«Finis venit, venit finis» — "The end is coming, the end is coming" (Ezek. 2:7).
Point I
Worldly people consider fortunate only those who enjoy the goods of this world — its pleasures, riches, and pomps; but death will put an end to all these fortunes of earth. «Quae est vita vestra? vapor est, ad modicum parens» — "What is your life? It is a vapor that appears for a little while" (Jas. 4:15). The vapors that exhale from the earth, when raised into the air and struck by the light of the sun, sometimes make a fine appearance; but how long does that appearance last? At a puff of wind it all vanishes. Behold that great man, today courted, feared, and almost adored; tomorrow, when he is dead, he will be despised, cursed, and trampled underfoot. With death everything must be left behind. The brother of that great servant of God Thomas à Kempis prided himself on having built a beautiful house, but a friend told him it had one great defect. "What is it?" he asked. "The defect," the other answered, "is that you have put a door on it." "What?" he replied, "is the door a defect?" "Yes," answered the friend, "because one day through that door you will be carried out dead, and so you will leave the house and everything."
Death, in short, strips man of all the goods of this world. What a spectacle it is to see that prince driven out of his palace, never to enter it again, while others take possession of his furniture, his money, and all his other goods! The servants leave him in the tomb, covered barely by a garment that suffices to cover his flesh; there is no longer anyone who esteems him or who flatters him, nor is any account taken of the commands he left behind. Saladin, who had won many kingdoms in Asia, left orders when he was dying that when his corpse was carried to burial, a man should go before it with his shirt hung on a pole, crying out: This is all that Saladin carries with him to the grave.
Once the corpse of that prince has been placed in the grave, the flesh falls away from it, and behold, his skeleton can no longer be distinguished from the others. «Contemplare sepulcra» — "Gaze upon the tombs," says St. Basil, «vide num poteris discernere, quis servus, quis dominus fuerit» — "see whether you can discern who was the servant and who the master." One day Diogenes let himself be seen by Alexander the Great all out of breath, searching for something among certain skulls of the dead. What are you looking for? Alexander asked curiously. I am looking, he replied, for the skull of King Philip your father, and I cannot tell it apart; if you can find it, show it to me: «Si tu potes, ostende» — "If you can, show it to me."
On this earth men are born unequal, but after death all are found equal: «Impares nascimur, pares morimur» — "We are born unequal, we die equal," says Seneca. And Horace said that death makes scepters equal to hoes: «Sceptra ligonibus aequat» — "It levels scepters with hoes." In short, when death comes, «finis venit» — "the end comes" — everything ends and everything is left behind, and of all the things of this world nothing is taken to the grave.
Affections and Prayers
My Lord, since You give me light to know that all that the world esteems is smoke and folly, give me strength to detach myself from it before death detaches me from it. Unhappy man that I have been, how many times, for the miserable pleasures and goods of this earth, have I offended and lost You, infinite Good! O my Jesus, O heavenly physician, turn Your eyes upon my poor soul; look at the many wounds that I myself have inflicted with my sins, and have pity on me. «Si vis, potes me mundare» — "If You will, You can make me clean." I know that You can and will heal me; but to heal me You will that I repent of the injuries I have done You. Yes, I repent of them with all my heart; heal me then, now that You can heal me. «Sana animam meam, quia peccavi tibi» — "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You" (Ps. 40:5). I forgot You, but You did not forget me; and now You make me feel that You are willing even to forget the offenses I have committed against You, if I detest them: «Si autem impius egerit poenitentiam, omnium iniquitatum eius non recordabor» — "But if the wicked do penance, I will remember his iniquities no more" (Ezek. 18:21). Behold, I detest them and hate them above every evil; forget then, my Redeemer, all the bitterness I have caused You. For the future I am resolved to lose everything, even life, rather than Your grace. And what use are all the goods of the earth to me without Your grace?
Ah, help me — You know how weak I am. Hell will not cease to tempt me; already it is preparing a thousand assaults to make me its slave once more. No, my Jesus, do not abandon me. From this day forward I want to be the slave of Your love. You are my only Lord. You created me, You redeemed me, You are the one who has loved me above all; You are the one who alone deserves to be loved; You alone do I wish to love.
Point II
Philip II, king of Spain, when he was near death, called his son to him, and throwing off the royal robe that covered him, showed him his breast gnawed by worms, and then said to him: Prince, see how one dies, and how all the grandeurs of this world come to an end! Well did Theodoret say: «Nec divitias mors metuit, nec satellites, nec purpuram» — "Death fears neither riches, nor attendants, nor the purple"; and that from vassals as from princes «putredo sequitur, et sanies defluit» — "rottenness follows, and corruption flows away." Thus everyone who dies, though he be a prince, carries nothing with him to the grave; all his glory remains on the bed where he breathes his last. «Cum interierit, non sumet omnia, neque descendet cum eo gloria eius» — "When he dies, he shall take nothing away, nor shall his glory go down with him" (Ps. 48:18).
St. Antoninus relates that when Alexander the Great was dead, a certain philosopher exclaimed: «Behold the man who yesterday trampled the earth underfoot; now he is crushed by the earth. Yesterday the whole earth was not enough for him; now seven palms of earth are enough for him. Yesterday he led armies across the earth, and now he is carried beneath the earth by a few porters.» But let us rather hear what God says: «Quid superbis, terra et cinis?» — "Why do you boast, O dust and ashes?" (Sir. 10:9). Man, do you not see that you are dust and ashes? Why do you grow proud? Why do you spend your thoughts and your years to make yourself great in this world? Death will come, and then all your grandeurs and all your plans will be at an end: «In illa die peribunt cogitationes eorum» — "On that day their plans shall perish" (Ps. 55:6).
Oh, how much happier was the death of St. Paul the Hermit, who lived sixty years enclosed in a cave, than the death of Nero, who lived as emperor in Rome! How much more fortunate the death of St. Felix, the Capuchin lay brother, than the death of Henry VIII, who lived amid royal grandeurs but was an enemy of God! But we must reflect that the saints, to obtain such a death, left everything — their homelands, their comforts, the hopes that the world offered them — and embraced a poor and despised life. They buried themselves alive in this earth, so as not to be buried dead in hell.
But worldlings — how can they, living amid sins, amid earthly pleasures, and amid dangerous occasions, hope for a happy death? God threatens sinners that at death they will seek Him and will not find Him: «Quaeretis me, et non invenietis» — "You shall seek Me, and you shall not find Me" (Jer. 13). He says that then it will be a time not of mercy, but of vengeance: «Ego retribuam in tempore» — "I will repay in due time" (Deut. 32:35).
Reason convinces us of the same: a man of the world, at death, will find himself weak in mind, darkened and hardened in heart because of the evil habits he has formed; the temptations will be stronger; and how will one who in life has almost always yielded and let himself be overcome resist at death? A more powerful divine grace would then be needed to change his heart; but is God perhaps obliged to give us this grace? Has such a man merited it by the disorderly life he has led? And yet his eternal happiness or his eternal ruin is then at stake. How is it possible that, thinking of this, one who believes the truths of faith does not leave everything to give himself entirely to God, who will judge us according to our works?
Affections and Prayers
Ah, Lord, how many nights have I, wretch that I am, slept under Your displeasure! O God, and in what a miserable state was my soul then! It was hated by You, and it had merited Your hatred. I was already condemned to hell; it remained only for the sentence to be executed. But You, my God, did not cease to follow after me and to invite me to pardon. But who assures me that You have already forgiven me? Must I live, my Jesus, in this fear until You judge me? Yet the sorrow I feel for having offended You, the desire I have to love You, and still more Your Passion, my beloved Redeemer, make me hope that I stand in Your grace. I repent of having offended You, O sovereign Good, and I love You above all things. I resolve to lose everything rather than lose Your grace and Your love. You will that the heart which seeks You should be glad: «Laetetur cor quaerentium Dominum» — "Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice" (1 Chr. 16:10).
Lord, I detest all the offenses I have committed against You; give me courage and confidence; reproach me no more for my ingratitude, since I myself know it and detest it. You have said that You do not will the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live: «Nolo mortem impii, sed ut convertatur, et vivat» — "I desire not the death of the wicked, but that he turn and live" (Ezek. 33:11). Yes, my God, I leave everything and turn to You: I seek You, I desire You, I love You above all things. Give me Your love, and I ask You for nothing more.
O Mary, You are my hope; obtain for me holy perseverance.
Point III
David called the happiness of this present life a dream of one who awakes: «Velut somnium surgentium» — "As a dream of those who awake" (Ps. 72:20). An author comments: «Somnium, quia sopitis sensibus res magnae apparent, et non sunt, et cito avolant» — "A dream, because when the senses are lulled to sleep, great things appear which are not real, and they quickly fly away." The goods of this world appear great, but then they are nothing and last but a short time, just as a dream lasts but a short time, and then everything vanishes. This thought — that with death everything ends — made St. Francis Borgia resolve to give himself entirely to God. It fell to the Saint to accompany the corpse of the Empress Isabella to Granada; when the coffin was opened, everyone fled at the horror and the stench; but St. Francis, guided by the divine light, remained to contemplate in that corpse the vanity of the world, and gazing upon it said: «Are you then my empress? Are you the one before whom so many great men knelt in reverence? O Lady Isabella, where has your majesty gone, and your beauty? «Thus then (he concluded within himself) do the grandeurs and the crowns of this earth come to an end! I will therefore serve from this day forward (he said) a Master who can never die. And so from then on he devoted himself entirely to the love of the Crucified; and at that time he also made a vow to become a religious should his wife die, as he in fact later carried out, entering the Society of Jesus.
Well did a disillusioned man write these words upon the skull of a dead man: «Cogitanti vilescunt omnia» — "All things grow worthless to the one who reflects." Whoever thinks of death cannot love the earth. And why are there so many unhappy lovers of this world? Because they do not think of death. «Filii hominum, usquequo gravi corde? ut quid diligitis vanitatem, et quaeritis mendacium?» — "You sons of men, how long will your hearts be hardened? Why do you love vanity and seek after lies?" (Ps. 4:3). Miserable children of Adam, the Holy Spirit warns us: why do you not drive from your hearts so many attachments to the earth, which make you love vanity and falsehood? What has happened to your ancestors must happen to you as well; they too dwelt in this palace of yours, they slept in this very bed, and now they are no more: the same must be for you.
Therefore, my brother, give yourself to God at once, before death comes. «Quodcunque potest facere manus tua, instanter operare» — "Whatever your hand is able to do, do it earnestly" (Eccl. 9:10). What you can do today, do not wait to do tomorrow, for today passes and never returns, and tomorrow death may come upon you, and then it will not allow you to do anything more. Detach yourself at once from whatever draws you away, or can draw you away, from God. Let us quickly detach our hearts from these goods of the earth, before death strips us of them by force: «Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur» — "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord" (Rev. 14:13). Blessed are those who, when they die, find themselves already dead to the affections of this world! Death is not feared by them, but desired and embraced with joy: for then, instead of separating them from the goods they love, it unites them with the supreme Good, who alone is loved by them, and who will make them eternally blessed.
Affections and Prayers
My dear Redeemer, I thank You for having waited for me. What would have become of me if You had made me die when I was far from You?
Blessed forever be Your mercy, and the patience You have had with me for so many years. I thank You for the light and the grace with which You now assist me. Then I did not love You, and I cared little about being loved by You. Now I love You with all my heart, and I have no greater sorrow than having so displeased a God so good. This sorrow torments me, but the torment is sweet, since this sorrow gives me confidence that You have already forgiven me.
My sweet Savior, oh, would that I had died a thousand times first, and had never offended You! I fear that in the future I may return to offending You. Ah, let me die first by the hardest death there is, before I should lose Your grace again. I was once a slave of hell; but now I am Your servant, O God of my soul. You have said that You love those who love You: «Ego diligentes me diligo» — "I love those who love me." I love You, therefore I am Yours, and You are mine. I may lose You in the future, but this is the grace I ask of You: let me die before I should lose You again. You have granted me so many graces I did not ask for; I cannot fear that You would refuse to grant me this grace that I now beg of You. Do not permit me to lose You again; give me Your love, and I desire nothing more.
Mary, my hope, intercede for me.