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The least part of the happiness we have endeavored to
portray should be sufficient to inflame our hearts
with a love of virtue. Nevertheless, we shall also
consider the terrible alternative of misery reserved
for the reprobate. The sinner cannot comfort himself
by saying, "After all, the only result of my depraved
life will be that I shall never see God. Further than
this I shall have neither reward nor punishment." Oh,
no; we are all destined to one or the other � either
to reign eternally with God in Heaven or to burn
forever with the devils in Hell! This happiness
and misery, either of which must inevitably be our
portion, are represented by the two baskets of figs
which Jeremias saw in the vision, one containing
"very good figs, like the figs of the first season,
and the other basket very bad figs, which could not
be eaten." (Jer. 24:1-2). God willed thus to
represent to His prophet the two classes of souls,
one of which forms the object of His mercy, and the
other of His justice. The happiness of the first is
unequaled, and the misery of the second is also
incomparable; for the just enjoy the perpetual vision
of God, which is the greatest of all blessings, while
the wicked are forever deprived of this vision, and
thereby suffer the greatest of all evils. If men
who sin so rashly would weigh this truth, they would
know the terrible burden that they lay upon
themselves. Those who earn their living by carrying
burdens first estimate the weight they are to bear,
that they may know whether it is beyond their
strength. Why, then, O rash man, will you � or a
passing pleasure � so lightly assume the terrible
burden of sin, without considering your strength to
bear it? Will you not reflect on the heavy weight you
thus condemn yourself to bear for all eternity? To
help you do this I shall offer you a few
considerations which will enable you to realize in
some measure the greatness of the punishment reserved
for sin. Let us first reflect on the almighty
power of God, whose justice will chastise the sinner.
God's greatness is apparent in all His works. He is
God, not only in Heaven, earth, and sea, but in Hell
and in every other place. He is God in His wrath and
in the justice with which He avenges the outrages
offered to His divine majesty. Therefore, He Himself
exclaims by the mouth of His prophet, "Will you not
then fear me, and will you not repent at my presence?
I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an
everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over;
and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and
shall not prevail: they shall swell, and shall not
pass over it." (Jer. 5:22). In other words, will
you not fear the almighty power of that Arm which
controls the elements, which sustains the universe,
and which no power can resist? If the works of His
mercy excite us to love and praise Him, we have no
less reason to fear the greatness of His justice.
Hence the prophet Jeremias, though innocent, and even
sanctified in his mother's womb, was deeply
penetrated with this salutary fear. "Who," he cries
out, "shall not fear thee, O king of nations?" (Jer.
10:7). And again: "I sat alone, because thou hast
filled me with threats." (Jer. 15:17). Doubtless the
prophet knew that these threats were not uttered
against him; yet they filled him with terror. The
pillars of Heaven, we are told, tremble before the
majesty of God, and the powers and principalities
prostrate themselves in awe before His throne. If
these pure spirits, confirmed in bliss, and in no
manner doubting of their happiness, but only through
admiration of the Divine Perfections, tremble before
His power, what should be the terror of the sinner
who has made himself the object of His wrath? It is
the power of our Sovereign Judge which is most
appalling in the punishment of sin. Speaking of God's
punishments, St. John says, "Babylon's plagues shall
come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine, and
she shall be burnt with fire, because God is strong,
who shall judge her." (Apoc. 18:8). The great
Apostle, filled with awe of this power, exclaims, "It
is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God." (Heb. 10:31). We have not such reason
to fear the hands of men, from whom we can escape,
and who at least cannot thrust the soul into Hell.
Hence Our Saviour tells His disciples, "And fear ye
not them that kill the body and are not able to kill
the soul. But rather fear him who can destroy both
soul and body in Hell." (Matt. 10:28). The author of
Ecclesiasticus, impressed with the might of this
power, thus warns us: "Unless we do penance we shall
fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the
hands of men." (Ecclus. 2:22). This united testimony
proves, as we have said, that as God is great in His
mercy and rewards, so will He be great in His justice
and punishments. This truth is still more apparent
in the terrible chastisements inflicted by God which
are related in Scripture. Witness the punishment of
Dathan and Abiron, who, with all their accomplices,
were swallowed alive into the earth and thrust into
the depths of Hell for rebelling against their
superiors. Who can read unmoved the threats against
transgressors recorded in Deuteronomy? Among others
equally terrible, here is one which the sacred writer
puts into the mouth of God: "Thou shalt serve thy
enemy, whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger,
and thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things:
and he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck till he
consume thee � And thou shalt eat the fruit of thy
womb, and the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters,
which the Lord thy God shall give thee, in the
distress and extremity wherewith thy enemy shall
oppress thee." (Deut. 28:48, 53). We can scarcely
imagine punishments more dreadful than these; yet
they, as well as all the sufferings of this life, are
but a shadow when compared to the terrible torments
of the life to come. If His justice be so rigorous in
this world, though always tempered by His love, what
will it be in eternity when exercised without mercy?
For the sinner who has despised God's mercies in this
life will feel only the effects con of His justice in
the life to come. Another consideration which may
help us to appreciate the rigor of these sufferings
is the greatness of the mercy of which the sinner has
despised. What is there more astonishing than that
mercy which caused God to clothe Himself in human
flesh, to endure innumerable sufferings and
humiliations, to take upon Himself the transgressions
of the world, and for these transgressions to expire
as a malefactor on an infamous gibbet? God is
infinite in all His attributes; and, therefore, the
justice with which He will punish man will equal the
boundless mercy with which He redeemed him. When
God first came upon earth there was nothing in us to
excite His mercy; but at His second coming our every
sin will be an additional reason for Him to exercise
His justice. Judge, therefore, how terrible it will
be. "At His second coming," says St. Bernard, "God
will be as inflexible and as rigorous in punishing as
at His first coming He was patient and merciful in
forgiving. There is now no sinner living who is cut
off from His reconciliation; but in the day of His
justice none will be received." These words of St.
Bernard are confirmed by the royal prophet,. who
tells us, "Our God is the God of salvation: and of
the Lord, of the Lord are the issues from death. But
God shall break the heads of his enemies: the hairy
crown of them that walk on in their sins." (Ps.
67:21-22). Behold, then, how great is God's mercy to
those who are converted to Him, and how great is the
rigor with which He punishes obdurate sinners. The
same truth is manifested by God's patience with the
world, and with the vices and disorders of every
sinner in particular. How many there are who, from
the age of reason to the end of their lives,
continually offend Him and despise His law,
regardless of His promises, His benefits, His
warnings, or His menaces! Yet God does not cut them
off, but continues to bear with them, unceasingly
exhorting them to repentance. But when the term of
His patience will come, and His wrath, which has been
accumulating in the bosom of His justice, will burst
its bounds, with what terrible violence it will be
poured out upon them! "Knowest thou not," says the
Apostle, "that the benignity of God leadeth thee to
penance? But according to thy hardness and impenitent
heart, thou treasurest up to thyself wrath, against
the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment
of God, who will render to every man according to his
works." (Rom. 2:4-6). The meaning of these words is not difficult. A
treasure of wrath is a terrible figure. Just as the
miser adds coin to coin, riches to riches, so the
wrath of God is daily and even hourly increased by
the transgressions of the sinner. Were a man to let
no day or hour pass without adding to his material
fortune, consider what an immense amount he would
have accumulated at the end of fifty or sixty years.
Alas, then, for thee, unhappy sinner, for there is
hardly an hour in which thou dost not add to the
treasures of God's wrath which thy sins are
accumulating against thee. Thy immodest glances, the
evil desires of thy corrupt heart, and thy scandalous
words and blasphemies would alone suffice to fill a
world. If to these are added the many other grievous
crimes of which thou hast been guilty, consider the
treasure of vengeance and wrath which a long life of
sin will heap up against thee. If to the
considerations already given we add a brief
reflection on the gratitude of men, it will help us
realize, in some measure, the severity of the
punishment inflicted upon the sinner. Contemplate
God's goodness to men; the benefits He has heaped
upon them; the means He has given them to practice
virtue; the iniquities He has forgiven them; the
evils from which He has delivered them. Consider,
moreover, the ingratitude of men for all these
blessings; their many treasons and rebellions against
God; their contempt of His laws, which they trample
underfoot for a paltry interest, and often through
malice or mere caprice. What, then, can he expect who
has thus outraged God's mercy, who, in the words of
the Apostle, has "trodden under foot the Son of God,
and hath esteemed the blood of the testament unclean,
by which he was sanctified?" (Heb. 10:29). God is a
just Judge, and their punishment will be proportioned
to their crimes. Remember the majesty of Him who has
been offended, and consider the sufferings of that
body and soul which must offer satisfaction for such
an outrage. If the Blood of Christ were needed to
make reparation for man's offences, the dignity of
the Victim supplying what was lacking in the severity
of His sufferings, how terrible will be those
sufferings which sinners must endure, and which must
supply by their vigor what is wanting in the merit of
the victim! If the thought of the Judge impress us
so deeply, what ought to be our feelings when we
consider who it is that will be the executioner! The
executioner will be the devil. What, then, may we not
expect from the malice of such an enemy? If we would
form some idea of his cruelty, consider his treatment
of the holy man Job, whom God delivered into his
hands. He destroyed his flocks; laid waste his lands;
overthrew his houses; carried off his children by
death; made his body a mass of ulcers, and left him
no other refuge but a dunghill and a potsherd to
scrape his sores. In addition to his suffering he
left him a scolding wife and cruel friends, who
reviled him with words which tortured him more keenly
than the worms which preyed upon his flesh. Thus was
Job afflicted by Satan, but it is impossible to
describe in human language Satan's treatment of our
Blessed Saviour during the night in which He was the
victim of the powers of darkness. Seeing, then,
how cruel are the devil and his angels, will you not
tremble with horror at the thought of being delivered
into their hands? They will have power to execute
upon you the most terrible inventions of their
malice, not for a day, or a night, or a year only,
but for all eternity. Read the appalling picture of
these evil spirits given by St. John: "I saw a star,"
says the Apostle, "fall from heaven upon the earth,
and there was given to him the key of the bottomless
pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and the smoke
of the pit arose as the smoke of a great furnace; and
the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke of
the pit. And from the smoke of the pit there came out
locusts upon the earth. And power was given to them,
as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was
commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of
the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but
only the men who have not the seal of God on their
foreheads. And it was given to them that they should
not kill them, but that they should torment them five
months: and their torment was as the torment of a
scorpion when he striketh a man. And in those days
men shall seek death, and shall not find it; and they
shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them.
And the shapes of the locusts to were like unto
horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were,
as it were, crowns like gold; and their faces were as
the faces of men. And they had hair as the hair of
women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions;
and they had breastplates as breastplates of iron,
and the noise of their wings was as the sound of
chariots of many horses running to battle. And they
had tails like to scorpions, and there were stings in
their tails." (Apoc. 9:1-10). Does not the Holy
Ghost design to teach us by these terrible figures
the fearful effects of God's justice, the awful
instruments of His wrath, and the appalling tortures
of the reprobate? Does He not wish that the fear of
these evils should save us from the lot of the
sinner? What is that star which fell from Heaven, and
received the key of the bottomless pit, but that
bright angel who was precipitated from Heaven to
reign forever in Hell? Do not the locusts, so well
equipped for battle, represent the ministers of
Satan? And are not the green things which they were
commanded to spare, the just who flourish under the
dew of God's grace and bring forth fruits of eternal
life? Who are they who have not the seal of God upon
their foreheads but men who have not His Spirit,
which is the mark and seal of His faithful servants?
It is against these unhappy souls that the ministers
of God's vengeance will work. Yes, they will be
tormented in this life and in the next by the devils
whom they willed to serve, just as the Egyptians were
tormented by the various living creatures which they
had adored. What terrible pictures are given us in
Scripture of the monsters of this eternal abyss! What
can be conceived more horrible than the behemoth,
"that setteth up his tail like a cedar, whose bones
are like pipes of brass, who drinketh up rivers and
devoureth mountains?" (Job 40:10-19). The considerations already given are certainly
sufficient to inspire us with a horror of sin; but to
strengthen this salutary fear let us reflect upon the
duration of these terrible torments. Try to realize
what a comfort it would be to the damned if at the
end of millions of years they could look forward to
any term or alleviation of their sufferings. But no;
their suffering shall be eternal; they shall continue
as long as God shall be God. If one of these unhappy
souls, says a Doctor of the Church, were to shed one
tear every thousand years, and if these tears
accumulated to such a flood as to inundate the world,
he would still be as far as ever from the end of his
sufferings. Eternity would only be at its beginning.
Is there anything worthy of our fears but this
terrible fate? Truly, were the pain of Hell no more
than the prick of a pin, yet if it must continue
forever there is no suffering in this world which man
should not endure to avoid it. Oh! That this
eternity, this terrible forever, were deeply graven
in our hearts! We are told that a worldly man, giving
himself to serious reflection upon eternity, made use
of this simple reasoning: There is no sensible man
who would accept the empire of the world at the
expense of thirty or forty years spent upon a bed,
even were it a bed of roses. How great, then, is the
folly of him who, for much smaller interests, incurs
the risk of being condemned to lie upon a bed of fire
for all eternity! This thought wrought such a change
in his life that he became a great saint and most
worthy prelate of the Church.
What consideration will be given to this by the soft
and effeminate, who complain so much if the buzzing
of a mosquito disturbs their night's repose? What
will they say when they will find themselves
stretched upon a bed of fire, surrounded by
sulphurous flames, not for one short summer night,
but for all eternity? To such the prophet addresses
himself when he says, "Which of you can dwell with
devouring fire? Which of you shall dwell with
everlasting burnings?" (Is. 33:14). O senseless man!
Will you continue to allow yourself to be deceived by
the arch-enemy of your soul? How can you be so
diligent in providing for your temporal welfare, and
yet be so careless of your eternal interests? If
you were penetrated with these reflections, what
obstacle could turn you from the practice of virtue?
Difficult as it may appear, is there any sacrifice
you would refuse to escape these eternal torments?
Were God to allow a man to choose whether he would be
tormented while on earth with a gout or toothache
which would never allow him a moment's repose, or
embrace the life of a Carthusian or a Carmelite, do
you think there is anyone who would not, purely from
a motive of self-love, choose the state of a
religious rather than endure this continual
suffering? Yet there is no pain in this life which
can be compared to the pains of Hell, either in
intensity or in duration. Why, then, will we not
accept the labor God asks of us, which is so much
less than the austerities of a Carthusian or a
Carmelite? Why will we refuse the restraint of His
law, which will save us from such suffering? What will add most keenly to the sufferings of the
damned will be the knowledge that by a short penance
and self-denial upon earth they might have averted
these terrible pains which they must fruitlessly
endure for all eternity. We see a figure of this
awful truth in the furnace which Nabuchodonosor
caused to be built in Babylon (Dan. 3), the flames of
which mounted forty-nine cubits, but could never
reach fifty, the number of the year of jubilee, or
general pardon. In like manner the eternal flame of
this Babylon, though it burns so fiercely, filling
its unhappy victims with pain and anguish, will never
reach the point of mercy, will never obtain for them
the grace of pardon of the heavenly jubilee. Oh!
Unprofitable pains! Oh! Fruitless tears! Oh! Rigorous
and hopeless penance! If borne in this life, the
smallest portion of them might have saved the sinner
from everlasting misery. Mindful of all these, send
forth your tears and sighs, remembering the prophet
who "lamented and howled, who went stripped and
naked, making a wailing like the dragons, and a
mourning like the ostriches, because her wound was
desperate." (Micheas 1:8-9). If men were ignorant
of these truths, if they had not received them as
infallible, their negligence and indifference would
not be so astonishing. But have we not reason to
wonder, since men have received them on the word of
Him who has said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away"? (Lk. 21:33). Yet
behold in what forgetfulness of their duty and their
God they continue to live. Tell me, blind soul,
what pleasure you find in the riches and honors of
this world which is a compensation for the eternal
fire of Hell. "If you possessed the wisdom of
Solomon," says St. Jerome, "the beauty of Absalom,
the strength of Samson, the longevity of Henoch, the
riches of Croesus, the power of Caesar, what will all
these avail you at death, if your body becomes the
prey of worms, and your soul, like the rich
glutton's, the sport of demons for all eternity?"
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