CHAPTER LIV.
Advantages — Salutary Thoughts — Make Satisfaction in this Life rather than in the Next — St. Augustine and St. Louis Bertrand — Brother Lourenco — Father Michel de la Fontaine.
Besides the advantages which we have already considered, Charity towards the departed is very salutary to those who practise it, because it stimulates them to fervour in the service of God, and inspires the holiest thoughts. To think of the souls in Purgatory is to think of the sufferings of the other life; it is to call to mind that all sin demands expiation, either in this life or the next.
Now, who does not understand that it is better to make satisfaction here, since future chastisements are so terrible? A voice seems to come forth from Purgatory, repeating these words of the " Imitation," " Better is it to purge away our sins and to cut off our vices now, than to keep them for purgation hereafter."[1]
We call to mind, also, this other sentence, of which we read in the same chapter, " There, one hour of punishment will be more grievous than a hundred years of the most bitter penance here." Then, penetrated with salutary fear, we willingly endure the sufferings of the present life, and we say to God with St. Augustine and St. Louis Bertrand, Domine, hie ure, hie seca, hie non parcas, ut in ætemum parcas — "Lord, apply here iron and fire; spare me not in this life, in order that you may spare me in the next."
Penetrated with these thoughts, the Christian regards the tribulations of the present life, and especially the sufferings of a painful malady, as a Purgatory upon earth which will dispense him from Purgatory after death.
- ↑ Imit., i. 24.
