an entering on a long, unknown eternity. Neither of these classes of circumstances has anything bitter or terrible; or if it has, it comes only from a bad conscience and a bad life led by the dying person. But am I not daring to speak against the generally received opinions and judgments of men in this matter, nay, against our own natural instincts? Is it not a hard and bitter thing for the soul to leave the house which has sheltered it so long; that is, to be forced to quit the body with which it has been intimately connected? Is it not hard for a man to leave house and home, money and wealth, honors and dignities, for which lie worked so long, and to leave them forever? Is it not hard to be separated from father, mother, husband, wife, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and acquaintances? Is it not hard to look at the dear ones for the last time with glazed eyes, and to bid adieu to the world with a tongue that can hardly articulate any more? I acknowledge, my dear brethren, that when we consider all these things together it is a hard and bitter thing, and one well calculated to inspire fear and sadness. But what is the cause of that? This fear, dread, sadness, springs from our weak faith; from our ignorance regarding the great goods that await us in the next life; from an inordinate attachment that binds our hearts to earth; from stupidity and blindness, that leave us so incapable of appreciating future joys, and make us so fond of this miserable, wretched life. “This is not the fault of death,” says St. Ambrose, “but of our weakness; for we are captivated by the enjoyments of this life, and are afraid to end it, although it has more bitterness than pleasure.”[1]
For our lives are full of misery and wretchedness. Such we shall find to be really the case if we judge the matter, not from mere outward appearances, but according to the dictates of sound reason. For, what is our life on earth? After that irrevocable curse pronounced on all the children of Adam, what else does it bring us but misery and suffering? It is a constant state of imprisonment; a banishment from our fatherland; a hospital for poor sick people; a vale of tears and sorrow, etc. Such are the terms in which the holy doctors, the apostles, and God Himself in the holy Scripture speak of this earth. And we know by daily experience that what they say is true. If we enjoy some small pleasure now and then, are there not a hundred
- ↑ Hoc non mortis vitium est, sed nostræ infirmitatis, qui delectatione hujus vitæ capimur, et cursum hunc consummare trepidamus, in quo plus est amaritudinis tuam voluptatis.
