evening. Having rested a while, he opens his books, examines the packages of goods he has brought with him, and compares his purchases with his sales. What joy for him to see the great profit he has made in a short time! With what eager pleasure he counts the money he has made! If his wife asks him: how did things go with you while you were away? See, he will answer, what a lot of money I have brought back. Ah, she replies, but I am afraid you must have plagued and worried yourself considerably. Oh, that matters not, is his answer; only look at what I have made. But eat something, at all events, or else the food will grow cold. Let it grow cold! The treasure he has before him is sweeter to him than food or drink, and makes him forget all the toil and labor he has gone through.
The just man amasses great treasures during his life. A very incomplete picture, my dear brethren, of that joy which the soul of the just man shall feel in its last moments, when its thoughts revert to the past. What else are we but merchants, who are sent into the world to work diligently to perform good works and accumulate merits for heaven? Our Lord uses almost the same comparison when giving a picture of our life in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, where He speaks of Himself in the person of a lord who gives money to his servants and says to them: “Trade till I come,”[1] then I shall require the capital back with interest. How confidently those two servants went to their lord when the time came for them to give in their account: “Lord, thou didst deliver to me five talents, behold I have gained other five over and above.”[2] And the other came in an equal state of exultation: “Lord, thou deliveredst two talents to me: behold, I have gained other two.”[3] But the worthless servant stood there covered with shame and confusion, because he had hidden his talent in the ground instead of using it.
So that he has good reason to rejoice at the hour of death. If, then, there is any comfort or joy to be hoped for in death—and the holy Scripture infallibly assures us that such is the case with the death of the just, which it calls precious: “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints;”[4] a blessed death: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.”[5] “With him
- ↑ Negotiamini dum venio.—Luke xix. 13.
- ↑ Domine, quinque talenta tradidisti mihi, ecce alia quinque superlucratus sum.—Matt. xxv. 20.
- ↑ Domine, duo talenta tradidisti mihi, ecce alia duo lucratus sum.—Ibid. xxv. 22.
- ↑ Pretiosa in conspectu Domini mors sanctorum ejus.—Ps. cxv. 15.
- ↑ Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur.—Apoc. xiv. 13.
