Reflection #8
I Must One Day Die
It is a practice very profitable for our eternal salvation to say often to ourselves: "I must one day die." The Church every year, on Ash Wednesday, gives this reminder to the faithful: "Remember, Man, that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return." And this certainty of death is brought to our recollection very often during the year, sometimes by the burial-grounds which we pass upon the road, sometimes by the tombs which we see in churches, sometimes by the dead who are carried to burial.
The most precious furniture which was carried by the anchorites to their caves was a cross and a skull to remind them of the day of their own death. And thus they persevered in penitential works till the end of their days, and dying in poverty in the deserts, they died more happy than kings who die in their palaces.
"The end is come, the end is come!" cries the Prophet Ezechiel. (Ezechiel 7:2). In this world, one man lives a longer, another a shorter time; but for everyone, sooner or later, the end must come; and when that end has come, nothing else will comfort us at the point of death but to have loved Jesus Christ and to have endured with patience the trials of this life for the love of Him. No, at that moment, neither the riches we have acquired, nor the honors we have gained, nor the pleasures we have enjoyed will console us. All the greatness of this world cannot comfort a dying man; it only afflicts him; and the more he has gained of it, the more does he suffer. Sister Margaret of St. Anne, a barefooted Carmelite and daughter of the Emperor Rudolph II, used to say: "What benefit are kingdoms at the hour of death?"
Alas, to how many men of the world does it not happen that, at the very time when they are most engrossed in securing riches, land and honors, they receive the summons of death and have to hear the warning: "Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live!" (Isaiah 38:1). "Friend, it is time you should think of making your will, for you are very sick." O God! how great will be the anguish of a man who is about to gain some lawsuit, or come into a possession of a mansion or an estate when he hears the priest who has come to recommend his soul to God address to him the words: "Go forth, Christian soul, from this world. Depart from this world, and go to render thy account to Jesus Christ." "But now," he cries, "I am not well prepared." "What matter? Thou must now depart."
O my God, give me light, give me strength, to spend the rest of my life in serving and loving Thee. If now I should have to die, I should not die happy, I should die disturbed. What then do I wait for? Do I wait for death to seize me unprepared, with great danger to my eternal salvation? O Lord, if I have been foolish in the past, I will not be foolish any longer. Now I give myself wholly to Thee; do Thou receive me and help me with Thy grace.
In a word, to everyone that end must come, and with the end will come that moment decisive of a happy or a wretched eternity. O moment on which eternity depends! Oh, that all would think upon that great moment and on the account of their whole life which they must give at that moment to their Judge! "Oh that they would be wise and would understand and would provide for their last end!" (Deuteronomy 32:29). They certainly would not then devote themselves to amassing riches, or labor to become great in this life, which must end; but they would think how to become Saints and to be great in that life which never ends.
If then we have faith, let us believe that there is a death, a Judgment, an eternity and endeavor, during the days that yet remain for us, to live only for God. And therefore let us take care to live as pilgrims on this earth, remembering that we must speedily leave it. Let us live with death ever before our eyes, and in all the affairs of this present life, let us take care to act as we should act at the point of death. All things upon earth either leave us, or we have to leave them. Let us listen to Jesus Christ, who says: "Lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither the rust nor moth doth consume." (Matthew 6:20). Let us despise the treasures of earth, which cannot satisfy us and which speedily end; and let us gain for ourselves the treasures of Heaven, which will make us happy and will never end.
Miserable am I, O Lord, in that I have so often, for the sake of the goods of earth, turned my back upon Thee, who art the Infinite Good! I see my folly in having in the past sought to acquire a great name and make my fortune in the world. From this day forward, My only ambition shall be to love Thee and in everything to fulfill Thy will. O my Jesus, do Thou take from me the desire to be seen; make me love contempt and a hidden life. Give me strength to deny myself in everything that displeases Thee. Make me embrace with peace, infirmities, persecutions, desolation and all the crosses Thou shalt send me. Oh, that I could die for the love of Thee, abandoned by all, as Thou didst die for me!
Holy Virgin, thy prayers can enable me to find my true happiness, which is to love earnestly thy Son. Oh, pray to Him for me, in thee I trust.
[Excepted from 'Devout Reflections and Meditations' by St. Alphonsus Liguori] (Public domain)
The most precious furniture which was carried by the anchorites to their caves was a cross and a skull to remind them of the day of their own death. And thus they persevered in penitential works till the end of their days, and dying in poverty in the deserts, they died more happy than kings who die in their palaces.
"The end is come, the end is come!" cries the Prophet Ezechiel. (Ezechiel 7:2). In this world, one man lives a longer, another a shorter time; but for everyone, sooner or later, the end must come; and when that end has come, nothing else will comfort us at the point of death but to have loved Jesus Christ and to have endured with patience the trials of this life for the love of Him. No, at that moment, neither the riches we have acquired, nor the honors we have gained, nor the pleasures we have enjoyed will console us. All the greatness of this world cannot comfort a dying man; it only afflicts him; and the more he has gained of it, the more does he suffer. Sister Margaret of St. Anne, a barefooted Carmelite and daughter of the Emperor Rudolph II, used to say: "What benefit are kingdoms at the hour of death?"
Alas, to how many men of the world does it not happen that, at the very time when they are most engrossed in securing riches, land and honors, they receive the summons of death and have to hear the warning: "Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live!" (Isaiah 38:1). "Friend, it is time you should think of making your will, for you are very sick." O God! how great will be the anguish of a man who is about to gain some lawsuit, or come into a possession of a mansion or an estate when he hears the priest who has come to recommend his soul to God address to him the words: "Go forth, Christian soul, from this world. Depart from this world, and go to render thy account to Jesus Christ." "But now," he cries, "I am not well prepared." "What matter? Thou must now depart."
O my God, give me light, give me strength, to spend the rest of my life in serving and loving Thee. If now I should have to die, I should not die happy, I should die disturbed. What then do I wait for? Do I wait for death to seize me unprepared, with great danger to my eternal salvation? O Lord, if I have been foolish in the past, I will not be foolish any longer. Now I give myself wholly to Thee; do Thou receive me and help me with Thy grace.
In a word, to everyone that end must come, and with the end will come that moment decisive of a happy or a wretched eternity. O moment on which eternity depends! Oh, that all would think upon that great moment and on the account of their whole life which they must give at that moment to their Judge! "Oh that they would be wise and would understand and would provide for their last end!" (Deuteronomy 32:29). They certainly would not then devote themselves to amassing riches, or labor to become great in this life, which must end; but they would think how to become Saints and to be great in that life which never ends.
If then we have faith, let us believe that there is a death, a Judgment, an eternity and endeavor, during the days that yet remain for us, to live only for God. And therefore let us take care to live as pilgrims on this earth, remembering that we must speedily leave it. Let us live with death ever before our eyes, and in all the affairs of this present life, let us take care to act as we should act at the point of death. All things upon earth either leave us, or we have to leave them. Let us listen to Jesus Christ, who says: "Lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither the rust nor moth doth consume." (Matthew 6:20). Let us despise the treasures of earth, which cannot satisfy us and which speedily end; and let us gain for ourselves the treasures of Heaven, which will make us happy and will never end.
Miserable am I, O Lord, in that I have so often, for the sake of the goods of earth, turned my back upon Thee, who art the Infinite Good! I see my folly in having in the past sought to acquire a great name and make my fortune in the world. From this day forward, My only ambition shall be to love Thee and in everything to fulfill Thy will. O my Jesus, do Thou take from me the desire to be seen; make me love contempt and a hidden life. Give me strength to deny myself in everything that displeases Thee. Make me embrace with peace, infirmities, persecutions, desolation and all the crosses Thou shalt send me. Oh, that I could die for the love of Thee, abandoned by all, as Thou didst die for me!
Holy Virgin, thy prayers can enable me to find my true happiness, which is to love earnestly thy Son. Oh, pray to Him for me, in thee I trust.
[Excepted from 'Devout Reflections and Meditations' by St. Alphonsus Liguori] (Public domain)
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