CONSIDERATION XXVIII
The Remorse of the Lost
"Where their worm dieth not" S. Mark ix. 46.
First Point.
BY the worm that does not die, S. Thomas Aquinas thinks, is signified, that remorse of conscience by which the lost will be eternally tormented in hell. The remorse will be manifold, with which conscience will gnaw the heart of the reprobate; but three forms of it will be the most afflicting first the thought of the little for which they are lost, then the little that was required for their salvation, and lastly the great good which they have lost.
The first sting, then, which the lost one will have, will be the thought, for how little he is lost. After Esau had eaten of that pottage of lentils, for which he had sold his birthright, Holy Scripture says, that, through grief and remorse, " He cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry." (Gen. xxvii. 34.) Oh, how the lost will howl and roar when he thinks that for a few momentary and hurtful gratifications he has lost an eternal kingdom of joy, and has to see himself eternally condemned to a perpetual death. Whence he will weep much more bitterly than Jonathan did when he found himself condemned to death by Saul, his own father, for having eaten a little honey, "I did but taste a little honey, .... and lo, I must die. (i Sam. xiv. 43.)
Oh, God, what a punishment will it be for the condemned to
