will come.”[1] In the hour when you are not thinking of it, death will come and take you out of the world before the tribunal of God to the particular judgment, and whatever sentence you receive then and no other shall be the one you shall hear in the general judgment.
Hence we should even now be ready for the last day. Therefore, my dear brethren, the conclusion is evident; every one of us who values his soul and its salvation should and must now be ready for the coming of the Judge. And I say “be ready;” for it will be too late to begin to prepare when the Judge knocks at the door; and it will be forever too late. “Watch, therefore,” I say, or rather Our Lord says, “because you know not what hour your Lord will come.” And as you cannot know it, be on your guard at all times; keep in the friendship of God; let no one dare to remain even a quarter of an hour at enmity with Him in the state of mortal sin; for perhaps during that quarter of an hour death may come unexpectedly and hurry you off to the judgment-seat. “If the good man of the house knew at what hour the thief would come, he would certainly watch, and would not suffer his house to be broken open.”[2] He would take measures to prevent his property from being stolen. And if we knew the hour of our death, would any one of us be so reckless as not to repent of his sins beforehand and be reconciled to God? But since we do not know that hour, and since any hour may be our last, we must be at all times intent on this important business, and be ready for the long journey into eternity.
The thought of this will urge us to lead good lives. Shown by an example. Keep constantly before your minds the uncertainty of the hour of death, in which you shall have to appear before God to be strictly judged by Him. For the reckless lives that so many Christians lead can be traced to forgetfulness of the last end, and we have the authority of the Holy Ghost for that: “Remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.”[3] Hear the cunning yet holy strategem employed by a certain priest who was well skilled in the art of converting souls. A man old in years and wickedness came to him for confession, and told him a long story of iniquity; the priest, guessing that he had a hard case to deal
- ↑ Ideo et vos estote parati, quia qua nescitis hora Filius hominis venturus est.—Matt. xxiv. 44.
- ↑ Vigilate ergo, quia nescitis qua hora Dominus vester venturus sit. Si sciret paterfamilias qua hora fur venturus esset, vigilaret utique et non sineret perfodi domum suam.—Ibid. 42, 43.
- ↑ Memorare novissima tua, et in æternum non peccabis.—Ecclus. vii. 40.
