be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”[1]
And done. “Give an account;” answer for all the actions of your whole life; what evil have you committed alone, with others, in secret, publicly, in youth, in manhood and age, up to the last moment of your life? What evil have you done at home, in that room, in that garden, on that walk, in that street, in that hidden corner? What injustice, impurity, intemperance have you been guilty of against yourself, against your neighbor, against God and His commandments, with eyes, ears, mouth, hands, feet? Ah, how will you be able to account for all these things? But one day you will have to do it. Give an account of all the sins you have caused others to commit or given occasion to by advice, command, approval, toleration, flattery, allurement, deceit, bad example, indecency in behavior, manner, dress, conversation. How many are there now who think of these things when they prepare for confession? Since my last confession, they say, I have done this or that, and nothing more; but not a word of the harm they have done the souls of others. On that day, however, all this shall be made the subject of a most strict interrogation. Many a one shall look on himself as quite free from all foul sins, and he shall be so in reality; and nevertheless in that strict judgment he shall find himself examined and found guilty of the most abominable actions. But how can that be? O my God! the accused will say, during my whole life I have never done such things! Yes, shall be the reply to him; you have not done them yourself, but you gave others occasion and opportunity to do them. How then? By your vanity and foppery; by your insatiable eagerness to find out and follow new fashions in dress, scandalous though they were, in order to please the eyes of strangers. You have often made an assignation dressed in that manner even in church, there to erect one church against another, one altar against another. The head of the family shall be found, as far as his own conduct is concerned, upright and just before God and the world in all his dealings, in buying and selling, careful in speech, diligent in hearing Mass, edifying, modest, and recollected in church; and yet he will be convicted of many blasphemies, false oaths, excessive drinking, and other similar crimes. But how? Why? I have never even known the names of those vices! Answer: those vices were well
- ↑ Dico autem vobis, quoniam omne verbum otiosum, quod locuti fuerint homines, reddent rationem de eo in die judicii. Ex verbis enim tuis justificaberis, et ex verbis tuis condemnaberis.—Matt, xii. 36, 37.
