committed! Ask your heart, from which you are unwilling to expel that secret hatred and anger against your fellow-man! Your tongue betrays its sinfulness by its abominable cursing and swearing, by impure conversations and songs, by calumny, detraction, and contumely. Your eyes betray themselves by their unchaste glances, your hands by sinful touches, your mouth by gluttony and drunkenness, even if you tried to hide your sins. And you fear hell? No! It is not true; it cannot be true. You rather wish to go to hell, for you love your sins, although faith tells you that for those very sins, if you do not sincerely repent of them, you shall be sent to hell.
The fear of and belief in hell should induce us to amend. But if, O sinner! I see that now after the sermon you go with a contrite and repentant heart into the confessional to lay aside at once the burden of your sins, if I am told that one has restored ill-gotten goods, another been fully reconciled to his enemy, a third sent away the person with whom he was living in sin, that in such and such a man there is a great change, that he is much more modest and reserved, more humble, chaste, and temperate, more patient, meek, and devout, more zealous in the service of God than before, then shall I readily believe and acknowledge: yes! those people are in earnest; that man shows that he fears the eternal fire of hell.
Shown by an example. We read in the Dialogues of St. Gregory of a Spaniard named Peter, who fell into a grievous illness so that he lay there for dead, and meanwhile was rapt in spirit into hell to see the torments suffered there. He witnessed there the most terrible tortures, and saw also those who had to suffer them; amongst them he recognized many rich and noble people whom he had known during life. When he came to himself, he told all he had seen, and said too that, as he was trembling with fear lest he too should be condemned to remain there forever, an angel came to him and told him, to his comfort, that he was to return to life, and added these words: “Go back, but in future be most cautions as to your manner of living.”[1] After this Peter recovered his health fully, and lost no time in setting hand to the important work; he renounced all his wealth, bade adieu to all the honors and delights of the world, retired into a wilderness, and led such a penitential life that it was evident he had seen hell and was filled with a great dread of it.[2] O sinner! you
