Of
the Death of Sinners, and of Their Pains in the Hour of Death
“In his life he lived unfaithfully to Me – self-love having veiled the
pupil of the most holy faith – wherefore the Devil torments him with infidelity
in order to bring him to despair.
Oh! how hard for them is this battle, because
it finds them disarmed, without the armor of affection and charity; because, as
members of the Devil, they have been deprived of it all. Wherefore they have
not the supernatural light, neither the light of science, because they did not
understand it, the horns of their pride not letting them understand the
sweetness of its marrow. Wherefore now in the great battle they know not what
to do. They are not nourished in hope, because they have not hoped in Me,
neither in the Blood of which I made them ministers, but in themselves alone,
and in the dignities and delights of the world. And the incarnate wretch did
not see that all was counted to him with interest, and that as a debtor he
would have to render an account to Me; now he finds himself denuded and without
any virtue, and on whichever side he turns he hears nothing but reproaches with
great confusion. His injustice which he practiced in his life accuses him to
his conscience, wherefore he dares not ask other than justice.
“And I tell you that so great is that shame and confusion that unless in
their life they have taken the habit of hoping in My mercy, that is, have taken
the milk of mercy (although on account of their sins this is great presumption,
for you cannot truly say that he who strikes Me with the arm of My mercy has a
hope in mercy, but rather has presumption), there is not one who would not
despair, and with despair they would arrive with the Devil in eternal
damnation.
“But arriving at the extremity of death, and recognizing his sin, his
conscience unloaded by holy confession, and presumption taken away, so that he
offends no more, there remains mercy, and with this mercy he can, if he will,
take hold on hope. This is the effect of Mercy, to cause them to hope therein
during their life, although I do not grant them this, so that they should
offend Me by means of My mercy, but rather that they should dilate themselves
in charity, and in the consideration of My goodness. But they act in a contrary
way, because they offend Me in the hope which they have in My mercy.
And
nevertheless, I keep them in this hope so that at the last moment they may have
something which they may lay hold of, and by so doing not faint away with the
condemnation which they receive, and thus arrive at despair; for this final sin
of despair is much more displeasing to Me and injures them much more than all
the other sins which they have committed. And this is the reason why this sin
is more dangerous to them and displeasing to Me, because they commit other sins
through some delight of their own sensuality, and they sometimes grieve for
them, and if they grieve in the right way their grief will procure them mercy.
But it is no fragility of your nature which moves you to despair, for
there is no pleasure and nothing but intolerable suffering in it. One who
despairs despises My mercy, making his sin to be greater than mercy and
goodness. Wherefore, if a man fall into this sin, he does not repent, and does
not truly grieve for his offense against Me as he should, grieving indeed for
his own loss, but not for the offense done to Me, and therefore he receives
eternal damnation. See, therefore, that this sin alone leads him to hell, where
he is punished for this and all the other sins which he has committed; whereas
had he grieved and repented for the offense done to Me, and hoped in My mercy,
he would have found mercy, for, as I have said to you, My mercy is greater
without any comparison than all the sins which any creature can commit;
wherefore it greatly displeases Me that they should consider their sins to be
greater.
“Despair is that sin which is pardoned neither here nor hereafter, and
it is because despair displeases Me so much that I wish them to hope in My
mercy at the point of death, even if their life have been disordered and
wicked. This is why during their life I use this sweet trick with them, making
them hope greatly in My mercy, for when, having fed themselves with this hope,
they arrive at death, they are not so inclined to abandon it, on account of the
severe condemnation they receive, as if they had not so nourished themselves.
“All this is given them by the fire and abyss of My inestimable love,
but because they have used it in the darkness of self-love, from which has
proceeded their every sin, they have not known it in truth, but in so far as
they have turned their affections towards the sweetness of My mercy they have
thought of it with great presumption. And this is another cause of reproof
which their conscience gives them in the likeness of the Devil, reproving them
in that they should have used the time and the breadth of My mercy in which
they hoped, in charity and love of virtue, and that time which I gave them
through love should have been spent in holiness, whereas with all their time
and great hope of My mercy they did nothing but offend Me miserably. Oh!
blinder than the blind! You have hidden your pearl and your talent which I
placed in your hands in order that you might gain more with it, but you in your
presumption would not do My will, rather you hid it under the ground of
disordinate self-love, which now renders you the fruit of death.
“Your miseries are not hid from you now, for the worm of conscience
sleeps no longer, but is gnawing you, the devils shout and render to you the
reward which they are accustomed to give their servants, that is to say,
confusion and condemnation; they wish to bring you to despair, so that at the
moment of death you may not escape from their hands, and therefore they try to
confuse you, so that afterwards when you are with them they may render to you
of the part which is theirs. Oh, wretch! the dignity in which I placed you, you
now see shining as it really is, and you know to your shame that you have held
and used in such guilty darkness the substance of the holy Church, that you see
yourself to be a thief, a debtor, who ought to pay his debt to the poor and the
holy Church. Then your conscience represents to you that you have spent the
money on public harlots, and have brought up your children and enriched your
relations, and have thrown it away on gluttony and on many silver vessels and
other adornments for your house. Whereas you should have lived in voluntary
poverty.
“Your conscience represents to you the divine office which you
neglected, by which you fell into the guilt of mortal sin, and how even when
you recited it with your mouth your heart was far from Me. Conscience also
shows you your subjects, that is to say, the love and hunger which you should
have felt towards nourishing them in virtue, giving them the example of your
life and striking them with the hand of mercy and the rod of justice, and
because you did the contrary your conscience and the horrible likeness of the
Devil reproves you.
“And if as a prelate you have given prelacies or any charge of souls
unjustly to one of your subjects, that is, that you have not considered to whom
and how you were giving it, the Devil puts this also before your conscience,
because you ought to have given it, not on account of pleasant words, nor in
order to please creatures, nor for the sake of gifts, but solely with regard to
virtue, My honor and the salvation of souls. And since you have not done so you
are reproved, and for your greater pain and confusion you have before your
conscience and the light of your intellect that which you have done and ought
not to have done, and that which you ought to have done and have not done.
“I wish you to know, dearest daughter, that whiteness is better seen
when placed on a black ground, and blackness on a white, than when they are
separated. So it happens to these wretches, to these in particular and to all
others in general, for at death when the soul begins to see its woes, and the
just man his beatitude, his evil life is represented to a wicked man, and there
is no reason that any one should remind him of the sins that he has committed,
for his conscience places them before him, together with the virtues which he
ought to have practiced. Why the virtues? For his greater shame. For vice being
placed on a ground of virtue is known better on account of the virtue, and the
better he knows his sin, the greater his shame, and by comparison with his sin
he knows better the perfection of virtue, wherefore he grieves the more, for he
sees that his own life was devoid of any; and I wish you to know that in this
knowledge which dying sinners have of virtue and vice they see only too clearly
the good which follows the virtue of a just man, and the pain that comes on him
who has lain in the darkness of mortal sin. I do not give him this knowledge so
that he may despair, but so that he may come to a perfect self-knowledge and
shame for his sins, with hope, so that with that pain and knowledge he may pay
for his sins, and appease My anger, humbly begging My mercy. The virtuous woman
increases thereby in joy and in knowledge of My love, for he attributes the
grace of having followed virtue in the doctrine of My truth to Me and not to
himself, wherefore he exalts in Me, with this truly illuminated knowledge, and
tastes and receives the sweet end of his being in the way which I have related
to you in another place. So that the one, that is to say, the just man, who has
lived in ardent charity, exults in joy, while the wicked man is darkened and
confounded in sorrow.
“To the just man the appearance and vision of the Devil causes no harm
or fear, for fear and harm can only be caused to him by sin; but those who have
passed their lives lasciviously and in many sins, receive both harm and fear
from the appearance of the devils, not indeed the harm of despair if they do
not wish it, but the suffering of condemnation, of the refreshing of the worm
of conscience, and of fear and terror at their horrible aspect. See now,
dearest daughter, how different are the sufferings and the battle of death to a
just man and to a sinner, and how different is their end.
“I have shown to the eye of your intellect a very small part of what
happens, and so small is what I have shown you with regard to what it really
is, to the suffering, that is, of the one, and the happiness of the other, that
it is but a trifle. See how great is the blindness of man, and in particular of
these ministers, for the more they have received of Me, and the more they are
enlightened by the Holy Scripture, the greater are their obligations and more
intolerable confusion do they receive for not fulfilling them; the more they
knew of Holy Scripture during their life, the better do they know at their
death the great sins they have committed, and their torments are greater than
those of others, just as good men are placed in a higher degree of excellence.
Theirs is the fate of the false Christian, who is placed in Hell in greater
torment than a pagan, because he had the light of faith and renounced it, while
the pagan never had it.
“So these wretches will be punished more than other Christians for the
same sin, on account of the ministry which I entrusted to them, appointing them
to administer the sun of the holy Sacrament, and because they had the light of
science, in order to discern the truth both for themselves and others had they
wished to; wherefore they justly receive the greater pains. But the wretches do
not know this, for did they consider their state at all, they would not come to
such misery, but would be that which they ought to be and are not. For the
whole world has thus become corrupt, they being much more guilty than seculars,
according to their state; for with their stench they defile the face of their
soul, and corrupt their subjects, and suck the blood from My spouse, that is,
the holy Church, wherefore through these sins they make her grow pale, because
they divert to themselves the love and charity which they should have to this
divine spouse, and think of nothing but stripping her for their own advantage,
seizing prelacies, and great properties, when they ought to be seeking souls.
Wherefore through their evil life, seculars become irreverent and disobedient
to the holy Church, not that they ought on that account to do so, or that their
sins are excused through the sins of My ministers.”
Photo taken from MorgueFile Photos
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