angels, and devils, and all their most secret crimes shall be made public.
Confirmed by experience. O terrible day of confusion and despair! Think, although it is a small matter compared to the other instances we have considered, of the feelings of one who has to tell a shameful sin in confession. The confessional then seems to him nothing but a rack to torture him; his blood stagnates; his heart beats violently; his color changes; he stammers and can hardly get out the words. I have—, the tongue falters, and he is covered with a cold perspiration. But why does he get into such a state? What is he afraid of? Ah, I need not ask; he has a single sin to disclose to his father confessor, and that is quite enough to fill him with shame and anguish. O my God! if the disclosure of a sin in the privacy of the confessional can cause such shame, how will it be when all sins shall be made known to the whole world? If it frightens one to tell his sins to a priest who is dumb; to a priest who often does not know him nor has ever seen him; to a priest who listens to him with all charity and friendliness; speaks to him gently, and rejoices that a lost sheep has returned to the fold of Christ; to a priest who will give him absolution from his sins: how will it be if those sins have to be made known to the whole world, before heaven and earth, not that they may be pardoned, but that the sinner may be sentenced to eternal damnation?
Further explanation of the magnitude of this shame.
Let us continue this reasoning a little longer, my dear brethren. Suppose that an angel, to whom all our thoughts are known, stood here in my place in this pulpit. (Let each one now think of the sin of which he is most ashamed.) The angel begins to call out the name of every one in a clear voice; that man has done so-and-so at such a time; that woman has lived in such a manner; that gentleman whom you see there has committed adultery in that house with that person; that wife has been unfaithful; that young woman has impure desires and has sullied her chastity; that servant has robbed his master; that maid her mistress; that priest is leading a dissolute life; and so on, calling out all the sins each one is guilty of: what would many a one do in such a case? How they would hide under the benches in shame and try to conceal themselves! How quickly would they who know themselves to be guilty try to get away, and run out of the church lest it should come to their turn to have their names called out! O dear angel! cease; be still! otherwise I should