not into judgment with thy servant."
Lord, do not judge me after my merits, but deal with me according to Thy mercy. Give me light; give me sorrow for my sins; give me pardon. " I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost; O seek Thy servant: " for if Thou seekest me not,
I shall remain lost. Have pity upon me, by that Blood which Thou hast shed for my sake. I repent, O my Chief Good, of having left Thee, and of having willingly renounced Thy grace. I would that I could die of grief; but do Thou give me greater sorrow. Grant that I may attain heaven to sing of Thy compassion.
Third Point.
We understand that the really wise are they, who know how to obtain the Divine favour and heaven. Let us ever pray, then, to the Lord, that He may give to us the science of the saints, which the Lord gives to those who seek for it. Oh, how sweet a science is it to know how to love God, and to save the soul, which knowledge consists in knowing how to choose the way of eternal salvation, and to follow the means which lead to this end. The matter of saving the soul is of all matters most necessary; if we know everything, and do not know how to save ourselves, it would serve us nothing, and we should be for ever miserable; but on the contrary, we should be for ever blessed if we knew how to love God, although we may be ignorant of all else. S. Augustine says, " Blessed is he who knows Thee, although he knows not anything besides Thee."
" The unlearned arise and seize heaven," says the same saint. How many ignorant peasants there are who, knowing not how to read, yet know how to love God, and to save themselves. How many learned of the world who lose themselves! But the former, not the latter, are truly wise. How truly wise have those been who, leaving the world, have embraced the cloistered life. How truly wise the many martyrs and virgins who renounced the nuptials of the great to go and die for Jesus Christ. And this truth even the worldly recognise; and they do not fail to say of any one who has given himself to God, " Blessed is he who understands, and who saves his soul." In short, they who leave the things of the world to give themselves to God are called " the undeceived." What, then, should those be called who leave God for the things of this world? Deceived men.
My brother, to which of these classes do you wish to belong? S. Chrysostom advises you to go to the graveyards to learn to choose well; they are a good school in which to learn the vanity of worldly goods, and. the science of the saints. S. Chrysostom says, " Tell me if you can distinguish there who has been a prince, a noble, a man of letters? For my part, I see nothing, save rottenness, bones, worms. Everything is a fable, a dream, a shadow." All the things of the world in a short time will end and vanish away like a play, a dream, a shadow. But my fellow Christian, if you wish to become wise, it is not sufficient to know the importance of your end; you must seize the means of obtaining salvation. All wish to be saved, and to become saints; but since they do not adopt the means, they not only do not become saints, but they are lost. We must avoid the occasions of sin, frequent the Sacrament, pray, and, before all, ground the heart in the precepts of the Gospel. " What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (S. Matt. xvi. 26.) " He that loveth his life shall lose it." (S. John xii. 25.) That is to say, we must even sacrifice the life, to save the soul. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself." (S. Matt. xvi. 24.) That is, to follow Him we must deny our self-love the gratification which it seeks. " In His pleasure is life." (Ps. xxx. 5.) Our salvation consists in fulfilling the Divine will, in these and in many like precepts.
Affections and Prayers.
O Father of mercies, look upon my miseries, and have pity upon me; grant me light, and make me to know my past folly, that I may weep, and Thy Infinite Goodness, that I may love it. My Jesus, " Shut not up my soul with the sinners." (Ps. xxvi. 9.) Thou hast shed Thy Blood for my salvation. Grant that I may never again become the slave of Satan as I was in time past. I repent, O Highest Good, the having left Thee. I detest all those moments in which I willingly consented to sin; and I embrace Thy holy will, which alone desires my good. Eternal Father, through the merits of Jesus Christ, give me strength to follow all things that may please Thee. Let me rather die than any more oppose Thy will. Help me by Thy grace, to repose in Thee alone all my love, and to banish all affections which do not tend to Thee. I love Thee, O God of my soul, I love Thee above all things; and from Thee I hope for all my good; for pardon, for perseverance in Thy love, and for heaven, where I may love Thee for ever.