Reflection #18
Salvation Alone Is Necessary
"On thing is necessary." It is not necessary that in this world we should be honored with dignities, that we should be provided with riches, with good health and earthly pleasures; but it is necessary that we should be saved; for there is no middle course; if we are not saved, we must be damned. After this short life, we shall be either always happy in Heaven, or always miserable in Hell.
O my God, what will be my lot? Shall I be saved or lost? One lord or the other must necessarily be mine. I hope to be saved, but who assures me of it? I know that I have so many times deserved Hell. Jesus, my Savior, Thy death is my hope.
How many persons are there in the world who were once upon a time loaded with riches and honors and lifted up to high positions, and even to thrones, and now find themselves in Hell, where all the fortunes they enjoyed in this world serves only to increase their torments and despair! Behold the warning which Our Lord gives us: "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth . . . but lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither the rust nor the moth doth consume." (Matthew 6:19-20). Every gain of earthly goods is lost at death, but the gain of spiritual goods is an incomparable treasure and is eternal.
God has taught us that He "will have all men to be saved." (I Timothy 2:4). And to all He gives the help needed for salvation. Miserable is he who is lost; it is entirely his own fault: "Destruction is thy own, O Israel; thy help is only in Me." (Osee 13:9). And this will be the greatest torment of the poor reprobate, the thought that they are lost through their own fault. "The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly, " says the Scriptures, "is fire and worms." (Ecclesiasticus 7:19). Fire and worms, that is, the remorse of conscience, will be the torturers of the damned in punishment for their sins; but the worm will forever torment them, more terribly than the fire. How much regret we suffer in this world from the loss of any object of value--when it happens through our own carelessness. We cannot eat or sleep for thinking of our loss, even though there is a hope of our repairing it in some other way. What then will be the torment of one who is lost, in thinking that, through his own fault he has lost God and Paradise, without a hope of ever being able to recover them!
"Therefore we have erred from the way of truth." (Wisdom 5:6). This will be the eternal lamentation of the miserable damned ones. "Therefore we have erred," losing our souls of our own accord, and there is no longer a remedy for our error! In all the misfortunes which occur to many in this life, a remedy is found in time either from a change in circumstances, or at least through a holy resignation to the will of God. But none of these remedies will be for us when we have reached eternity, if we have wandered from the way to Heaven.
Therefore, the Apostle St. Paul exhorts us to labor for eternal salvation with a continual fear of losing it: "With fear and trembling, work out your salvation." (Philippians 2:12). This fear will cause us always to walk with caution and fly from from dangerous occasions; it will make us continually recommend ourselves to God, and thus we shall be saved. Let us pray to Him, that he would make us fix firmly in our minds the thought that upon our last gasp of breath before death depends the question whether we shall be eternally happy or eternally miserable without hope of remedy.
My God, many times have I despised Thy grace; I should deserve no mercy; but Thy prophet tells me that "The Lord is good to . . . the soul that seeketh Him." (Lamentations 3:25). In the past I have fled from Thee; but now I seek nothing, I ask nothing, I love nothing but Thee. In pity, despise me not; remember the Blood Thou hast shed for me.
This Blood and thy intercessions, O Mary, Mother of God, are all my hope.
[Excepted from 'Devout Reflections and Meditations' by St. Alphonsus Liguori] (Public domain)
O my God, what will be my lot? Shall I be saved or lost? One lord or the other must necessarily be mine. I hope to be saved, but who assures me of it? I know that I have so many times deserved Hell. Jesus, my Savior, Thy death is my hope.
How many persons are there in the world who were once upon a time loaded with riches and honors and lifted up to high positions, and even to thrones, and now find themselves in Hell, where all the fortunes they enjoyed in this world serves only to increase their torments and despair! Behold the warning which Our Lord gives us: "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth . . . but lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither the rust nor the moth doth consume." (Matthew 6:19-20). Every gain of earthly goods is lost at death, but the gain of spiritual goods is an incomparable treasure and is eternal.
God has taught us that He "will have all men to be saved." (I Timothy 2:4). And to all He gives the help needed for salvation. Miserable is he who is lost; it is entirely his own fault: "Destruction is thy own, O Israel; thy help is only in Me." (Osee 13:9). And this will be the greatest torment of the poor reprobate, the thought that they are lost through their own fault. "The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly, " says the Scriptures, "is fire and worms." (Ecclesiasticus 7:19). Fire and worms, that is, the remorse of conscience, will be the torturers of the damned in punishment for their sins; but the worm will forever torment them, more terribly than the fire. How much regret we suffer in this world from the loss of any object of value--when it happens through our own carelessness. We cannot eat or sleep for thinking of our loss, even though there is a hope of our repairing it in some other way. What then will be the torment of one who is lost, in thinking that, through his own fault he has lost God and Paradise, without a hope of ever being able to recover them!
"Therefore we have erred from the way of truth." (Wisdom 5:6). This will be the eternal lamentation of the miserable damned ones. "Therefore we have erred," losing our souls of our own accord, and there is no longer a remedy for our error! In all the misfortunes which occur to many in this life, a remedy is found in time either from a change in circumstances, or at least through a holy resignation to the will of God. But none of these remedies will be for us when we have reached eternity, if we have wandered from the way to Heaven.
Therefore, the Apostle St. Paul exhorts us to labor for eternal salvation with a continual fear of losing it: "With fear and trembling, work out your salvation." (Philippians 2:12). This fear will cause us always to walk with caution and fly from from dangerous occasions; it will make us continually recommend ourselves to God, and thus we shall be saved. Let us pray to Him, that he would make us fix firmly in our minds the thought that upon our last gasp of breath before death depends the question whether we shall be eternally happy or eternally miserable without hope of remedy.
My God, many times have I despised Thy grace; I should deserve no mercy; but Thy prophet tells me that "The Lord is good to . . . the soul that seeketh Him." (Lamentations 3:25). In the past I have fled from Thee; but now I seek nothing, I ask nothing, I love nothing but Thee. In pity, despise me not; remember the Blood Thou hast shed for me.
This Blood and thy intercessions, O Mary, Mother of God, are all my hope.
[Excepted from 'Devout Reflections and Meditations' by St. Alphonsus Liguori] (Public domain)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please no anonymous comments. I require at least some way for people to address each other personally and courteously. Having some name or handle helps.
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.