Of Judas the traitor the Lord says: It were good for him if that man had not been born (Matt. 26). For nothing more unhappy can be conceived than a man who by his own fault strays from the end for which he was created. For other things — whether brute animals, or plants, or inanimate things — if they do not attain their end, suffer no harm, since they cease to be; but man, if he strays from his end — which is a blessed and everlasting life — cannot but continue to be and to live, and leads a life worse than every death, so that he forever seeks after death. Therefore more foolish than every fool and more senseless than every senseless man is he who does not strive with all his might to attain it; since no one can fall short of eternal felicity without falling into the abyss of eternal damnation.
To undertake, then, this matter of the highest moment in a fitting manner, I have thought it worth while to consider briefly those words of the Apostle Paul which are found in the second Epistle to the Corinthians: For that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh for us, above measure exceedingly, an eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4). These apostolic and plainly golden words are most clear to the spiritual man, and by them above all the spiritual man learns, with the greatest ease, the art of living well and the art of dying well; but to the carnal or sensual man these words are mere darkness — Cimmerian darkness — as if to a man who knew only Latin or
Greek they were Hebrew or Arabic.
The spiritual man gathers from these words that tribulations, however grievous, when undertaken for God, are most light and most brief, even if they had to be endured for many years — because everything that has an end cannot be of long duration; and that these same tribulations effect before God a merit of so great a price, that thereby is purchased an immense and everlasting treasure of glory and of all good things. From this, wise men understand that tribulations are not to be feared, but sins are to be feared; and that temporal goods are not to be magnified, but eternal ones. From this it follows that they live well on earth, so that they may happily reign in heaven; and to this end they live piously, so that they may die happily. But sensual men, who have not the spirit — who in words say that they believe the words of divine Scripture, but in deeds deny them — these altogether pervert the apostolic words, and say, if not with the voice at least in the heart, that want, disgrace, and injuries are the most grievous tribulations, to be avoided and repelled with every precaution of mind, even should it be necessary to lie, to defraud, to commit murder, to sell God, and to endure hell after death. For who knows, they say, whether there be any hell at all, and who has seen an eternal weight of glory? But that want, disgrace, and injuries are evils — this we experience, this we know for certain, we touch it with our hands. These things the world and those who are of the world do not indeed proclaim with the mouth, but testify by their works; and this is the cause why a great part of mankind lives ill and dies most unhappily.
And now, to bring forward one or two examples of the most unhappy death of a lost man: there is found in St. Gregory, in the fourth book of the Dialogues, the example of a certain Chrysaorius. He was one of those I have described a little before — a worldly man, prudent and, as St. Gregory puts it, very capable in the affairs of the world, yet proud and avaricious. When he had come to the end of his life, he saw with open eyes most foul spirits standing before him and fiercely threatening to drag him off to the prison of hell. He began to tremble, to grow pale, to sweat, and with loud cries to beg a respite, crying out and saying: A respite at least until morning! A respite at least until morning! But as he cried thus, in the very midst of those words he was torn from the dwelling-place of his flesh. Of him it is surely agreed that he saw these things for our sake, not for his own, that his vision might profit us. For thus it is wont to happen to those who wish to put off their conversion until the last hour of life; and they are of the number of those who, as the same St. Gregory teaches at the beginning of the fourth book, do not easily believe what they do not see — or if they believe, do not believe in such a way as to lead them to repentance.
Another example in the same place the same St. Gregory relates, of a certain hypocrite monk, who was believed to fast while meanwhile he secretly ate and drank. For St. Gregory writes that this man was damned to hell, himself confessing his sin yet not doing penance; for God willed that his hypocrisy should be made manifest, yet did not grant him the grace of penance, so that others might learn not to put off confession and penance until the end.
But to leave aside those who by their own fault did not learn the art of living well, and therefore had no happy exit from this life: I return to the words of the holy Apostle Paul, which are pregnant with mysteries and most wholesome teachings.
First, then, it is fitting to observe how vehemently the Apostle makes light of his own merits — that is, his labors undertaken for Christ — and extols the glory of the kingdom of heaven, which is the reward of merits. What is, he says, momentary and light in our tribulation — this is his making light of his own merits. The Apostle labored with all his strength for about forty years. For when he came, called by Christ into His service, he was a young man; for so it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: They (the stoners of St. Stephen) laid down their garments at the feet of a young man who was called Saul (Acts 7). But he lived in the service of Christ even to old age, as he himself writes of himself to Philemon: Whereas thou art such a one as Paul, an old man. And so the Apostle Paul spent in the service of Christ all the years of his youth, and of his manhood, and part of his old age; and yet he says that his tribulations, which were continual for him from his conversion until his martyrdom, were momentary. And he speaks truly, if they be compared with the eternity of everlasting happiness; yet in themselves they lasted a long time.
He joins lightness to brevity, saying: "Momentary and light of our tribulation." But how cruel and harsh those tribulations were, he himself indicates when he says in the former Epistle to the Corinthians: Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no fixed abode, and we labour, working with our own hands: we are reviled, and we bless; we suffer persecution, and we endure it; we are blasphemed, and we entreat; we are made as the refuse of this world, the offscouring of all, even until now (1 Cor. 4). The same Apostle in the latter Epistle to the same Corinthians adds these things: In many more labours, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes save one; thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea: in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in labour and toil, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness (2 Cor. 11). These are the tribulations which he called light; and although in themselves they are most grievous, yet the love of Christ and the greatness of the reward, not without cause, made them seem most light. The Apostle adds the greatness of the reward, saying: above measure, in sublimity, an eternal weight of glory worketh in us. Here, after the manner of the holy Scriptures, which are wont to accommodate themselves to our capacity, the Apostle describes the reward of labours after the likeness of the greatness of a bodily thing. For a bodily thing is said to be great when it is lofty, lasting, broad, and deep. Of the loftiness of the happiness of the blessed he says, above measure, in sublimity; that is, the reward of our labours will be lofty above measure, that is, most high, so that no honour, no dignity, no loftiness can be thought greater. Of its length he says, eternal; which surely will have no end, in comparison with which every duration could be called most brief and momentary. Of its breadth and depth he says, a weight of glory. The name glory signifies a beatitude that will be like a splendour or light, which is spread abroad everywhere and fills all things. The name weight designates the depth of a thing solid and full, which is not superficial and empty, but most solid and most full. The beatitude of the saints will therefore be a thing lofty beyond all measure and proportion, eternal, most solid, and most full.
But because sensual men, such as are the citizens of this world, do not grasp these things, he adds: while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. This will be the whole and true reason why so few learn the art of living well and happily and of dying: because they either do not think, or do not seriously think, upon the things which are not seen and are eternal, but are wholly occupied in considering the beauty or usefulness of bodily and passing things, which are seen. And so this alone makes the difference between brute beasts and sensual men, who have not the Spirit: that the former consider only present things, because they have not a mind capable of reason, by which alone future and everlasting things can be considered; but carnal and sensual men neither think upon nor consider future and everlasting things, because, held captive by the bond of carnal concupiscence, they will not turn the mind away from present things and toward future things, which alone are truly great, precious, and everlasting. And so much for the first consideration of the Pauline sentence.
The second consideration, no less useful and salutary, concerns those who have gone down to hell: for they, upon whom punishment has now opened the eyes of the mind, which guilt had closed in this world; they, I say, now most clearly understand that the goods of this world, riches, honours, delights, kingdoms and empires, were for them momentary and light; and yet for their sake they lost things that will endure forever. Whence they will groan forever and find no consolation, because, when they were on earth, they were so foolish that for the sake of frail and perishing goods, which were not so much goods as shadows of goods, they lost the most eminent and heavenly goods, which have an eternal weight of glory, above measure, in sublimity.
Let us hear their voices from the book of Wisdom: for it pleased the Holy Spirit to record for us in the book of Wisdom the voices of those foolish men, which indeed are useless to them, but can be profitable to us, if we will. Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, they say, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us, and the sun of understanding hath not risen upon us. We have wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways, but the way of the Lord we have not known. What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow, and like a courier that runneth on, and as a ship that passeth through the waves, of which, when it is gone by, no trace can be found; or as a bird that flieth through the air, of whose journey no mark is found (Wis.). So says the Wise Man. From which words we understand not only that sensual men in hell will repent that for small and temporal goods they lost great and eternal goods, but also that they laboured much, even to great weariness, in acquiring or preserving perishing goods. Which is plainly most true; and it often happens that the despisers of temporal goods live more cheerful and joyful than those who abound in riches and honours.
Certainly the Apostle Paul, whose words we have undertaken to explain, says of himself: I am filled with comfort, I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulation (2 Cor. 7). Of St. Antony, who had forsaken all temporal goods, St. Athanasius relates in his Life that he was never seen sad. And the same can be said of all the saints, however poor, and labouring continually in prayer, and fasting, and the mortification of their own flesh. Therefore those who, for the sake of goods so small, do not fear to lose everlasting goods, not only lose the everlasting goods entirely, but also in great part, on account of those very temporal goods, suffer the loss of inward joy and consolation; and while they seek earthly happiness, they lose both earthly and heavenly happiness.
Would it not then be right that we, who are still on the way, should begin to be wise by the example of those who have gone before us? Surely, if while we were journeying someone warned us that the way we have entered does not lead to the place where we desire to arrive, but to a precipice or to a den of robbers, there would be none of us who would not accept the admonition with thanksgiving and, swifter than speech, take another road. And if we do this in bodily and temporal danger, it is surely right that we should do it much more willingly and readily in a danger at once spiritual and bodily, temporal and everlasting.
Finally, there remains a consideration for those men who are so carnal and sensual that they do not greatly esteem the loss of eternal life and of the heavenly glory that surpasses all sense. But these must be warned that, if they do not greatly esteem the heavenly glory which they have never seen, at least let them not despise the fire, and the brimstone, and the other bodily punishments which they know, and which are found in most cruel hell. For truly, that which is at present is momentary and light in the pleasure of the flesh; but above measure, in the depth of hell, an eternal weight of misery is wrought in the wicked. And indeed the Lord Christ on the last day will set forth this very thing in few words, saying: Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt. 25). But St. John in the Apocalypse explained more fully what manner of torments are prepared for the devil and his angels, and for men deceived and seduced by him. Of the devil, the prince of the wicked, we read thus in the Apocalypse: And the devil, who seduced them, was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever (Rev. 20). And in the following chapter it is said of the rest who are damned to hell: But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their portion shall be in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death (Rev. 21). Of which words the first alone needs explanation, for the rest are manifest sins.
By the "fearful," then, St. John means those who do not dare to resist the tempter, whether the devil or a man, but at once yield and consent to the tempter. To these St. James says: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7). Yet there are not a few, but almost innumerable men, who have not learned to fight the battles of the Lord; without any resistance they receive the wounds of the devil and die the first death, which is deadly sin; and because they are fearful also in doing penance, since they do not dare to chastise their body and bring it into subjection, they therefore fall into the second death, which is hell. Rightly, then, did John place the fearful first, for fearfulness leads countless men down to hell.
What, then, will carnal men say to this? That temporal goods are momentary and slight, we have all learned from the experience of others and from our own; that the torments of hell are most grievous and will endure without end, divine Scripture, in which there can be no falsehood, openly testifies. From this it follows that the sum of the whole art of dying well is that which is contained in the three following propositions, or which is concluded by the following reasoning.