On The Sinner At The Last Day Of Judgment
THIRTY-FOURTH SERMON
ON THE SUMMONING OF THE DEAD TO JUDGMENT.
Subject.
All men without exception shall be summoned before the judgment-seat of God. Oh, what a wonderful change shall then take place in many minds! Preached on the third Sunday after Epiphany.
Text.
" And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west." (Matt. viii. 11.)
Introduction.
They will come from the east and the west, but what a vast difference there shall be between them! Of some the Gospel says that they " shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven," while others, amongst whom there will be many for whom the kingdom of heaven was prepared, "shall be cast into the exterior darkness." When shall this coming, this crisis take place? On the last day, when Jesus Christ shall summon all mankind from the four quarters of the globe before His tribunal, to judge every one according to his works. My dear brethren, we have already considered the Judge as God, as Man, as our Saviour, and as our Model. But in a judgment there are many persons besides the judge: there is the accused, who is cited before the tribunal; there is the chief question on which he is to be tried; there are the assessors who examine the case; there are the accusers and witnesses; and finally, there is the sentence pronounced by the judge which either absolves or condemns the accused. All these circumstances are a source of consolation for the just, but a terror for the wicked. The summoning of the accused before the tribunal is the subject of this day's meditation, which shall consist in the answer to this one question;
Plan of Discourse.
Who are those who shall be summoned ? All men, without exception. Oh, what a wonderful change shall then take place in the minds of many ! Tins shall serve as a salutary meditation by way of consolation for the just and of warning for the wicked.
Touch the hearts of both by Your grace, future Judge and still merciful Saviour ! We ask this of You through the inter cession of Your Mother Mary and of our holy guardian angels.
To prove that we and all mankind shall be summoned before the tribunal f the Almighty nothing more is necessary than the words of Our Lord Himself, the divine Judge: " When the Son of man shall come in His majesty," He says in the Gospel of St. Matthew, "and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty: and all nations shall be gathered together before Him." All without exception, from every country in the world great and small, rich and poor, men and women, all who have ever lived on earth shall meet there. In the four quarters of the globe shall be heard the awful sound of that trumpet which re-echoed in the ears of St. Jerome day and night: Arise, you dead, and come to judgment! Arise, you princes and kings, who ruled the world! away with you to the tribunal of your Supreme Lord! Arise, you heroes and warriors, whose arms filled the world with dread! away with you to the muster which is to be held in the presence of your General-in-chief ! Arise, you judges and superiors, who have so often tried others and pronounced sentence on them! it is now your turn to hear the final decision of your Supreme Judge! Arise, you merchants and men of business, who have travelled over land and sea to make money! your account-books have now to be examined by your greatest Creditor. Arise, you laborers and servants, who earned your bread by the sweat of your brow! come before the great Head of the family ! Arise, you married people, you young men and maidens; behold the Bridegroom comes, and is waiting for you ! Arise, you rich, you poor, noble, and lowly ! But away with such names, they have no longer any meaning, for then we shall be all alike. Arise, you dead; that is the only common title we shall all have. Come, hasten to judgment!
Now I wish, my dear brethren, to place before your mental vision a spectacle of terror and surprising change. Quick, ye angels! Heavenly messengers, blow the trumpets! Sun, be darkened! Moon, hide your light! Stars, fall down from heaven! Skies, send down the fiery rain! Everything on earth must be burnt up and reduced to ashes! ]S T ow, angels, sound the call: Arise, you dead, and come to judgment! Behold, says St. Paul, " in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet," the graves shall all be opened, the mouldering bones shall come together, each soul shall enter into its body, " the dead shall rise again incorruptible." The dead shall come forth living. What an awful spectacle ! In earthly judgments the accused is warned some time beforehand, and a certain day is fixed for the hearing of his case, so that he may be able to prepare for it. But here all is to happen in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, without any forewarning; when the summons comes the accused must appear. In earthly tribunals the accused is allowed to bring his advocate with him, to speak for him and plead his cause as best he may; here each one shall have to appear alone and speak for himself, and answer the questions put to him. Kings and emperors ! bring not your crowns and your purple with you to this place, and let no ministers or satellites accompany you ! Here one man is as good as another, as far as respect for persons is concerned. The peasant is as good as his prince, the beggar as good as the rich man, the ignorant clown as respectable as the learned philosopher, until the Judge sends His angels to make the prop er separation between them all. " He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats: and He shall set the sheep," that is the just, "on His right hand, but the goats," that is the wicked, " on His left."
There, my dear brethren, we have the infallible truth taught to us by our faith about the calling of all mankind to the last judgment. Now let us make a few reflections on this truth. First, what a great change shall take place in man} minds when the dead shall arise out of their graves and hear for the first time the trumpet that summons them to the tribunal! Just souls! what a joyful sound that will be for you! To you alone does Our Lord say the words that we read in the Gospel of St. Luke: (( When these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads: because your redemption is at hand." What joy for the student at the end of the scholastic year to hear his name called out in public, that he may ascend the stage to receive a gilded volume. And although during the performance he may have represented the person of a poor, tattered beggar, he considers his honor greater than if he had represented a king, with out receiving any mark of honorable distinction: for in the latter case he would try to hide away and weep for very shame. Arise, you dead! These words, pious Christians, shall bring nothing but joy to you; they will be the loving invitation of the Spouse to His bride: " Arise, make haste, my love, my dove, my beautiful one, and come," "for winter is now past, the rain is over and gone." Come, and you shalt be crowned! Arise, you poor in spirit ! Come to eternal riches! Arise, you mourners who have bewailed your sins with tears and contrition; who have suffered many tribulations with contented hearts for My sake; come! you shall be comforted; the rude winter is past; the rough toil is over; there is an end to all suffering; come, and enter into eternal joys! Arise, you merciful; now shall you obtain mercy with out end or limit! Arise, you meek, you peacemakers; come and possess the kingdom of the beloved children of God! Arise, you chaste of heart; come and behold your God forever! Arise, you humble; come now and be exalted, and sit on a throne of ever lasting glory! my God! should I not during this short and uncertain time of my life love You above all things with my whole heart, and serve You with all possible zeal, that I may one day be awakened by such a joyful invitation? But otherwise, alas! what a terrible sound shall that of the last trumpet be for me and all sinners!
Arise, you dead ! Arise, wicked sinners! Arise, you proud and ambitious man, you unjust, avaricious man, you impure adulterer, you drunkard, you vindictive man, you blasphemer, you curser, you vain, sensual man! Arise, slothful, wicked servant, and come to judgment! Imagine, my dear brethren, the feelings of a criminal who on awakening in the morning sees to his great surprise the executioner awaiting him with the rope in his hand ready to lead him to the gallows. Some have suddenly become grey with terror when they heard the bell toll as the signal for their execution. Imagine and it is not near so terrible as the first case the state of mind of the child who, having committed a great fault, sees its father standing by its bedside in the morning with the rod in his hand, and calling out to him in an angry voice: get up! Ah, there is something else in question be sides merely getting up! The child turns and twists in the bed and rolls itself up in the clothes, crying so as to be heard over the whole house, although it has not as yet felt a single blow. Why so? Because in addition to having to get up it knows that the rod is in store for it. But all this is mere child's play compared to the anguish that shall fill the sinner when he awakens from the sleep of death to be summoned to judgment.
William of Lyons writes of a Grecian king who was always sad and melancholy because he kept thinking of his sins and of the last judgment. His brother often remonstrated with him on this, and the king determined to bring him to his senses. One night he ordered the trumpets to be blown at the door of his brother's house as a sign that the master of it was sentenced to death. The brother next morning, thinking that things had come to an evil pass with him, went with his wife and children all clad in mourning to the king's palace, and there threw himself down on the ground, weeping with terror. What is the meaning of this? asked the king. Have not reason to be sad, replied his broth er, since I have heard the terrible trumpet that announces my death, although I know not what I have done to deserve such a fate? Oh, replied the king, if that trumpet has disturbed you so much, although you do not know what you have done to deserve death, how can you reasonably ask me to lay aside all fear and anxiety, since my thoughts are always occupied with that terrible trumpet-sound that shall call me to the tribunal of the Al mighty, there to have sentence passed on me; and moreover know very well that I have often sinned and deserved eternal death? Go; my only object was to teach you what just reason I have for my fears.
Wicked Christian! Woe to you if, more deaf than the mouldering bones which at the sound of the trumpet shall rise at once out of their graves, you close your ears to my voice, or rather to the voice of God who speaks to you by my mouth ! Woe to you if the meditation on that dreadful day in which all nature shall be disturbed and men shall wither away with fear does not in spire you with a salutary fear, and with the resolution of at last amending your sinful life! But if you now refuse to listen to me who am only saying what is for your eternal salvation, you will one day against your will have to hear that terrible voice whose only utterance for you will be the sentence of your eternal damnation. Therefore I advise you in the words of St. Paul: "Rise you that sleepest, and arise from the dead;" arise and put on the mourning garments of true contrition for your sins, so that when the trumpet calls out: Arise, you dead, and come to judgment! you may arise with joy and exultation to eternal life.
Again, what a change shall take place in the minds of many, of the just on one side and the wicked on the other, when the souls of both shall rejoin their bodies, which in the case of the former shall glorified, angelically beautiful, and brighter than the sun; but in the case of the latter, deformed, hideous, and emitting a foul odor. With what joy will not the souls of the just welcome their bodies and lead them into everlasting happiness! Come, the just soul shall say; come, my dear companion, and share in my glory which you have helped me to gain! Give me the hand with which you have labored every day for the honor of God; with which you have given such generous alms to the poor; which you have never misused for injustice or impurity! Give me the eyes that you didst so carefully guard against dangerous looks! Give me the mouth that you have opened so candidly in the tribunal of penance to confess your sins, a confession that has saved us from the fire of hell! Give me that flesh that you have so often mortified for God's sake and to gain heaven! Come now, and let us enter together into the joys of heaven, where we shall never be separated from each other again! And on the other hand, with what horror, with what curses and blasphemies, the soul of the reprobate shall rejoin its foul can-ion and drag it down to eternal flames! Ac cursed body! the soul shall say; how can I remain united to this putrid mass for all eternity? Art you that sink of corruption that I have so much loved and petted? for whose pleasure I have lost the glory of heaven that I was created for? For your sake, that you mightest enjoy yourself and live in luxury, I am lost forever! Accursed soul! the body shall exclaim; you shouldst with reason have held me better in check, and refused me what was bad and injurious for me! Oh, rather let me lie in the grave consumed with worms than accompany you to hell!
Pious Christians! to console yourselves in your daily trials and crosses and to encourage you to lead mortified lives, think often of this: the less comfort your body now has in the shape of sensual, earthly, and transitory pleasures; the more it is plagued with labor, hunger, thirst, sickness, and pain; the more it is chastised by voluntary mortifications, the more glorious and beautiful will it be at the last day, when it shall be again united to your soul. Vain worldlings! do you also frequently think of this to inspire yourselves with a salutary fear; no one can go to heaven by leading a luxurious, idle, sensual, comfortable life; the way on which Jesus Christ has walked is a narrow, rude way, beset with thorns and crosses, and it must be travelled by all who wish to follow Him to life; no one shall be reckoned in the number of the elect, no one shall be acknowledged as His child by the eternal Father, who is not like to the image of His crucified Son. What will then become of you, to whom the very name of the cross is a hideous goblin? you who never deny your mouth, eyes, ears, and other senses any pleasure they ask for? you who always pet yourselves and treat yourselves so tenderly? you who adorn your bodies contrary to the law of God, the teaching of the Gospel, and the rules of Christian humility, as the vain usages of the world demand, and to the scandal of others? You will receive those bodies again, but in what condition? How monstrous, deformed, and horrible they shall be? To dwell in them in that state, even if you had nothing else to suffer, would be a hell in itself.
Thirdly, what a change there will be in the minds of many when all mankind shall behold themselves huddled together without any respect for persons: kings and princes with lowly peasants, high-born ladies with vulgar kitchen-maids all assembled before the judgment-seat of God, as St. John says in the Apocalypse: "I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne" I my dear brethren, what will then become of the point of honor and of precedence in rank? what of nobility and high lineage? what of high stations and positions? what of titles and honorable distinctions? Will there be perhaps a dispute as to who shall come first out of the grave, as to who shall precede and who shall yield to others? Will any respect be shown to one who comes forth from a grand mausoleum more than to one who arises out of a lowly church -yard? Shall we hear people say: I am a king, a prince, a count, a noble, a gentleman, a servant, a peasant, a beggar? I am a per son of distinction; I am one of the lower orders things that now excite such foolish comment in the world? Oh, truly there will be an end of all that; for then all shall be equal; one shall be as high as the other, and the only rank shall be that of holiness and justice. And how aggrieved the great man must then feel when he sees not only that he is paid no mark of respect by his former servant, but that the latter, or the beggar, or the shepherd, whom he formerly hardly deigned to cast an eye on, is now placed above him, and he is forced to give way, no, that he must now actually lie at the feet of those whom he formerly persecuted, oppressed, and treated like dogs. Then shall the prophecy of Isaias be fulfilled: "The children of them that afflicted You shall come bowing down to You, and all that slandered You shall worship the steps of Your feet. See there the rich glutton at the feet of the poor, ragged Lazarus, to whom during life he did not even deign to give the crumbs that fell from his table; Herod at the feet of St. John the Baptist, whom he decapitated; the emperor Nero prostrate before the poor fishermen, Peter and Paul, whom he had bound in chains; the emperor Diocletian bowing down before St. Sebastian, whom he had caused to be pierced with arrows; Rictius Varus at the feet of the citizens of Treves, in whose blood he had washed his hands; a judge prostrate before the poor widow or desolate orphan whose rights he had not upheld because they were of lowly condition. Oh, what a change that will be, and what confusion it shall cause in many minds! Could anything more humiliating be imagined for a proud, haughty man?
And they You must not think, my dear brethren, that on that day people will pay no heed to rank and privilege, and that the proud, after suffering the humiliations that shall then be common to all sinners, will not feel the confusion to which they shall be subjected. No! On the contrary, the wicked, as they left this world with their bad passions and inclinations in full vigor, shall rise again from the dead with the same passions; the proud man shall have his pride and ambition as formerly; the impatient man shall still feel all the rancor of his ill-humor; the passionate man shall be still subject to his feelings of rage; and hence what despair shall possess them when they see themselves to humiliated, despised, mocked at, and rejected by those over whom they were so much exalted during life! Piso, a noble Roman, was led before the judge, clad in a shabby robe, to be tried for some offence of which he was accused; seeing the people staring at him, some in scorn, others with pity, he felt so keenly the humiliation of being thus degraded before the common herd that he drew a dagger which he had concealed under his cloak, and in a fit of passion stabbed himself to the heart.
The consideration of this truth, my dear brethren, should now help us to practise true Christian humility. If one is inclined to think too much of the rank that exalts him above others, he should say to himself: on that day there will be no question of rank, and who knows whether I shall not have to take my place even amongst the lowest? Remember this, you rich people, when a poor mendicant comes to your doors and calls through the keyhole for a piece of bread, and do not keep him waiting for hours, nor turn him off with harsh words; say to yourselves: one day I shall have to stand with that beggar in the valley of Josaphat, and who knows whether I shall not have to lie prostrate at his feet? Remember this, you ladies and gentle men who are sometimes so harsh with your servants and treat them like slaves, storming at and cursing them if they happen to commit the least fault, and refusing them the necessary care and nourishment if ill-health renders them unable to attend to their duties. Say to yourselves: on that day my servant shall stand in the same rank with me, and then shall be seen which of us is to be the master, which the servant; which is to be the lady, and which the humble handmaid. Then perhaps I shall have to address in humble words those who now wait on me, and who are so badly treated by me !
The same thought should bring consolation to you, pious And the Christians, who are content with the will of God, although you are poor, desolate, despised, humiliated! Your trials shall last only for a time, and a very short time; and on the last day everything shall be changed, just as it is in a mirror. Look at yourselves for once in the glass; not for the sake of gratifying your vanity, in which useless occupation much precious time is often lost, but for the sake of learning a salutary lesson for the good of your souls. You will see your person represented therein as you stand, but with this difference: that your right hand shall be on the left side in the mirror, and your left hand on the right side; then think to yourselves: here in this life I am on the left hand, rejected, looked on as not worth anything, no, hardly looked at at all, while others and even the wicked are held in high esteem. Your will be done, God! I can wait till Your great day comes, when You shalt exhibit our lives to the whole world as in a glass; then we shall find our places changed. "They are lifted up for a little while," says the Prophet Job of the wicked who are raised above others in this life: but only for a little while; " and they shall not stand, and shall be brought down, and as the tops of the ears of corn they shall be broken." Consider the ears of corn in a field; what do you see? Nothing but a long stem of straw whose top is covered with something like hair. Nothing more? No. And where is the corn? The wheat for the sake of which alone the land has been tilled, can not be seen as yet; it is hidden and covered up. But wait till the time comes for threshing, and what happens? The straw that lifted itself up so proudly before is bruised by the flail and trod den underfoot, but the corn falls out and can be plainly seen; it is then most carefully gathered up, cleansed, winnowed, and put into the barn, while the straw is thrown into the stable under the cattle. So it is with us mortals during this life. Poor, pious souls! you are now in your humility concealed, hidden from the eyes of the world. The proud sinners are lifted up and honored like the straw in the field; but be not disturbed at this; console yourselves till the harvest time comes, till that day on which the straw shall be threshed out and the wheat separated from the chaff, as Our Lord says; then " as the tops of the ears of corn they shall be broken, then shall they be humbled, and like the straw lie under your feet; but you, like the corn, shall be gathered into the storehouse of the Eternal Father, who will then say to His reapers, that is, to His angels: "The wheat gather you into My barn."
Finally, what a great change shall take place in the minds of many when the separation shall be made according to the words: "The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just! Wicked man! the angels shall say, what are you doing here amongst the sheep of Christ? Away with you! This is no place for you ! You belong to the reprobate goats. Alas, how bitter and full of confusion shall then be the separation of one friend from another, of one acquaintance from an other, of one fellow-countryman from another, of one neighbor from another, of one member of a household from another! One shall be on the right hand, the other on the left. " Then two shall be in the field," says Our Lord in the Gospel of St. Mat thew, two who have worked together their lives long; " one shall be taken, and one shall be left." Two are living in the same house; " one shall be taken and one shall be left: " one shall be on the right, the other on the left hand. Two are in the same occupation; one of them shall be on the right, the other on the left hand. Two in the same family; one of them shall be on the right, the other on the left; the wife, for instance, on the right, the husband on the left; the father amongst the sheep, the son amongst the goats; the daughter amongst the angels, the moth er amongst the devils; the sister amongst the elect, the brother amongst the reprobate; the scholar amongst the pious, the teach er amongst the wicked; a layman amongst the saints, a priest amongst the accursed; the penitent amongst the blessed, the confessor amongst the damned; the hearers in heaven, the preacher in hell, or quite the reverse. Alas, I think, be this as it may, the separation will be a sorrowful one for the unlucky part, the change terrible!
My dear brethren, ah, where shall we be? on what side shall we stand? Shall we all be at the right hand? May God grant it! And if so, how we shall rejoice with and congratulate each other! Shall some of us be at the left hand? God save each and every one of us from such a fate! If any were so unfortunate, how pitifully they would look at their former companions from whose society they are now excluded! For my part, I am frightened when I think of my past life, and not without reason do I fear that many lay-people and simple lowly ones shall be placed far above me on that day. No, perhaps many great sinners who have been converted by my sermons and changed into zealous penitents shall stand quite close to the divine Judge; but where shall I be? my God! I hope in Your infinite mercy that You wilt not put me among the reprobate on Your left hand! I have detested and will as long as I live detest all my sins. I have repented and do now repent and will repent as long as I live that I have ever offended You. I love You now with my whole heart, and am ready to do, to omit, to suffer whatever you wishest me to do, to omit, to suffer. But I am not sure that I shall continue to love You to the end of my life. This much I know for certain: that if, as I hope and trust from Your divine mercy, I shall find myself among the elect on the right hand, shall see very many men who are now apparently far beneath me and far less esteemed than I am, to whom I shall have to yield in glory. This thought shall as long as I live make me look on others with the utmost respect, and never despise any one, no matter how lowly, or poor, or ignorant, or sinful he may be; and I will say to myself: perhaps that man shall have a higher place than I at the judgment. This thought shall prevent me from giving way to anger, from seeking to be revenged on those who offend me, and from doing evil to any one; for perhaps the object of my anger may be much higher than I shall be at the last day. This thought shall encourage me to bear contempt, abuse, sickness, pains, and tribulations with the greatest contentment, in the firm hope that my present state shall be completely changed. Say now to yourselves, dear Christians: now is the time to choose and prepare the place in which we shall wish to be on that day. We are all horrified at the idea of being on the left hand, and we all wish to be on the right. Then let us rise up from this meditation, which we shall often make, especially in the time of temptation and danger of being led into sin let us rise with the firm determination to serve zealously with our whole hearts, for the uncertain time that still remains to us, our God, who is worthy of all our love; to be obedient sheep who hear the voice of their Shepherd and follow it, and never on any account to commit a wilful sin, for that alone is able to place us amongst the accursed goats on that day! Such is our unanimous resolution, is it not? And with God's help we will keep it, so that when the trumpet calls us to the last judgment we shall be all together, to our great joy and mutual happiness, at the right hand of the Judge, and not one of us on the left. Amen.
Another introduction to the same sermon for the first Sunday of Advent.
Text.
"Men withering away for fear." (Luke xxi. 26.)
Introduction.
That I can well believe, for they will have good reason for fear! " Then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty." Who will not be awe-stricken at the sight of such majesty? Then they shall see coming a Judge who is a God of infinite wisdom and power; who shall not fear, whose conscience accuses him? A Judge who is at the same time a Man like to us; who shall not fear, who has not lived as becomes a man ? A Judge who is our Saviour; who shall not fear, who has repaid such love with ingratitude? A Judge who is our Pattern and Model; who shall not fear, who has not followed His example? True it is, sinful men shall " wither away for fear." My dear brethren, this was the subject which we considered last year during the holy season of Advent, when I spoke only of the Person of the Judge. But in a judgment there are several persons, etc. Continues as above.