Volume I, Treatise II, Chapter V

Another Means of Doing Our Actions Well, Is to Perform Each One as If It Were the Very Last Action of Our Life

ANOTHER means which the saints teach us to perform our actions well is, to do them as if each action were to be the last we were to perform in this life. St. Bernard, speaking of the manner wherein a religious ought to comport himself in all he does, says, “That in all his actions, he should often repeat to himself: Were you to die presently, would you do this?” (Bern. in Spir. Monac.) And St. Basil gives us the same counsel, when he says, “Have always your last hour before your eyes. When you rise in the morning, doubt whether you shall live till night; and when you go to bed at night, do not assure yourself that you shall live till next morning; and in this manner it will be very easy for you to correct all your vices.” (Bas. ad fil. spir.) Thomas-e-Kempis says as much almost in the same terms. St. Anthony also gave the same advice to his disciples, to encourage them to virtue and perfection: and without doubt there is no better means to help us to do our actions well, than to believe each day to be our last. If we could put ourselves into this disposition of mind, and perform everything as if we were to die as soon as we had done it, we should perform our actions after a far different manner, and with far greater perfection than we do. With what fervour would a priest say mass, if he thought it would be the last action of his life, and that afterwards he ‘should have no more time to merit, or to perform the least good work? Whatattention and zeal should we not have in our prayer, if we were persuaded that it were to be our last, and that we should never have any more leisure to ask God pardon for our sins, and implore his mercy? It is for this reason that we commonly say, there is no better place to pray in than at sea, because we find our fervour far different, when we have. death before our eyes, than when we are in no fright or fear at all.

It is reported of a holy religious who was daily wont to go to confession before he said mass, that suddenly falling very sick, and his superior seeing him in great danger of death, acquainted him with it, advising him to confess as if he were presently to die:—-God be praised, said the sick man, lifting up his eyes and hands to heaven, it is about thirty years since I daily made my confession, as if I were to die the next moment; so that there remains no more at present for me to do, than to dispose myself to receive my viaticum. It is after this manner we ought to perform all our actions. Let us confess, let us communicate, as though we were to die as soon as we had done it; and by our doing so, it will not be necessary, at the hour of death, that we confess in such a manner as if we were to die; but it will suffice that we dispose or reconcile ourselves, as we often do a moment before communion, to put ourselves into a state of receiving more worthily our Lord’s body. If we carry this precaution along with us, death will always find us prepared, and will never surprise.us- Behold here is the best means we can avail ourselves of, to be preserved from the misfortune of a sudden death. ‘‘ Happy,” says Jesus Christ, “is the servant whom his master at his arrival shall find busy in performing his duty.’’ (Matthew 24:46) Job acted thus, as he himself tells us:—“From the time of my combat in this life, I daily attend when my change will come; you will call me, O Lord, and I will answer you.” (Job 14:15) Call me when you please, in what place or employment soever I am, I am always ready to answer your call.

One of the best means, to know certainly whether we walk uprightly before God is, to consider whether we are in a state to answer him, at what time soever he calls, and in what employment soever we are engaged. I speak not here of an infallible certainty, because such a one is not to be had in this life, without a particular revelation; but I speak only of a probable “conjecture,-which is all we can pretend to, and I say that the most proper means of obtaining this is, to examine whether in the condition, and present conjuncture we are in, and in the very action we are about, we should be content to be surprised by death. Think whether you are as ready to answer God as Job was, in case he should call you this very moment; try yourself | often in this manner; sound your heart, and ask yourself, whether in the state you are in, you would be content to render your last account at his tribunal. For my part, when I reflect and question myself on this subject, if I find that at this very moment, and in the very action I am doing, I should not fear death, methinks my affairs go well and I am content with myself. On the other hand, if I should not wish to die in my present state and occupation, but should wish my death to be deferred for some time, till the things which take up my thoughts at present, and hinder me from performing my duty, were finished: I take this for an evident sign, that I am not as solicitous as I ought about my spiritual advancement, and that I do not satisfy the obligations of a good religious. For according to what Thomas-a-Kempis says, “If you had a good conscience you would not fear death, because it is sin, and not. death, which we ought to dread.” Wherefore since you fear it so much, it is 8 sign that your conscience reproaches you with something, and that your accounts with God are not in a good state. A steward who has his accounts in good order, desires nothing more than to give them up: but he whose accounts are not in order is always afraid lest he should be called upon, and thinks of nothing else than. how to gain time, and defer the giving them up as long as he can.

The best exercise for a religious would be, according to St. Francis of Borgia, to place himself twenty-four-times a-day in the situation of a dying man, and often to repeat to himself, “I must die this day.” In this case, if the religious feel nothing to trouble him, no doubt his soul would be in a good state. Let every one then enter into himself and examine himself frequently on this point; and if in the moment you make this reflection, you are not in the state you would wish to be-in were you to die, endeavour to put yourself into it, and dispose yourself well-for this dangerous passage. Imagine that you ask God some few days more to prepare yourself for it, and that he grants them you; andendeavour to make good use of the respite he gives you, by living during this time as if you were to die the moment after. Happy is he who is such during his life, as he desires to be at the hour of his death.

We never make a deeper impression upon the minds of men, than when we preach this truth forcibly to them, admonishing them not to defer their conversion from day to day; because. to-morrow is uncertain, and they know not whether ever they shall live to see it. ‘He who has promised pardon,” says St. Gregory, “to those that repent, has not promised a next day for repentance to those who sin.” (Hom. xii. in Evan.) We ordinarily say, that there is nothing more certain than death, and nothing more uncertain than the hour in which it will happen. But the Saviour of the world says yet more than this:—“Be ready,” says he, “because the Son of man will come, at the hour you least expect.” (Luke 12:40) For though he speaks in this place of the general day of judgment, yet this may be understood also of the hour of death; because then each one shall receive his particular judgment, and such sentence, as being once pronounced will never be revoked, but confirmed on that great and general day. Jesus Christ does not content himself with saying the hour is uncertain, and we know not when it will come, but he says it will come at an hour when we least expect it, and perhaps when we are least of all prepared for it. St. Paul tells the Thessalonians, ‘That he will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thessalonians 5:2): and St. John in the Apocalypse, speaking in God’s name, says, “I will come to you as a thief, and you shall not know at what hour it will be.” (Apocalypse 3:3) A thief gives no notice when he will come, but awaits the hour when we are least upon our guard, and when the world is buried in sleep; wherefore this comparison made use of by the Son of God is also an instruction to teach us how we ought to prepare ourselves, that death may not surprise us. “Know ye,” says he, “that if the father of the family knew at what hour the thief would come, he would watch, and would not suffer him to break open his house.”

(Luke 12:39) But because he cannot foresee the hour, nor whether it will be in the beginning, towards the middle, or in the end of the night, he continually stands upon his guard to hinder himself from being robbed. It is after this manner we ought to be ready at all times, and in all places whatsoever, because death will attack us when we least think of it.

The saints hereupon observe, that it is a very great mercy of God that the hour of death should be uncertain, to the end. we might always be prepared for it; for if we knew its time, this assurance would give us occasion to become more loose, and to sin With greater confidence. If, uncertain as we are of the hour of death, we live notwithstanding so greatly negligent, what would we do if we were assured we should not die for some time? St. Bonaventure says, that God has vouchsafed to leave us in this incertitude, that we might set no value on temporal things; that seeing every hour, nay every moment we may lose them, we might not any ways be attached to them, but aspire to those we shall always possess when we shall once have gained them: “Fool,” says the Son of God to the rich covetous man, “this night thy soul shall be required of thee; and what then will become of all] those riches thou hast gathered together?” (Ibid. 12:20)

Now what we preach to others Jet us apply to our own advantage, that we may avoid the reproach of St. Paul, “you who instruct others, instruct not yourself.” One of the temptations the devil] most commonly makes use of to deceive worldlings is, to hide as much as he can from them so clear a truth as this, to divert their eyes and their thoughts from it, and to make them believe that there is time enough for all—that one day they will grow better, and live after another manner than they now do. But it is not only worldlings he deludes after the same manner; but he also deceives many religious, and continually persuades them to defer their spiritual advancement from one day to another; to be negligent in applying themselves seriously to their duties, or in regulating their spiritual exercises, or in devoting themselves to penance, till they have ended their studies, quitted their present employments, or accomplished the affair they have in hands, which takes up all their thoughts. Unhappy are you, should you die in time of your studies, whilst you are employed in this office, or distracted with this affair! Because the knowledge which you will have acquired, the employments which you shall have exercised, the cares you shall have given yourself, are the cause why you are become lax and tepid in virtue, and will serve only as hay and straw to burn and torment you in the other life. Turn then to your own advantage the advice you give to others. Physician, “cure yourself’ (Luke 4:23), make use of the same remedy you prescribe to others, since you stand as much in need of it as they do.

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