sacred Table with a pure conscience, especially in a dangerous ill ness, when we are most in need of comfort, help, and strength!
Especially as it is in sickness that one most needs His comfort and protection. That is the time in which we must be ready for our journey to the house of our long eternity. Who would dare to undertake it without some provision for the way? That is the time of which the Prophet David says: “The sorrows of death have compassed me, and the perils of hell have found me. I met with trouble and sorrow.”[1] That is the time in which, besides the bodily pains and mental depression that make the sick man disinclined to and almost incapable of good works, the conscience drives to despair and doubt by representing past sins, although they may have been confessed and repented of. That is the time, according to the teaching of the Council of Trent, when the demons do their worst by all kinds of violent temptations to keep the soul from heaven and drag it down with them to hell. Many even of those who have led holy lives have seen those hellish spirits standing by their sick-bed in countless numbers. The devils then act like soldiers when plundering a con quered city. If they are allowed to work their will only for half a day wo then to the poor citizens! For the victors, knowing they have but a short time at their disposal, set no bounds to their cruelty, so as to carry off as much as possible. Such, according to St. John in the Apocalypse, is the manner in which the devils act with a dying man: “Wo to the earth, and to the sea, because the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time.”[2] Oh! wo to the poor soul if it has no one to help it then! For who would dare to oppose alone such a formidable enemy?
Our Lord in the holy Viaticum is wont to give evident comfort and protection. Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, is then, in the Blessed Sacrament, the best and surest Protector. Who would be afraid when He is present? For if the mere name of Jesus is enough to make the devils tremble and to put them to flight, what will He not do when He is united to the soul in His own adorable person? If, according to St. Bernard, the mere recollection of Jesus is a source of joy to the heart,[3] what an immense consolation and heavenly sweetness will not be caused to the heart of the just man in his sickness by the real presence of Our Lord? Oh, yes,
