SIXTEENTH SERMON
ON THE HAPPY END OF OUR YEARS
Subject.
A wish for a happy end of our years. Firstly; what this wish means. Secondly; how it is to be realized by each one according to his state in life. Preached on the Sunday in the Octave of the Nativity.
Text.
" When the fulness of the time was come." (Gal. iv. 4. )
Introduction.
These words have been used and will be used as long as the world lasts of all men: " When the fulness of the time has come." Thus with the child the fulness of time may come in two or three years; that is the end of its years. The fulness of time for the youth or maiden may be in ten or twenty years, for the man or woman in thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty years; then comes the end of their years. The same words, my dear brethren, shall one day be used of us too; but we cannot say how many years must elapse till then. today all of us here present, when the fulness of the time was come, as the forty-third year of the century came to an end and the forty-fourth was about to begin, we all assembled in the church at Treves to hear a sermon; whether we shall be able to say that, when this year that is so near its end shall have fully run its course, we know not. Perhaps then or sooner the end of our years may have come for some of us. Let it be as God has decreed in His inscrutable designs. Happy shall we be if the end of our years is a happy one. And that is what I wish myself, you, and every one from my heart at the end of this year. Namely, I do not wish in the common mode of expression, a happy end of the present year and beginning of next; but I wish for you and myself:
Plan of Discourse.
A happy end of our years. In the first part I shall explain what this means. That it can and should be realized by every one, and how that is to ~be done, I shall show in the second part.
Give us Your grace to this end, Infant Saviour; we beg it of You through the intercession of Your Mother Mary and our holy guardian angels.
But. you will think, what a sad and melancholy wish for the year! Friends generally wish one another many years of life and happiness on this day; but you talk of the end of our years. Do you then wish us to die? Is it your desire to make an end of our lives? That is a thing that most men cannot think of without fear and trembling; a thing that is looked on generally in the world as the most terrible of all. For then we must separate from all men, leave all that we loved in the world, and thus, stripped of everything, go into the unknown land of a long eternity. Truly your wish is a melancholy one, and you had better have said nothing about it. Yet, my dear brethren, I repeat it, and wish you and myself from my heart a happy end of our years. Mark the terms I use. I wish to each one the end of his years, but a happy end; I wish you death, but a happy death, and one that shall not come until the years of life determined for each one by the all-wise providence of God shall be accomplished; then I wish you a just, holy, and happy end of your life, that your death may be precious in the sight of God and of His saints and the elect in heaven.
Could I desire anything better for you than this? Is there anything in the world more important for us than a good and happy end to our lives? For what else do we live and spend our years in this world than that we may die well and happily ? What should be the object of our greatest, no, only care, if not to gain heaven by a happy death, and there rejoice with God and the elect for all eternity?
It is true that at the end we must leave all things; but is that so very terrible? What is the value of all that trumpery if we receive eternal goods instead? The loss of a penny is a grievous one for a poor workman who has a wife and children to feed, and to rob him even of that small amount is as much as to condemn him to fast for the whole day; yet if the good man was sure of gaining two ducats for the penny, would he much regret the loss of it, or be very unwilling to pardon the thief who stole it from him? No, indeed! he would be only too glad to suffer such a loss every day on similar conditions. Take from your servant's hand his bit of bread and cheese, and give him instead a piece of roast meat and a bottle of wine; he will thank you most heartily for your seeming rudeness in snatching the food out of his hand. We readily suffer an old coat to be torn if we hope to get a new one in place of it. Is not that so? Now, my dear brethren, what is it that we must leave behind us on earth, when we come to the end of life? The most precious thing of all that death takes from us is life, and that is very short, uncertain, and inconstant. St. James compares it to a vapor that is seen for a time and suddenly disappears: "For what is your life? It is a vapor which appears for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away. " It is a life of misery and suffering, as the Prophet Job complains: "Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries. " But we need not dwell longer on this truth, which we know well enough already from experience.
And what else is taken from us by death? He who dies has been either poor or a rich man. If he has been poor, he leaves goods. nothing he need trouble about. He who has nothing can lose nothing. Has he been rich ? Then, though his wealth was enormous and like Solomon he had all the pleasures of the world, he has to bid good-bye to everything; but what is that to him if he has lived piously and has a happy end? What is all he has left compared to what will be given to him in eternity? Ah, the just man will think on his death-bed when he reflects on the surpassing great reward that awaits him, and when he almost grasps it at the end of his life: Ah, if death means nothing more than leaving those miserable things in order to go to God in heaven, why should I hesitate about dying? Come, death, and strip me bare. Formerly I thought temporal goods worth a great deal; it seemed to me a hard thing to have to leave parents, children, husband, wife, dear friends, money, house and home, and the whole world; now I see that all this is easy enough; I did not know it then as I do now.
I have been like a little child. Before a child comes to the use of reason, it generally thinks more of its nurse than of its parents. If you ask it whom it likes best, it will indeed point to its father or mother, because it has been taught to do so; but all the time it loves the nurse more than either. In the father's arms it cries; in the nurse's it laughs again. Why? Because the child is better off with her; she feeds it, dandles it in her arms, simile, dresses it and plays with it in different fashions; while the father, who has serious business to mind, has no time for such trifles. But when the child begins to understand a little, then it changes its mind, then it loves father and mother more than a hundred nurses; for it sees then that the nurse is but a poor servant who works for wages, and has nothing more to expect, while its parents are rich and will at some future day leave it a good legacy. So it is with us, my dear brethren; as long as we are in health and strength we have a great opinion of what we possess in and of the world; the earth is, as it were, our nurse that feeds us, that has to do with us always, giving us food and drink, clothing and occupation, according to the decrees of the Creator; it presents to our eyes, ears, and other senses all sorts of agreeable objects, as the Prophet Baruch writes: " For I nourished them with joy," like a nurse. Therefore we love the world, and have a natural inclination to love it more than we love God, although He is our true Father, from whom we receive everything, and from whom we expect an eternal inheritance in heaven. What is the cause of that? Because we have but a dim knowledge of God by faith. We acknowledge indeed that God is to be prized and loved more than all the world can give us; we show this too in reality when we serve God and keep His commandments, and profess that we are willing to lose all rather than offend Him grievously; because we have been taught this from our youth upwards and have heard it so often. Yet as far as the natural inclination is concerned, we fear and shudder at the idea of being separated from the world and its goods, no matter how worth less they are, and of going to our Father in heaven.
But when the eyes of the mind are properly opened for the first time at the end of life, then we shall see and know with what a poor handmaid we have had to do, and how wretched and miserable life is in this world. And he who dies a happy death will then be able to say with joy: oh, how vile the things I leave behind me; and how precious the treasures I am about to receive in exchange for them from the faithful God whom I have served! My money and all my possessions I willingly leave to those who are to come after me; I have brought nothing into the world, I shall take nothing out of it. But oh, what happiness! In a short time I shall hear the joyful invitation of the Lord: "Well done, good and faithful servant, because you have been faithful over a few things I will place you over many things; enter you into the joy of your Lord." Enter into the city whose pavement is of pure gold, whose walls are of diamonds and precious stones, as St. John describes heaven in the Apocalypse. There there will be abundance without want; treasures and riches without end, and no fear of ever losing them. My honor before the world, my dignity and reputation I leave to another, who will take my place; it is not worth much in any case, and in exchange for it I shall receive the crown of glory to reign with the sovereign Monarch of heaven and earth, according to His own promise: "Where I am, there also shall my minister be; " a I shall become like to Him, as the same St. John says: " When He shall appear, we shall be like to Him. " Could I wish for a greater honor and dignity?
I leave what I hitherto loved: parents, children, friends, and relations; I have seen them for the last time in this mortal life; but after all that is no great hardship! For what delightful company awaits me in heaven in the many millions of angels, holy martyrs, confessors, and virgins, who rejoice together with the most perfect mutual love in God! I shall see Mary, the most pure virgin, my dearest Mother, whom I have so longed to be hold; no, I shall rejoice forever in the most intimate friendship of infinite beauty, God Himself. I must leave, once for all, all earthly delights, such as those I found in eating, drinking, amusing myself; but what miserable things those are in comparison with the indescribable joys that await me at that table of which Our Lord speaks: "And I dispose to you, as My Father has disposed to Me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, I shall no longer see the light of the sun with my bodily eyes, nor have sensible experience of how my descendants shall fare on earth after my death; but everything that occurs in heaven and on earth I shall know and understand incomparably better by the beatific vision of God. My body, that has hitherto served my soul as a sort of garment, and is torn by death, and the life that I have tried so hard to preserve by minding my health, these shall be taken from me; but neither is that a great hardship. For my soul shall be clad with the shining robe of glory and will live forever without fear of illness or fatigue. Farewell, then, world, with all your fripperies! I leave you with joy! Go forth, my soul, from this emaciated, miserable body; leave it to the earth to be eaten by worms in the grave. The time shall come in which this very body shall rise up out of the dust in the general judgment, to be again united to you, and to share forever in your eternal joys. Good bye to everything on earth! My banishment is at an end; the business of my life happily accomplished; I am going to the land of joys where it shall be always well with me! These are the joyful thoughts of the man who dies a happy death. See, my dear brethren, the end of your years that -I wish each and every one of you from my heart. And such an end we can all have if we only strive for it earnestly, no matter what our state or condition; that we may all do this, is the wish I shall briefly express in the
Second Part.
My first care shall then be for myself, that my years may end happily, and in this you, reverend members of the clergy, are all concerned. This firm resolution of mine shall constantly remind me of the duties and obligations imposed on me by God in my state of life, so that I may always try to fulfil them as I shall wish on my death-bed to have fulfilled them. It will help me, whenever I appear before the face of God to announce His praises in the divine office and other prayers, to show to such a great Lord all due reverence, and to be modest and attentive in His presence, in the hope that at the end of my years I may praise Him forever with the angels. It will remind me, when I stand at the altar to offer to the Eternal Father the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, to treat that sacred mystery, before which the angels tremble, with becoming respect and in a holy manner, to behold with chaste eyes, to touch with pure hands, to receive with stainless heart those accidents that conceal the body of my future Judge. It will impel me, when I have to instruct other souls according to the requirements of duty, to be filled with an unwearied zeal and to have a pure intention for the greater glory of God. It will remind me, when I am alone at home, to be always united to God; when I am in company with others, to give them good example; wherever I am, whatever I do, to keep my heart free from earthly attachments and have it always fixed on heaven and eternal goods, that I may thus have a happy end of my years.
The same thing I say to you, gentlemen of the laity, according to your different states. See that you follow the wise adage: "in all things look to the end. " Whether your office or employment is a lucrative one, whether the lawsuit or other import ant undertaking you have commenced is likely to succeed, what your superiors think of you, how people look on you, whether you give satisfaction to your inferiors; these are considerations and cares that cannot be found fault with; but whether and how far all these things can help to the comfort and merit of your soul in the home of its long eternity, that should indeed be your first and most important care. I must and will have a happy end. That should be your firm resolution, and it will teach you the art of speaking, reading, and writing well; that is, it will teach you how to govern your tongue, how to speak out what your duty requires at the proper time, how to be silent, to advise, to exhort, to punish, to further, to hinder, to refuse, according to the requirements of the law of God and the conscience of each one; it will guide your pen to uphold justice, to protect innocence, to defend the poor, the destitute, and the oppressed; it will guide your hands, that they may remain closed to treacherous, dangerous, and often unjust presents and bribes; it will order all your studies and occupations, that you may seek to further the glory of God and the salvation of your souls rather than your temporal gain, so that at the end of your years you may leave this world with joy and go to heaven.
You, married people, parents, fathers and mothers! pay attention to these words of St. Augustine: " Know and understand," he says, " that we are not Christians to think of this world alone, but to have our thoughts always fixed on the next life; " l our sole care should not be as to how we can live and bring up children, and clothe and feed them according to our station, but we are Christians especially that we may prepare for the next life. For that reason the supreme Lord of heaven and earth has placed you over your domestics as masters and mistresses, and over your children as parents, that you may so rule them and bring them up that not one of them may be lost at the end of his years through your fault. Ah, parents! think of it often, and think on it deeply: what a dreadful thing it would be for a loving father or mother to bring a child into the world that is to fall in to the clutches of the devil at the end of his days! And what should not parents do to avert such a dreadful calamity! And what a happiness it is for a loving father or mother to bring in to the world a child that at the end of its days shall be brought by the angels into heaven! What should not parents do to secure such happiness for their children! Make a resolution to work for a happy end of your years, and it will keep you up to your duty with regard to your children. Let the husband then often say to his wife, and parents to their children: Dear wife! we are now living together, but we know not for how long; the time shall come when we shall have to separate; one of us must go first and the other follow. My dear children! it will be the same with you; but, wife, what a terrible thing it would be for us to be separated at the end of our years forever, for one to be in heaven and the other in hell! Children, if I have a happy end and you an unhappy one, what a terrible separation that would be. God has given us the means of living well and respectably; but how will that help us at the end if we do not now make good use of those means? If on the other hand we now suffer poverty, what worse shall we be for that at the end, if we only serve God truly in our want? Let us then so live together that we may have a happy end, and rejoice together forever in heaven.
Young men and women! lam afraid my wish is not a very pleasant one to you; yet it is all the more necessary for you the less you are wont in your young years, eager as you are after pleasure, to think of how it may be with you at the end of your years. " Remember your last end " is the advice the wise Ecclesiasticus gives each and every one of you; in all your works, in all your days, think of what you would wish your last end to be. That thought will make you careful to avoid the occasions of sin, to keep away from dangerous places and company, to restrain the outward senses, and especially the eyes and ears, that you may do nothing even in thought or desire that could make your end unhappy. That thought will remind you to take timely council with God regarding your future state in life, and in the choice of that state, on which generally depends the happy or unhappy end of your years, not to be led by the senses or by what seems agreeable to you, but to consider what state is the most likely to make the end of your years happy. In all doubts that occur to you, as to whether you should do this or that, or permit it, go to this or that place or company, act or act not according to this or that worldly fashion in all such circumstances think of the end of your lives; ask yourselves: will this company, or conversation, or fashion bring me comfort on my death-bed, or make me more sure of heaven? or will it, on the other hand, perhaps increase my death-bed anguish? May I not, perhaps, wish to have lived more carefully, humbly, modestly, and so on? Think often in that way of your last end, that my wish may be fulfilled in your regard: happy be the end of your years!
Joy and consolation for you, widows and orphans, desolate, sorrowful, and afflicted Christians! Joy and consolation, I say, will be brought to you by the thought of the happy end of your years, provided only that you are minded to work for it earnestly. The Prophet Daniel, describing the many tribulations and afflictions that were to visit different peoples, adds: " And this until a time." 8 Poor, oppressed souls! only be patient and resigned to the will of God! Think how short is this uncertain time; what you are now enduring shall last only until a time; it will soon come to an end ! Your poverty and want shall last only for a time; they will come to an end. Your trouble and desolation shall last only for a time: they shall come to an end; your sighs and tears shall last only for a time: they shall come to an end; and if you keep always in the friendship of God it will be a most happy end, of which you can be far more sure than any one else. For there is no other way to heaven but the way of the cross, of penance, of mortification, of self-denial, of humiliation. Oh, with what joy will you be able to think on your death -bed: now I have suffered what God willed me to suffer, and how small it was! it is all over now, and I am going into heavenly, eternal joys that shall never end!
Sinners if any of you here, as I trust not, deserve that name you who are still in the state of sin, do you think you will be able to say the same on your death-bed at the end of your years? Truly you will then know how small is that which you now es teem so highly, for the sake of which you leave your God. But what will remain to you of it all? Nothing. What am I saying? It would be well for you if you had nothing to expect after death, if your souls were capable of crumbling into dust with your bodies! But where shall you go then? Alas! into poverty with out end, into hunger and thirst without end, into wailing and gnashing of teeth without end, into hell without end, into that lake of burning pitch, into everlasting fire amongst the demons! See, that will infallibly be the end of your years, if you finish your lives in the state in which you are now. Will you persist in that state? Ah, no! Rather make with me quite a different resolution.
No, God of goodness and mercy! I am not so far gone as that yet ! I acknowledge that I have deserved a bad end a hundred, a thousand times. I have to thank Your goodness and mercy alone that You have not called me away in my sins, while during those years that I have been Your enemy so many others have been carried off by an unhappy death! Now that I still have time, and I know not how long that time may be, without further delay I will return to the lap of Your fatherly mercy, I will repent of and detest my sins and confess them. With the beginning of the new year I shall begin to lead a new life, one in which I shall not cease to serve You until I shall have arrived at the happy end of it. Now, my dear brethren, is not such the resolution you all make with me? Then I can confidently promise you and myself what I wish from my heart; a happy end of our years! Amen.