ren, the time of our lives is a cold and stormy winter: “winter is now past,”[1] says the soul of the just man when departing from this world. During this gloomy season everything is under a cloud; most things are hidden by a heavy mantle of snow. We cannot distinguish between the wicked and the just, because we are unable to see their hearts. A man, as long as the contrary is not proved, must appear to us like a fruitful tree that brings forth all kinds of virtuous works daily. He visits the church regularly; he is most attentive to sermons and public devotions; yet in reality and before God he is an unfruitful, barren tree, that produces nothing but leaves; he is a hypocrite and deceiver, in whose good works a bad intention has the upper hand. Oh, what a pious, devout person that is, we often say; she goes frequently to confession and holy Communion! But in reality she is a great sinner, whose confessions and Communions are all sacrilegious, because she conceals a sin through shame, or remains in the proximate occasion of sin. “That man,” we say, “is a most charitable man; he does so much for the poor; he has helped unfortunate citizens and peasants who were overwhelmed with debt;” but in reality he is an unjust usurer, whose only object is to get those poor people into his power that he may seize on all they have as payment of what they owe him. Another takes a great interest in the concerns of a poor widow, or undertakes to protect some young girl who has lost her parents; what would be more Christian or charitable? But his only object is to gratify his foul passions, and what can be more detestable than that? How is it that we are so deceived in our judgments? Ah! we cannot see everything; it is winter and the snow covers the earth. But wait a while; the day of the Lord shall come, on which the all-seeing eye of God, more piercing than the sun, shall melt the snow, and then we shall be able to see clearly what every one is in truth. With reason does Tertullian say: “Do what you will, O man, to hide your evil deeds; you must know that the God who shall judge you is an all-seeing Light.”[2] “Nothing is covered that shall not be revealed, nor hid that shall not be known.”[3]
Therefore we must O Christians! let us think and say with St. Bernard: “Great is the necessity we are under of leading pious lives, since we act
