worldly joys and goods forever! to die without mercy from God, who awaits the departing soul to pronounce on it the sentence of His wrath! to die without receiving help from Mary our Mother, in whose intercession the impenitent sinner has no share! to die without help from the angels, who now abandon the soul! to die without pity from the saints, who accuse it before the judgment-seat of God! to die in the clutches of demons, who drag the soul away with them! to die without any claim to heaven, which there is no hope of ever seeing! to die and at once to go down to hell and burn there forever! O sinner! are you afraid of such a death? Ah, good reason you have to fear it! And why do you not change your wicked life, which is the only thing that can cause you to die such a death? It is a wonderful thing, exclaims St. Augustine; “you fear to die a bad death, but not to live a bad life.”[1] Let this fear of death at least impel you to repent of your sins and to amend your evil ways. And let this fear be always your companion, especially during this season of Shrove-tide, that it may restrain you within the bounds of the divine law, and that you may do nothing against your conscience.
Consolation for the just and conclusion always to keep the conscience pure. But for you, pious Christians, I have no message but the joyful one of the Apostle: “That you be not sorrowful, even as others, who have no hope.”[2] Rejoice in and on account of your pious lives, which take all the bitterness out of death and convert it into sweetness. Rejoice in Lent as well as in Shrove-tide. Rejoice in the Lord whom you serve, whom you love with your whole hearts, and who loves you! Rejoice in your good conscience, which gives testimony that you are children of God! Rejoice in death too, for it will put an end to all your trials, and be for you the beginning of all imaginable joys. Infallibly true are the words of St. Bernard: “A good conscience shall be safe when the body dies; safe when the soul appears before God.”[3] Be still then in future, you philosophers! Do not calumniate death by your foolish saying: death is of all terrible things the most terrible! It may be terrible to them who make it so by their bad lives. But as long as I keep in the friendship of God, vain is the fear I have had of death hitherto. My only care in future shall be to keep my conscience pure, to serve God faithfully; and then, O death! thou shalt become dear and desirable
