"HE HATH CALLED AGAINST ME THE TIME."
Some one will, perhaps, say: "I am young. Later on I will give myself to God." "How can you promise yourself another day," says St. Augustine, "when you know not whether you shall live another hour?" "If," says St. Teresa, "you are not prepared to die today, tremble lest you die and unhappy death."
I.
Someone will, perhaps, say: I am young. Later on I will give myself to God. But remember that the Gospel tells us that Jesus Christ cursed the fig-tree which He found without fruit, although the season for figs had not yet arrived. It was not the time for figs (Mark 11:13). By this the Savior wished to signify that man at all times, even in youth, should produce fruits of works; and that otherwise, like the fig tree, he shall be cursed, and shall produce no fruit for the future. May no man hereafter eat fruit of thee any more forever (Mark xi. 14). Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day; for his wrath shall come on a sudden (Ecclus. v. 8). If you find your soul in the state of sin, delay not your repentance nor your Confession. Do not put them off even till tomorrow; for, if you do not obey the voice of God calling you today to confess your sins, death may this day overtake you in sin, and tomorrow there may be no hope of salvation for you. The devil regards the whole of our life as very short, and therefore he loses not a moment of time, but tempts us day and night. The devil is come down into you having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time (Apoc. 12:12). The enemy, then, never loses time in seeking to bring us to hell: and shall we squander the time God has given us to save our souls?
You say: "I will hereafter give myself to God." But "why," answers St. Bernard, "do you, O miserable man, presume on the future, as if the Father placed time in your power? "Why do you presume that you will hereafter give yourself to God, as he had given to you the time and opportunity of returning to Him whenever you wish? Job said with trembling that he knew not whether another moment of his life remained: For I know not how long I shall continue, and whether after a while my maker may take me away (Job 32:22). And you say: I will not go to Confession today; I will think of it tomorrow. St. Augustine says: "How can you promise yourself another day when you know not whether you shall live another hour?" St. Teresa says: "If you are not prepared to die today, tremble lest you die an unhappy death."
O my God, I give Thee thanks for giving me time now to bewail my sins and to make amends by my love for all the offenses I have committed against Thee.
II.
St. Bernard weeps over the blindness of those negligent Christians who squander the days of salvation, and never consider that a day once lost shall never return. At the hour of death they shall wish for another year, or for another day; but they shall not have it: they shall then be dols that the time shall be no more (Apoc. 10:6). What price would they then not give for another week, for a day, for even an hour, to prepare the account which they must then render to God? St. Laurence Justinian says that for a single hour they would give all their property, all their honors, all their delights. But that hour shall not be granted to them. The priest who attends them shall say: Depart, depart immediately from this earth; for your time is now no more. "Go forth, O Christian soul, from this world."
What will it profit the sinner who has led an irregular life to exclaim at death: Oh, that i had led a life of sanctity! Oh, that I had spent my years in loving God! How great is the anguish of a traveler who, when the night has fallen, perceives that he missed the way, and that there is no more time to correct his mistake! Such shall b ethe anguish at death of those who have lived many years in the world, but have not spent them for God. The night cometh when no man can work (John 9:4). Hence the Redeemer says to all: Walk whilst you have the light, that the darkness overtake you not (John 12:35). Walk in the way of salvation, now that you have the light, before you are surprised by the darkness of death in which you can do nothing. You can then only weep over the time you have lost.
He hath called against me the time (Lam. 1:15). At the hour of death conscience will remind us of all the time we have had to becomes Saints, and which we have employed in multiplying our debts to God. It will remind us of all the calls and of the graces God has given us to make us love Him, and which we have abused. At that awful moment we shall also see that the way of salvation is closed forever. In the midst of this remorse, and of the torturing darkness of death, the dying sinner shall say: O fool that I have been! O life misspent! O lost years in which I could have gained treasures of merit and become a Saint! But I have neglected it, and now the time of saving my soul is gone forever! But of what use will these wailings and lamentations be, when the scene of this world is about to close, the lamp is on the point of being extinguished, and when the dying Christian has arrived at that great moment on which eternity depends?
O my God, what will become of me in that last moment of my life? O Jesus, Who didst die for my salvation, suffer me not to be lost forever! Suffer me not to lose Thee, my only Good! No, my God, I will not lose Thee. If I have hitherto forfeited They friendship, I am sorry for it, and I sincerely repent of it. I will never lose Thee more.
SALVE, REGINA, MATER MESERICORDIAE! HAIL, HOLY QUEEN, MOTHER OF MERCY!
XIV. - MARY IS THE MOTHER OF PENITENT SINNERS.
The doctrine that all prayers and works preformed in the state of sin are sins was condemned as heretical by the sacred Council of Trent. St. Bernard says that although prayer in the mouth of a sinner is devoid of beauty, as it is unaccompanied by charity, nevertheless it is useful and obtains grace to abandon sin; for, as St. Thomas teaches, the prayer of a sinner, though without merit, is an act which obtains the grace of forgiveness, since the power of impetration is founded, not on the merits of him who asks, but on the Divine goodness, and the merits and promises of Jesus Christ, who has said, Every one that asks, receives (Luke 9:10). The same thing must be said of the prayers offered to the Divine Mother. "If he who prays," says St. Anselm, "does not merit to be heard, the merits of the Mother, to whom he recommends himself, will intercede effectually."
Therefore, St. Bernard exhorts all sinners to have recourse to Mary, invoking her with great confidence; for though the sinner does not himself merit the graces which he asks, yet he receives them, because this Blessed Virgin asks and obtains them from God, on account of her own merits. These are his words, addressing a sinner: "Because though was unworthy to receive the grace thyself, it was given to Mary, in order that, through her, though might receive all." "If a mother," continues the same Saint, "knew that her two sons bore a mortal enmity to each other, and that each plotted against the other's life, would she not exert herself to her utmost in order to reconcile them? This would be the duty of a good mother. And thus it is," the Saint goes on to say, "that Mary acts; for she is the Mother of Jesus, and the Mother of men. When she sees a sinner at enmity with Jesus Christ, she cannot endure it, and does all in her power to make peace between them. O happy Mary, thou are the Mother of the criminal and the Mother of the Judge; and being the Mother of both, they are they children, and though canst not endure discords amongst them."
THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST.
xx. - HOW MUCH WE ARE OBLIGED TO LOVE JESUS CHRIST.
I.
No one teaches us so well the real characteristics and practice of Charity as the great preacher of Charity, St. Paul. In his First Epistle to the Corinthians eh says, in the first place, that without Charity man is nothing, and that nothing profits him: If I should have all faith, so that I could move mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profits me nothing (1 Cor. 13:2-3). So that even should a person have Faith strong enough to remove mountains, like St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, but had not Charity, it would profit him nothing. Should he give all his goods to the poor, and even willingly suffer Martyrdom, but be wanting in Charity -- should he do it, that is, for any other end that that of pleasing God, it would profit him nothing at all.
O most lovely and most loving Heart of Jesus, miserable is the heart which does not love Thee! O God, for the love of men Thou didst die on the Cross, helpless and forsaken, and how the can men live so forgetful of Thee! O love of God! O ingratitude of man! O men, O men! do but cast one look on the innocent Son of God, agonizing on the Cross and dying for you, in order to satisfy the Divine justice for your sins, and by this means to allure you to love Him. Observe how, at the same time, He prays His Eternal Father to forgive you. Behold Him, and love Him! Ah, my Jesus, how small is the number of those who love Thee! Wretched, too, am I; for I also have lives so many years unmindful of Thee, and have grievously offended Thee, my beloved Redeemer! It is not so much the punishment I have deserved that makes me week, as the love which Thou has borne me.
II.
St. Paul give us the marks of true Charity, and at the same time teaches us the practice of those virtues which are the daughters of Charity; and he goes one to say: Charity is patient, is kind; charity does not envy, deals not perversely; is not puffed up, is not ambitious; seeks not her own; is not provoked to anger, thinks no evil, rejoices not in iniquity, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things (1 Cor. 13). Le us, therefore, consider these holy practices, that we may thus see in the love which we owe to Jesus Christ truly reigns within us; as likewise that we may understand in what virtues we should chiefly exercise ourselves, in order to persevere and advance in this holy love.
O sorrows of Jesus! O ignominies of Jesus! O Wounds of Jesus! O death of Jesus! O love of Jesus! Rest deeply engraved in my heart, and may your sweet recollection be forever fixed there, to wound me and inflame me continually with His love. I love Thee, my Jesus; I love Thee my sovereign Good; I love Thee, my Love and my All; I love Thee, and I will love Thee forever. Oh, suffer me never more to forsake Thee, never more to lose Thee! Make me entirely Thine; do so by the merits of Thy death. In this I firmly trust. And I have a great confidence also in they intercession, O Mary, my Queen; make me love Jesus Christ, and make me also love thee, my Mother and my hope!
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