«Statutum est hominibus semel mori» — "It is appointed unto men once to die" (Heb. 9:27).
Point I
The sentence of death is written for all men: you are a man, you must die. St. Augustine says: «Cetera nostra bona et mala incerta sunt, sola mors certa est» — "Our other goods and ills are uncertain; death alone is certain." It is uncertain whether that child who is born is to be poor or rich, whether he is to have good or poor health, whether he is to die young or old: all is uncertain, but it is certain that he must die. Every nobleman, every monarch must be cut down by death. And when death comes, there is no force that can resist it: resistance is made to fire, to water, to the sword; resistance is made to the power of princes, but to death no resistance can be made. «Resistitur ignibus, undis, ferro: resistitur regibus; venit mors, quis ei resistit?» — "Men resist fires, waters, the sword; they resist kings; death comes — who resists it?" (St. Augustine, on Psalm 12). Vincent of Beauvais relates that a certain king of France, having come to the end of his life, said: «Behold, with all my power I cannot even obtain that death wait for me one hour more». When the term of life has come, it is not deferred even for a moment. «Constituisti terminos eius, qui praeteriri non poterunt» — "You have set his bounds, which cannot be passed" (Job 14:5).
Suppose, then, my reader, that you live all the years you hope for: a day must come, and of that day an hour, which will be the last for you. For me who now write, for you who read this little book, the day and the moment are already decreed in which I shall write no more, and you shall read no more:
«Quis est homo, qui vivit et non videbit mortem?» — "What man is there that lives and shall not see death?" (Ps. 88:49). The sentence has been passed: there has never been a man so foolish as to flatter himself that he would not have to die. What happened to your ancestors must happen also to you. Of all those who were living in your country at the beginning of the last century, behold, not one is alive. Even the princes, the monarchs of the earth, have changed their country; of them nothing remains here but a marble mausoleum with a fine inscription, which today serves to teach us that of the great ones of the world nothing remains but a little dust shut up among stones. St. Bernard asks: «Dic mihi, ubi sunt amatores mundi?» — "Tell me, where are the lovers of the world?" and he answers: «Nihil ex eis remansit, nisi cineres et vermes» — "Nothing of them remains but ashes and worms."
Therefore we must strive to secure not that fortune which ends, but that which will be eternal, since our souls are eternal. What would it avail you to be happy (if indeed true happiness can ever exist in a soul that is without God), if afterwards you must be unhappy for all eternity? You have already built that house to your great satisfaction; but reflect that soon you must leave it and go to rot in a grave. You have obtained that dignity which makes you superior to others; but death will come, which will make you like the vilest peasants of the earth.
Affections and Prayers
Ah, poor me, who for so many years have thought only of offending You, O God of my soul! Behold, these years have already passed, death is perhaps already near me, and what do I find left to me but pains and remorse of conscience? Oh, if only I had always served You, my Lord! What a fool I have been! I have already been on this earth living for so many years, and instead of acquiring merits for the other life, I have burdened myself with debts to the divine justice.
My beloved Redeemer, give me light and strength to settle my accounts at present. Death is perhaps not far from me. I wish to prepare myself for that great decisive moment of my eternal happiness or unhappiness. I thank You for having waited for me until now. And since You give me time to remedy the evil I have done, here I am, my God; tell me what I must do for You. You want me to grieve for the offenses I have committed against You; I do grieve for them, I am sorry for them with all my soul. You want me to spend these years or days that remain to me in loving You; yes, I do want to do so. O God, in the past I have also resolved more than once to do so, but my promises then turned into betrayals! No, my Jesus Christ, I no longer wish to be ungrateful for the many graces You have granted me. If I do not at least change my life now, how shall I be able to hope in death for pardon and paradise? Behold, I now resolve firmly to begin serving You in earnest. But give me strength, do not abandon me. Yet You did not abandon me when I was offending You; therefore I hope all the more for Your help now that I propose to leave everything to please You.
Accept me, then, to love You, O God worthy of infinite love. Accept the traitor who now, repentant, embraces Your feet, and loves You and begs You for mercy. I love You, O my Jesus Christ, I love You with all my heart, I love You more than myself. Here I am, I am Yours. Dispose of me and of all that is mine as You please; give me holy perseverance in obeying You, give me Your love, and then do with me what You will.
Mary, my Mother, my hope, my refuge, to You I commend myself, to You I entrust my soul; pray to Jesus Christ for me.
Point II
«Statutum est» — "It is appointed." It is certain, then, that we are all condemned to death. We are all born, says St. Cyprian, with the noose around our neck; and every step we take brings us nearer to death. My brother, just as you were one day written in the book of baptism, so one day you will have to be written in the book of the dead. Just as you now speak of your forebears — of your father, your uncle, your brother of blessed memory — so will those who come after have to say the same of you. Just as you have many times heard the bell toll for the death of others, so will others have to hear it toll for you.
But what would you say if you saw a man condemned to death going to the gallows jesting, laughing, letting his eyes wander, and thinking of comedies, banquets, and amusements? And yet you are already walking toward death, and what are you thinking of? Look there, into that grave, at those friends and relatives of yours on whom justice has already been carried out. What terror it strikes into the condemned to see their companions already hanging dead upon the gallows! Look, then, at those corpses, each of which says to you: «Mihi heri, et tibi hodie» — "Yesterday for me, today for you" (Sir. 38:23). The same thing is said to you again by the portraits of your deceased relatives, their books of remembrance, the houses, the beds, the garments they left behind.
What greater folly, then, than to know that one must die, and that after death there awaits us either an eternity of joys or an eternity of pains; to reflect that upon that moment depends our being either eternally happy or eternally miserable, and then not to think of settling our accounts and of taking every means to make a good death? We pity those who die suddenly and are found unprepared for death: and why then do we not take care to remain prepared, when the same can happen to us? But soon or late, with warning or suddenly, whether we think of it or not, we have to die; and at every hour, at every moment, we draw nearer to our gallows, which will be precisely that final illness that must drive us from the world.
In every century the houses, the squares, and the cities are filled with new people, and the former are carried off to be shut up in the tomb. Just as for them the days of life are over, so will the time come when neither I, nor you, nor any of us who are now living will live any longer upon this earth. «Dies formabuntur, et nemo in eis» — "The days shall be formed, and no one shall be in them" (Ps. 138:16). We shall then all be in eternity, which will be for us either an eternal day of delights or an eternal night of torments. There is no middle way; it is certain, it is a matter of faith, that one or the other lot must be ours.
Affections and Prayers
My beloved Redeemer, I would not have the courage to appear before You if I did not gaze upon You hanging on this cross, torn, mocked, and dead for me. Great has been my ingratitude, but greater is Your mercy. Great have been my sins, but greater are Your merits. Your wounds, Your blood, Your death are my hope. I deserved hell from the moment of my first sin; afterward I returned so many times to offend You, and You not only preserved me in life, but with such pity and such love called me to pardon and offered me peace. How can I now fear that You will drive me away from You, now that I love You and desire nothing but Your grace?
Yes, I love You with all my heart, O my dear Lord; and I desire nothing but to love You. I love You, and I repent of having despised You, not so much on account of the hell I have deserved, as for having offended You, my God, who have loved me so much. Come now, my Jesus Christ, open to me the bosom of Your goodness; add mercies to mercies. Grant that I may never again be ungrateful to You; and change my heart entirely. Grant that my heart, which once held Your love as nothing and bartered it for the wretched pleasures of this earth, may now be all Yours and burn with continual flames for You.
I hope to come to paradise to love You forever; there no place among the innocent can fall to me — my lot will be to remain among the penitents — but among these I wish to love You more than the innocent. For the glory of Your mercy, may paradise see a sinner who has so greatly offended You burning with a great love. From this day forward I resolve to be all Yours, and to think of nothing but loving You. Assist me with Your light and with Your grace, and give me strength to carry out this desire of mine, which You Yourself give me in Your goodness.
O Mary, You are the Mother of holy perseverance; obtain for me the grace to be faithful to this promise of mine.
Point III
Death is certain. But, O God, Christians already know this, they believe it, they see it; and how then do so many live so forgetful of death, as if they were never to die! If after this life there were neither hell nor paradise, could they think of it less than they now do? And this is why they lead the evil lives they lead.
My brother, if you wish to live well, take care to live, during these days that remain to you, with death before your eyes. «O mors, bonum est iudicium tuum» — "O death, how good is your judgment" (Sir. 41:3). Oh, how well does he judge things and direct his actions who judges and directs them with death in view! The remembrance of death makes one lose all affection for the things of this earth. «Consideretur vitae terminus, et non erit in hoc mundo quid ametur» — "Let the end of life be considered, and there will be nothing in this world to be loved," says St. Lawrence Justinian (De Ligno vitae, ch. 4). «Omne quod in mundo est, concupiscentia carnis est, concupiscentia oculorum, et superbia vitae» — "All that is in the world is the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life" (1 John 2:16). All the goods of the world come down to pleasures of the senses, to possessions, and to honors; but he despises everything well who reflects that soon he must be reduced to ashes and placed beneath the earth as pasture for worms.
And indeed, with death in view, the Saints have despised all the goods of this earth. For this reason St. Charles Borromeo kept the skull of a dead man on his desk, to gaze upon it continually. Cardinal Baronius bore engraved on his ring: «Memento mori» — "Remember that you must die." The Venerable Father Juvenal Ancina, Bishop of Saluzzo, had written upon another skull of the dead the motto: "As you are, so once was I; and as I am, so shall you be." Another holy hermit, asked at the point of death why he remained so cheerful, answered: I have often kept death before my eyes, and therefore now that it has come, I see nothing new.
What folly it would be in a wayfarer if, while traveling, he thought of making himself great in that country through which he is passing, and did not care that he would then have to live in misery in the one where he must dwell for all his life! And is he not mad who thinks of making himself happy in this world, where he must stay but a few days, and puts himself at risk of becoming unhappy in the other, where he will have to live for eternity? Whoever holds something belonging to another on loan sets little affection on it, thinking that soon he must return it: the goods of this earth are all given to us on loan; it is folly to set our heart on them, since we must soon leave them. Death must strip us of everything. All the gains and fortunes of this world come to an end in a final gasp of the mouth, a funeral, and a descent into a grave. The house you have built you will soon have to yield to others; the grave will be the dwelling of your body until the day of judgment, and from there it will then have to pass to paradise or to hell, where the soul will already have gone before.
Affections and Prayers
So at death will everything be finished for me? Then I shall find nothing, O my God, but the little I have done for Your love. And what am I waiting for? Am I waiting for death to come and find me as wretched and stained with sins as I presently am? If I had to die now, I would die very troubled and deeply dissatisfied with the life I have led. No, my Jesus, I do not want to die so discontented. I thank You for giving me time to weep for my sins and to love You. I want to begin from this moment.
I repent above every other evil of having offended You, O supreme Good, and I love You more than all things, more than my own life. I give myself entirely to You; my Jesus, from this moment I embrace You, I press You to my heart; and from this moment I deliver my whole soul to You. «In manus tuas commendo spiritum meum» — "Into Your hands I commend my spirit." I do not want to wait to give it to You when it is commanded (with that «Proficiscere» — "Depart") to leave this world. I do not want to wait until then to beg You to save me! «Iesus, sis mihi Iesus» — "Jesus, be a Jesus to me" (be my Savior). My Savior, save me now by pardoning me and giving me the grace of Your holy love. Who knows whether this consideration, which I have read today, is the last call You give me, and the last mercy You show me. Stretch forth Your hand, my love, and pull me out of the mire of my lukewarmness. Give me fervor; grant that I may obey You with great love in all that You ask of me. Eternal Father, for the love of Jesus Christ, give me holy perseverance and the grace to love You, and to love You greatly, in this life that remains to me.
O Mary, Mother of mercy, for the love You bear Your Jesus, obtain for me these two graces: perseverance and love.