This is a punishment, says St. Gregory, which God frequently inflicts upon sin, permitting it to accompany its author even to the tomb; for the sinner, who has forgotten God during life, too often forgets his own eternal interests at this terrible hour. We have frequent and striking proof of this, for how often do we hear of persons who refuse to be separated from the objects of their sinful love even at their last hour, and, by a just judgment of God, expire wholly forgetful of what is due to their Maker and their own souls!
The fourth reason given by Scotus is taken from the value of actions done at such a time; for it is manifest to all who have any knowledge of God that He is much less pleased with services offered at this hour than with the same services offered under different circumstances. "What merit is there," says the virgin and martyr St. Lucy, "in giving up what you are forced to leave," in pardoning an injury which it would be a dishonor to avenge, or in breaking sinful bonds which you can no longer maintain?
From these reasons this doctor concludes that repentance at the hour of death is a dangerous and difficult matter. He goes even farther, and affirms that the act by which a Christian deliberately resolves to defer his conversion till the hour of death is in itself a mortal sin, because of the injury he thereby inflicts on his soul, and because of the peril to which he exposes his salvation.
As the final decision of this question depends
