my eyes with such a powerful light that I now can see what I before was blind to. I have made a great mistake; I must acknowledge it!
As we know by experience. Sighs of that kind and a repentance that in many cases comes too late are common enough amongst all sinners and tepid Christians who, during their lives, have seldom thought of death; they are like moles: blind during life, and able to see only when at the point of death. I would wish to call upon you, Reverend Fathers who have to attend the dying, as witnesses of the truth of what I say, if you were allowed to speak out freely what you have heard in those death-bed confessions. I appeal to all who have ever assisted at a death-bed. What signs have you remarked in the dying person? When he was filled with fear, anguish, remorse, and repentance, was it not because he had not been zealous enough in the service of God, because he had not been sufficiently careful to avoid sin? If he was filled with consolation, was it not because he had performed good works, borne his crosses with patience, fasted, given alms, and practised different devotions and mortifications? Were not these the cause of the inward peace and joy he experienced at the last? Truly the sentence of death is right and just!
We should not forget this when we think of death, and should try to live as we shall wish to have lived at the last. Such is the way, my dear brethren, in which a soul desirous of salvation often remembers death, and that, too, in a way that helps to amendment of life and makes her think beforehand what she would wish to have done and omitted at the approach of death, so that she may now regulate her life accordingly. She asks herself: is the life I am now leading one that will bring comfort or anguish to me on my death-bed? Should I like to die with the goods of others in my possession, in that dangerous intimacy, in that impure love in which I have hitherto lived? Should I like to die in that hatred and anger against my neighbor, with that secret sin on my conscience that I have not yet properly confessed? Ah, no! God forbid! Why, then, should I wait any longer, since death may surprise me in any place, at any time? At once, therefore, I will restore those ill-gotten goods, avoid that dangerous intimacy and occasion, change that hatred into Christian charity and meekness, confess my sins candidly, and follow the humble Gospel of Christ to the best of my ability! That is the real, practical manner of thinking on death.
Such a thought
“O that they would be wise and would understand, and would provide for their last end!” Oh, if we all frequently thought of