Third Point.
Not only is death the end of our labours, but it is even the gate of life, as S. Bernard observes. He who wishes to enter in, and see God, must pass through this gate. " This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter into it." (Ps. cxviii. 20.) S. Jerome called out to death, and said, " Open to me, my sister." My sister, death, if thou dost not open the door, I cannot go in to enjoy my Lord. S. Charles Borromeo, having a painting in his house which represented a skeleton with a scythe in the hand, called for the painter, and ordered him to erase the scythe, and to paint a golden key; desiring by this, that the wish for death should ever be kindled in his heart, for death is that key which must open the gate of heaven for us to see God.
S. John Chrysostom observes, that if a king had prepared an apartment in his palace for some one, but for some time desired that person to live in a hovel, how much would he not desire to leave the hovel, and to go to the palace? The soul during this life being in the body, is as it were in a prison, from which she must pass to enter into the kingdom of heaven; therefore David prayed, saying, " Bring my soul out of prison." (Ps. cxlii. 9.) And the holy Simeon, when he had the Infant Jesus in his arms, sought for no other favour than death, so as to be freed from the prison of this life, " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace." (S. Luke ii. 29.) S. Ambrose also says, " he seeks, as if he were held by necessity, to be dismissed." The Apostle also desired the same grace when he said, " having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ," (Phil. i. 23.)
What joy the cup-bearer of Pharaoh felt when he heard from Joseph, that he should soon be released from prison, and should return to his post! And a soul that loves God, does it not rejoice when it hears that within a short time it will be released from the prison of this world, and will go to enjoy God? "Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord." (2 Cor. v. 6.) Whilst we are united to the body, we are far from the sight of God; as it were in a foreign land, and far from our own country; and therefore S. Bruno remarks, that our death ought not to be called death, but life. Hence the death of the
