THIRTEENTH SERMON
ON THE UNHAPPY DEATH OF THE WICKED.
Subject.
The death of the sinner is full of misery, without help or consolation, 1. from creatures, 2. from God. Preached on the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost.
Text.
"My daughter is even now dead." (Matt 9:18)
Introduction.
Who would have thought that this maiden should have been hurried off so soon by death in the bloom of youth? Certainly neither her father nor she herself would have imagined such a thing; and yet she died. So true are the words: " At what hour you think not the Son of man will come. " He will come when we least expect, to take us out of this world. Yet this death was in some respects consoling for the father and fortunate for the innocent daughter; consoling for him, because he had at hand Christ the Son of God, from whom he might seek help and comfort; fortunate for the daughter, because she was immediately raised from the dead by the same Son of God and restored to life; and even if she had not been restored to life, her death would have been a happy one, since she departed in her first innocence with a conscience at peace with God. My dear brethren, the death of the just, whether it comes early or late, suddenly or slowly, foreseen or unforeseen, is always a consoling and happy death; therefore the pious need not fear death, for they are always ready for it, as we have seen on a former occasion. But how will it be with sinners if they are called away without doing penance? Alas! there is nothing more terrible to think of than this miserable death: for there is nothing consoling in it, but everything that is wretched, as I shall now show you by way of meditation.
Plan of Discourse.
The death of sinners and the wicked is full of woe and misery, without help or consolation; such is the subject of the meditation. It is full of misery without help or consolation from creatures; the first part; full of misery without help or consolation from God; the second part; for the encouragement of the good, that they may persevere in the state of grace; as a salutary warning for the wicked, that they may at once repent, lest they should die such a death.
We beg both these graces from Thee, Lord of life and death! who have endured the most bitter of all deaths, that none of us might die an unhappy death, and we beg it through that Mother who brought Life into the world, and whom if any one truly loves during his life on earth he will not have to fear an unhappy death; and also through the intercession of those angels who help the just in their last moments.
Help and comfort in the hour of need take away half our misery. Nature has given every man a voice, that he may at once call for help when he is in distress. If a child or an old man falls down in the street he calls out for help; if one is in danger of drowning he cries out for help; if one falls among robbers or assassins he cries out for help. Fear and anguish are lessened when there is hope of aid. The first means of succor that nature has given to every one in sorrow is to seek consolation somewhere, either in his own thoughts, or in complaints and prayers addressed to others that they may assist him, or at least speak to him words of comfort. And many a one thinks he has got rid of half the load of his grief when he has revealed it to a good friend. If the father of a family dies, what an affliction for the children! yet they have the consolation of knowing that their mother is still left to them. If a son or daughter dies, what grief for the parents! but they console themselves with the thought that they have other children. Poverty and destitution are a bitter trial, especially for those who were formerly in a good position and have been reduced to want by misfortune; yet they hope for and find help and comfort in the compassion of their fellow-men. Bodily pains and sickness are a grievous trial; yet there is comfort in the hope that the doctor may do something to give relief. Unjust persecution and oppression are a heavy cross for the innocent; yet their innocence is their consolation. Public shame and dishonor is a terrible thing for a respectable man to bear; but he can console himself with the testimony of his good con science. Anguish and mental suffering are an intolerable torture for all men; but they look to some future time when they will be at an end, and be succeeded by a period of repose. So that, generally speaking, as long as we live we have consolation mixed with suffering; one finds here, another there something to grieve him, but at the same time, too, something that brings him comfort.
But the death of the unrepentant sinner, oh! that is indeed the misery of all miseries! All those that we have mentioned as occurring to different individuals shall come together and assail him at once. Then will be verified for him the words that the weeping Saviour spoke over the city of Jerusalem, alluding to its future destruction: " The days shall come upon you: and your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and compass you round, and straiten you on every side." ] Wherever the unhappy man turns on his bed of death, he finds nothing but pain and sorrow. If he looks at his friends, oh, what grief! he has to part from them. Good-bye, father, he says with sorrowful heart; good-bye, mother, dear children, husband, wife, sister, brother! I have looked at you for the last time; in a few moments all love and friendship will be at an end between us, and that forever. For I am going to hell, and if you go to heaven, oh, what a great chaos will be fixed between me and you! There will be no post from one place to the other to bring me news of you; so that I shall have my sufferings embittered by the thought that you are in joys that I too might have had if I had wished, and that you will not have the least sympathy with me. Or if you follow me to hell, I am sure that we shall curse and revile each other for ever with a bitter hatred.
If he thinks of the money and wealth that he heaped up with so much toil and labor, or of the pleasures that he still hoped to enjoy, or of the honorable position that made him a great man in the eyes of the world; " death!" exclaims the wise Ecclesiasticus, "how bitter is the remembrance of you to a man that has peace in his possessions!" And if the bare remembrance of it is a torment, what will it be when death really comes and takes him away from everything? I am now to be hunted out of house and home, he will say to himself with sorrow of heart; I am to be driven away from all I possess without the hope of ever coming back again, without being able to bring with me a single farthing of my wealth, a single rag of clothing, a momentary pleasure of all my joys, a single thought of all my honors! Bare and naked I am going into the home of eternal poverty, shame, hunger, and thirst! If he considers the state of his body, he finds nothing but pain and suffering; his head is motionless; his hair is matted with the sweat of death; his eyes sunken and glassy; his lips drawn together; his teeth blackened; his tongue parched; his breast swollen by his efforts to breathe; his whole body is reduced to such weakness that he has hardly strength to breathe forth his miserable soul.
But all this is nothing compared to the anguish, fear, and terror that fill his soul - According to the terrible words of St. Augustine, describing the state of a man dying in sin, wherever he turns he finds nothing but objects to increase his anguish and apprehension. " Over him is the angry Judge " who will condemn him; "below him the abyss of hell," ready to swallow him up; "on his right side are his sins which accuse him" and cry out for vengeance on him; " on his left are legions of demons waiting to drag him down to eternal torments; inwardly he is tortured by the worm of conscience; outwardly by the death he cannot avoid. Where can he fly to out of all these miseries?"
How will he defend himself against the voice of his conscience, which represents to him in every detail and with the utmost clearness all his past sins, thus gnawing at his heart and oppressing him more than his sickness ? Caesarius writes of a young man who cried out in his death agony: my God! why have I been so careless? Why have I lived so long in tepidity, and spent so many years in idleness? Such is the anguish caused the dying man by the recollection of his neglect of the divine service in his youth. Cornelius tells us of an old man, who before his death burst out into the following sighs: wretched man that I am! why have I been so diligent in temporal things, so anxious to provide for my wife and children, and so careless of myself and my salvation ? Of what use to me now is all the toil I have undergone during my life? Such is the anguish caused the dying man by the cares he had during life which were not directed to heaven. A young man, who was led astray into sins against holy purity, cried out in a terrible voice as he lay on his death-bed: woe to him who has led me astray! Such is the anguish suffered by the dying man who has allowed himself to be seduced by bad company. Berengarius said on his death-bed: Alas ! unhappy me ! I must now appear be fore God my Judge! As far as my own sins are concerned, I hope to obtain pardon for them, because I sincerely repent of them; but I am terribly afraid on account of the sins I have made others commit by my heretical doctrine and evil life. Such is the anguish caused the dying man by the scandal he has given during life and the teaching and example by which he has led souls into sin. And indeed it must be a terrible thing to think on one's bed of death: I have led a soul into sin; perhaps it is now lost or will be lost; now I have to give an account of it before the judgment-seat of God. A religious suffered the acutest remorse on his death-bed because he had lost but one hour in unnecessary sleep; what confusion and distress must then fall to the lot of those worldlings who spend whole days, weeks, months, and years in idleness? Another young man when in his death agony stretched out his tongue, and pointed to it, saying: this wicked tongue of mine is the cause of my eternal damnation; for he remembered all the unchaste conversations he had carried on during his life. Another on his death-bed began to cry most piteously, and said: it is all over with me! I am lost forever! I did not follow the divine vocation! Alas! what have I done! Now I hear those dreadful words: I called, and you refused. I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock." Another young man was reproached by his conscience that he had neglected his school now and then, had not attended the meeting of the sodalities, nor received holy Communion often enough, and had omit ted his usual prayers; these reproaches filled him with such terror that he almost despaired of his salvation. Many other examples I omit. Meanwhile I am forced to this conclusion: if those apparently slight faults and sins can cause such terror in the hour of death even to holy souls who desire their salvation, how great must not be the anguish caused to one who is dying an enemy of God by the many crimes he has committed? Ah, such a one shall cry out to still the reproaches of conscience, have I not enough to suffer? Leave me in peace. No! You shall never have peace from me! You shall die; but not I; I will follow you to the very pit of hell, and there I will be your tor mentor forever. Such shall be the answer of his bad conscience.
What anguish will be caused too by the demons standing round the dying man in troops, open-mouthed and with fangs whetted like those of ravening wolves, lying in wait for his poor soul, to hurry away with it the moment it leaves the body. I imagined a scene like this once when I happened to see in a forest two greyhounds chasing a cat, that had tried to escape them by climbing a tree; the hunter, instead of shooting her, threw stones at her at my request, until he dislodged her; but she had not time to touch the ground; the dogs had her in their teeth while she was still in the air. " my soul! " cries out St. Bernard, " what will be your terror when, having left all things, you shalt enter alone into an unknown country, where crowds of the most horrible monsters shall come to meet thee?" What terror shall invade the sinful soul when the angry Judge shall refuse to allow it any more time, and shall give it over to the hunter death, to be driven by him into the fangs of the hellish wolf! And what horror shall take possession of it when it sees hell open beneath, certain that it is to be its dwelling-place forever!
Imagine now it must be with the wizard condemned to the wheel; how terrified he must be when he hears the bolts of his Prison drawn that he may be led forth to execution. But that is not even a shadow of the anguish of the sinner when he sees that his soul is about to leave the body and to be precipitated into the place of eternal torments. Unhappy mortal ! wherever you turn you are caught and devoured. The Prophet Amos has described this miserable state of the soul in the figure of a man, who while running away from a lion is attacked by a bear or bitten by a serpent: " As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him: or enter into the house and a serpent should bite him." Would it be a wonder, my dear brethren, if such a soul should be a hundred times on the point bf departing, and should retreat again each time terrified into the body? Is it any wonder that the death sweat pours down in thick drops from the tortured frame? misery above all miseries!
And is there then no help nor comfort for the unhappy man? Alas, no! He is most in need of help; but his misery is that of which the Psalmist says: "For tribulation is very near: for there is none to help me." Help him, you men and women for whose sake he has so of ten sinned and bartered heaven! But their answer resounds in the heart of the dying man in the terms in which the high-priests answered the despairing Judas: " What is that to us? look to it," we cannot help you. Husband, wife, father, mother, dear children, for whom I have worked so hard, to whom I have left all I had; help me! help me! What is the matter? Can we do anything for you? Shall we arrange the pillow under your head? Ah, no! no! take this load off my conscience! that is the rest I require. But we cannot do that; do you wish to have some strengthening medicine? Ah, I want comfort and strength for my poor soul! We cannot give you that.
O you saints and angels of God, come to his assistance! But even that prayer is of no use, and the sick man hears the voice that was heard in the temple of Jerusalem before its destruction: " Let us go from here! away from this place!" The time of our office has expired. For thirty, forty, fifty years we have tried to help you in every possible manner, and to bring you with us to heaven; but you would not have our help, and now our time is at an end. We have failed in our efforts, and must go and leave you to the demons. " See you that I alone am," says the Lord in the Book of Deuteronomy; that there is nothing to be hoped from creatures; " and there is no other God besides Me: I will kill and I will make to live: I will strike, and I will heal." But the most terrible of all his woes is that the sinner shall then be abandoned by God Himself; and therefore the death of the sinner is a misery in which there is no help or comfort from God, as we shall see in the
Second Part.
Suffering, no matter how great, is tolerable, no, even grows sweet when he has God as a Companion and Comforter. Such was the case with Job in his great affliction, David in the midst of his enemies, Daniel amongst the raging lions, Joseph in the hands of his brethren, Lazarus in his poverty, Paul in the most violent persecutions, Lawrence on the gridiron, the martyrs in their torments. What did their sufferings matter to them? All they had to do to comfort themselves was to remember the words of the Lord: " I am with him in his trouble, " and they were able to laugh and rejoice in the midst of their tortures. Say to some pious servant of God: your father, your mother, your friends have abandoned you; be it so, he will answer quite composedly; " the Lord has taken me up, " and that suffices for me. Hence there have been many servants of God (and there are such still) who congratulated themselves as on a piece of unexpected good luck when assailed by tribulation, who prayed to God most earnestly for the cross, and complained when it was taken away from them. St. Teresa preferred to die rather than to be without suffering. Oh, to suffer with God is a sweet suffering! Even death itself, terrible as it is, has no terrors for the just man who has God at his side. Let whole legions of demons surround his bed, as some holy hermits have experienced in their last hour, he will not fear: " For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death," he will think and say with the Psalmist, " I will fear no evils: for thou art with me." But to suffer without God, to endure anguish without God, to be in the hands of the devils without God; that is the greatest and most terrible of all suffering! The human mind can do without all created comfort, and without any help from creatures; but to be excluded from the comfort and help that God can give is that woe which the Lord threatens the people with by the Prophet Osee: " Woe to them when I shall depart from them."
Poor sinner on your death-bed! " where is your God? " Look around you; turn from one side to the other: where is your God ?" Ah, He is not with you! He whom you have rejected during your life has now abandoned you and cast you off forever. If you hear His words in your heart, they will be only words of scorn and mocking laughter, with which He will rejoice at your misery, and mock your helplessness. You have neglected all My graces, inspirations, exhortations, patience, and mercy: " You have despised all My counsel, and have neglected My reprehensions. I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock, when that shall come to you which you feared." Cry out to heaven as loud as you please; my God! merciful God! in what a miserable state my soul is! Help, ah, help me, my God! What! your conscience will answer in His name, your God! whom you have not sought by true contrition even in your last illness? Your God! Look for him in your coffers among your gold; that is the god you have adored. See that woman whom you have worshipped; that man whom you have served more zealously than Me; those comrades of your debauchery, with whom you have often mocked at holy things. What have I to do with yon? What are you to Me? Go to the goods and joys of earth, in which you have hitherto sought your pleasure. t( Where are their gods, in whom they trusted? Let them arise and help you: and protect you in your distress." Call on them to help you now; for you did not accept My aid when it was time to do so. Thus, not only is there no help or comfort from God for the dying sinner; but the very thought of God only makes his misery greater.
How must the living soul feel in that almost dead body, when it sees itself abandoned by all in heaven and on earth! What a terrible sight for it is the priest with the crucifix, saying those last prayers which fill the just with indescribable joy, but the wicked with despair; for there is not a word in them that does not announce eternal damnation to the sinner. " Go forth, Christian soul, out of this world, in the name of God the Father, who created you; in the name of Jesus Christ the living Son of God, who has suffered for you; in the name of the Holy Ghost, who has been infused into you, " etc. Oh, all these words are so many thunder-bolts in the heart and conscience of the sinner! Go forth! Ah, where? To hell! Christian soul! Swinish soul rather, answers the conscience, whose God was your belly, who lived only to gratify your brutal lusts. Christian soul! Where are the marks of the Christian? Have you not thousands of times disgraced and renounced the holiness of your baptism, the vows made to God therein, and the law of your faith? Christian soul! which lived after the manner of the heathens! Christian soul ! Ah, it would be far better it were the soul of a blackamoor, a, Turk, or an infidel; for then, not having received so much light, it would not have such a strict account to render. Christian soul! Far better it were the soul of a horse, a dog, or a swine; for then it would die with the body, and would not burn forever. Go forth out of this world ! sorrowful words ! Out of this world, to which your heart and its desires were attached, whose customs and laws had more influence with you than the infallible truths of the Gospel of Christ! In the name of the Father, whom you have so scornfully despised! In the name of the Son, whom you have crucified again so often by your sins! In the name of the Holy Ghost, whom you have constantly saddened and driven out of your heart! In the name of God! In the name of the devil rather, will be the answer of your con science, for you have had that foul spirit more constantly in your mouth by your abominable habit of cursing and swearing. Look down, Lord!- continues the well-meaning priest, on this Your servant, and hear him who with all his heart now implores You for the remission of all his sins. What, the conscience will say; do I not know that the contrary is the truth? that I am a servant and slave of the devil? Have not my confessions for some years been only a mere outward show of repentance, without true conversion or amendment, a mere piece of hypocrisy? I have deferred repentance to my death-bed; and now I have to depart like a brute beast, that has never known or loved its Creator. " Have mercy, Lord, on his groans; pity his tears! " What tears? Those that he shed when he could not take vengeance on his enemy, or gratify his lusts? " May his dwelling this day be in peace!" Peace for him who is actually a rebel against God? in whose hands death still finds the weapons he used in his war against the Almighty? Can he dwell in peace, amongst the chosen saints of heaven? No; all law and reason are against it.
Cease, priest of God! repeating those prayers that the Church has appointed only for her God-fearing or truly repentant children, for I am not one of them. Cry out rather in a voice of thunder: depart, accursed, wicked soul! depart from the body which you have used only for sin! depart from this world, which you have defiled by your crimes! Separate your self from the creatures whom you have scandalized and betrayed by your bad example! Go forth in the name of the Father, to whom in a moment you shall have to give a strict account of your life; in the name of the Son, who will upbraid you with the blood He has shed for you, which you have trampled under foot; in the name of the Holy Ghost, who will accuse you of having rejected so many graces and inspirations. Go forth, unhappy soul! Away with you! It is time for you to become the victim of the just vengeance of God, and to know how great is that Lord whom you have treated so contemptuously! Away with you! There is no room for you here any longer! Alas ! and must I go? Come, you demons, and take my soul into everlasting fire! death of the sinner! misery of all miseries! in which there is neither comfort or help from heaven, on earth, from nature, from grace, from God, nor from man! Call out, Prophet! in the ears of all men: " The death of the wicked is very evil; " it is the most terrible of all.
Be not frightened, pious Christians! I have been speaking only of one who is hardened in sin to the end, of the impenitent sinner, of the sinner on his death-bed. This subject is not for you, except to console you with the thought that if you continue to serve God faithfully you shall not have such a death to fear. This subject is not for you, except to give you a greater knowledge and appreciation of the divine mercy, which has allowed you time for repentance after you have perhaps committed many grievous sins. This subject is not for you, except to encourage you and give you afresh impulse to serve the good God with still greater zeal, and to prepare yourselves for the consoling and joyful death of the righteous. As a man lives, so shall he die; death is an echo of life. If you call out " " into the forest, the echo will not answer"; " if a man always keeps on the right road to Jerusalem he will not find himself in Babylon at the end of his journey; he who tries to serve God faithfully during life will never find himself abandoned by God in death. I never could find any reason for believing those stories that we read sometimes about people who have spent years serving God in solitude, and who yielded to temptation in their last moments and died an unhappy death. Nonsense! the promises of the God of truth cannot be broken. If those tales are true, as far as the end of them is concerned, then I say that it is not true that those men lived really holy lives, but for a long time they must have been subject to pride or other secret vices that were hid den from the eyes of men, and that laid the foundation of an unhappy death. I cannot form such a despicable opinion of my heavenly Father as to think that He would be capable of throwing one of His dear children off His lap at the last moment, and casting him into the jaws of the hellish wolf. Nor can I think any man such a fool as to change all of a sudden, when the gate of heaven is actually open for him, to renounce God and give himself to the devil, damn himself forever after having worked so long and so hard to get to heaven. No; as a man lives, so shall he die. Continue to serve God, and that with joyful hearts; you need not fear death, no matter how, when, or where he comes for you. " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints; " " With him that feareth the Lord it shall go well in the latter end, and in the day of his death he shall be blessed."
Sinners, it is to you that my sermon is principally directed; not through dislike, but through sincere and well-meant love for your souls; not to drive you to despair, but to induce you to amend; not to announce to you such a terrible death, but to give you a paternal warning against it, while you still have time (and who knows how long that time will last?). Tell me; is it really your wish to die such an unhappy death? Do you indeed desire to go into eternity in that manner? Ah, if so, of what good to you is a handful of money, a bit of ground, a short-lived pleasure, a point of honor, or the joy you find in a creature? And that is all for which you abandon your God and commit sin. I ask you again: do you mean to die a bad death for such trumpery? No, you think; God forbid! Yes; but see how you are living; and as you live so you shall die without the least doubt. Of a hundred thousand who put off repentance to the hour of death there is hardly one who repents sincerely. You are minded to amend before death; but when? After a time. Have you a document to show how long your time is to last? There are millions of souls in heaven who would not be there now if they had deferred their conversion never so little. Millions of souls are burning in hell forever, because they have thought and acted as you do now, and have deferred repentance though only for one hour. Oh, how stupid we mortals are! We are certain that we have grievously sinned; we are certain that we have merited an eternal hell; we are certain that we must die; we are certain that we may die at any moment; we are certain that most people die unhappily; we are certain that the same fate may be ours this very night, this day, this hour even; and yet we remain for hours, days, weeks, years, in the state of sin, although if death surprises us in that state we shall be dragged down to hell by the demons! Good God! what blindness and folly!
Ah, sinner, if it were only probable that we should die, what depends on death is so weighty that it should be our greatest care not to die unhappily. If there were but one of us here in church who had such a death to fear, it would be reason enough to make us all shudder with terror, and to say to ourselves: perhaps it is I. sinner, do penance! penance! and do not delay about it, "for tribulation is very near." Well-known and remarkable is the picture of human life given us by St. John Damascene. A traveller, he says, runs as hard as he can off the road in pursuit of game into the desert. While running he falls into a trap covered with leaves, and as one naturally does when falling, he stretches out his hands, and happens to catch hold of a bush growing on the side of the hole. Meanwhile he sees at the bottom a terrible serpent, ready to devour him as soon as he falls. But the worst of all is that two mice, one white, the other black, are gnawing at the weak roots of the bush he is holding. What his thoughts are likely to be in those circumstances is easy to imagine. sinner! such is the state in which we all are. Death is the poisonous serpent that awaits us in the grave; the weak thread of our life is the only thing that supports us; at this thread are constantly gnawing two mice, one black and the other white; that is, day and night; the past night has already gnawed away its part, and the thread is so much eaten away. Who knows how long they still have to gnaw? Who can know it? Perhaps this very evening they may have finished with you or me; and woe then to him who falls, not merely into the jaws of death, but into the abyss of hell! "Except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish." l Oh, yes, merciful God! I will now take to penance as the surest means; now I already begin to bewail my sins and to lead a different life. I must die; but I am determined not to die unhappily, and therefore I shall lead a better life. I cast myself into the arms of Your fatherly mercy; do with me what Thou pleasest; this one request is all I make of Thee: " Let my soul die the death of the just; " a let my death be happy, holy, and precious in Thy sight. Amen.