the divine anger and the eternal punishment we have deserved.
The dying man is not in a state to undertake it. Now, my dear brethren, is it likely that such a sudden change will take place, and that one who has grown old in vice, whose inclinations and desires have always aimed at sensual, carnal, and unlawful objects; who has loved sin all his life, and who is leaving it now through force, nay, who would not leave it if he had not death before his eyes; one to whom sin by long use has grown to be a second nature; who has seldom made an act of the love of God, or of supernatural sorrow; who hardly understands what it is to repent sincerely; who, while he was strong and healthy, had such frequent opportunities of repenting with the full force of his reason, and who, instead of using them, said: I cannot give up sin now; I cannot yet amend my life; I cannot do penance for a while longer; is it likely, I ask, that a man of that kind will change so suddenly as to do sincere penance in so short a time, and at such an inconvenient time too?
Shown by a simile. When a large door has been kept fast bolted for twenty years without being opened, so that its hinges are rusted, can a weak man open it at once? Not by any means; he will be almost obliged to use a windlass at it. “Behold,” the Almighty has often said before to such a dying man, “I stand at the gate and knock; if any man shall hear My voice, and open to Me the door, I will come in to him.”[1] Now after all the knocking for so many years, the sinner could not make up his mind to open the door of his heart to the Lord by true repentance, so that it has become, as it were, quite rusted; how, then, will he be able to open it in a hurry when he hears death knocking? Ah, it cost St. Augustine the labor of twelve whole years to combat himself and overcome his evil inclinations and bad habits, and at last it required almost a miracle to change him. Can the dying sinner expect that miracle in the short time that remains to him when he is told that he is in a dangerous state and must die?
Confirmed by examples. No indeed! He will be like so many others, who died with the bad habits and desires in which they lived. I will give you a few examples. A rich miser was dying; he was attended by three priests, members of a well-known order; one was an excellent preacher, the other a master of novices, the third the man’s own son, a pious, edifying, truly spiritual man. What did not those three zealous priests do for the soul of the dying man,
- ↑ Ecce, sto ad ostium et pulso; si quis audierit vocem meara, et aperuerit mihi januam intrabo ad illum.—Apoc. iii. 20.
