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Immediately after death follows the particular
judgment, of which we have been treating. But there
is a day of general judgment, when, in the words of
the Apostle, "We must all be manifested before the
judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive
the proper things of the body, according as he hath
done, whether it be good or evil." (2Cor. 5:10).
In considering this subject, what strikes us as most
amazing, and what filled the holy soul of Job with
awe, is that a frail creature like man, so prone to
evil, should be subjected to such a rigorous judgment
on the part of God, by whose command his every
thought, word, and action are inscribed in the book
of life. In his astonishment Job cries out, "Why
hidest thou thy face, and thinkest me thy enemy?
Against a leaf, that is carried away with the wind,
thou showest thy power, and thou pursuest a dry
straw. For thou writest bitter things against me, and
wilt consume me for the sins of my youth. Thou hast
put my feet in the stocks, and hast observed all my
paths, and hast considered the steps of my feet: who
I am to be consumed as rottenness, and as a garment
that is moth-eaten." (Job 13:24-28). And returning
to the same subject, he continues, "Man born of a
woman, living for a short time, is filled with many
miseries; who cometh forth like a flower and is
destroyed, and fleeth as a shadow, and never
continueth in the same state. And dost thou think it
meet to open thy eyes upon such a one, and to bring
him into judgment with thee? Who can make him clean
that is born of unclean seed? Is it not thou who only
art?" (Job 14:1-4). Thus does holy Job express his
astonishment at the severity of the Divine Justice
towards frail man, so inclined to evil, who drinks up
iniquity like water. That He should have exercised
such severity towards the angels, who are spiritual
and perfect beings, is not a matter of so much
surprise. But it is truly amazing that not an idle
word, not a wasted moment in man's life shall escape
the rigor of God's justice. "But I say unto you that
every idle word that men shall speak, they shall
render an account of it in the day of judgment."
(Matt. 12:36). If we must render an account of idle
words which harm no one, how severe will be the
account exacted of us for impure words, immodest
actions, sinful glances, bloodstained hands, for all
the time spent in sinful deeds? We could hardly
credit the severity of this judgment, did not God
Himself affirm it. Oh! Sublime religion, how great
are the purity and perfection thou teachest! What
shame, then, and what confusion will overwhelm the
sinner when all his impurities, all his excesses, all
his iniquities, hidden in the secret recesses of his
heart, will be exposed, in all their enormity, to the
eyes of the world! Whose conscience is so clear that
he does not blush, does not tremble, at this thought?
If men find it so difficult to make known their sins
in the secrecy of confession, if many prefer to groan
under the weight of their iniquities rather than
declare them to God's minister, how will they bear to
see them revealed before the universe? In their shame
and confusion "they shall say to the mountains: Cover
us; and to the hills: Fall upon us." (Osee 10:8).
Consider also the terror of the sinner when this
terrible sentence resounds in his ear: "Depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire which was
prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matt. 25:4).
How will the reprobate hear these terrible words?
"Seeing," says holy Job, "that we have heard scarce a
little drop of his word, who shall be able to behold
the thunder of his greatness?" (Job 26:14). When this
dread sentence will have gone forth, the earth will
open and swallow in its fiery depths all those whose
lives have been spent in the pursuit of sinful
pleasures. St. John, in the Apocalypse, thus
describes this awful moment: "I saw another angel
come down from heaven, having great power: and the
earth was enlightened with his glory. And he cried
out with a strong voice, saying: Babylon the great is
fallen, is fallen; and is become the habitation of
devils, and the hold of every unclean spirit, and the
hold of every unclean and hateful bird." (Apoc.
18:1-2). And the holy Evangelist adds, "And a mighty
angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone,
and cast it into the sea, saying: With such violence
as this shall Babylon, that great city, be thrown
down, and shall be found no more at all." (Apoc.
18:21). In like manner shall the wicked, represented
by Babylon, be cast into the sea of darkness and
confusion. What tongue can express the torments of
this eternal prison? The body will burn with a raging
fire which will never be extinguished; the soul will
be tortured by the gnawing, undying worm of
conscience. The darkness will resound with despairing
cries, blasphemies, perpetual weeping and gnashing of
teeth. The sinner, in his impotent rage, will tear
his flesh and curse the inexorable justice which
condemns him to these torments. He will curse the day
of his birth, crying out in the words of Job, "Let
the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in
which it was said: A man child is conceived. Let that
day be turned into darkness, let not God regard it
from above, and let not the light shine upon it. Let
darkness and the shadow of death cover it, let a mist
overspread it, and let it be wrapped up in
bitterness. Let a darksome whirlwind seize upon that
night, let it not be counted in the days of the year,
nor numbered in the months. Why did I not die in the
womb, why did I not perish at once when I came out of
the womb? Why was I placed upon the knees? Why was I
suckled at the breasts?" (Job 3:3-6,11-12).
Unhappy tongues which will henceforth utter only
blasphemies! Unhappy ears to be forever filled with
sighs and lamentations! Unhappy eyes which will never
gaze upon anything but misery! Unhappy flesh consumed
in eternal flames! Who can tell the bitter remorse of
the sinner who has spent his life in pursuit of new
pleasures and new amusements? Oh! How fleeting were
the joys that brought such a series of woes! O
senseless, unhappy man! What do your riches now avail
you? The seven years of abundance are past, and the
years of famine are upon you. Your wealth has been
consumed in the twinkling of an eye, and no trace of
it remains. Your glory has vanished; your happiness
is swallowed up in an abyss of woe! So extreme is
your misery that a drop of water is denied you to
allay the parching thirst with which you are
consumed. Not only is your former prosperity of no
avail, but rather it increases the torture of your
cruel sufferings. Thus shall the imprecation of Job
be verified: "May worms be his sweetness" (Job
24:20), which St. Gregory thus explains: "The
remembrance of their past pleasures will make their
present sufferings more keen; and the contrast of
their short-lived happiness with this endless misery
will fill them with rage and despair." (Moral., 15,
26;16, 31). They will recognize too late the
snares of the evil one, and will exclaim in the words
of the Book of Wisdom: "We have erred from the way of
truth, and the light of justice hath not shone 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." (Wis.
5:6-7). The contemplation of this terrible truth
cannot but rouse us from our indifference and excite
us to practice virtue. St. John Chrysostom
frequently uses this truth as a means to exhort his
hearers to virtue. "If you would labor effectually,"
he says, "to make your soul the temple and the abode
of the Divinity, never lose sight of the solemn and
awful day when you are to appear before the tribunal
of Christ to render an account of all your works.
Represent to yourself the glory and majesty with
which Christ will come to judge the living and the
dead. Consider the irrevocable sentence which will
then be pronounced upon mankind, and the terrible
separation which will follow it. The just will enter
into the possession of ineffable joy and happiness;
the wicked will be precipitated into exterior
darkness, where there will be perpetual weeping and
gnashing of teeth. They will be gathered like weeds,
and cast into the fire, where they will remain for
all eternity." Ah! Then, before it is too late, let
us save ourselves from this terrible misfortune by a
humble and sincere confession of our sins � a favor
that we will not receive on that day, for, as the
Psalmist asks, Who shall confess to thee in hell?"
(Ps. 6:6). Another thought which should here
impress us is that God has given us two eyes, two
ears, two hands, and two feet, so that if we lose one
of these members we still have one left. But He has
given us only one soul, and if we lose that we have
no other with which to enjoy eternal happiness. Our
first care, therefore, should be to save our soul,
which is to share with the body either eternal
happiness or eternal woe. It will avail no man at
this supreme tribunal to urge, "I was dazzled by the
glitter of wealth; I was deceived by the promises of
the world." The inexorable Judge will answer, "I
warned you against these. Did I not say, 'What doth
it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer
the loss of his own soul?'" (Matt. 16:26). Nor can
you plead that the devil tempted you. He will remind
you that Eve was not excused when she urged that the
serpent had tempted her. The vision of Jeremias
teaches us what Our Lord's treatment of us will be.
The prophet beheld first "a rod watching," and then
"a caldron boiling." This is a figure of God's
dealings with men. First He warns them, and if they
do not heed, He punishes them; for he who will not
submit to the correction of the rod will be cast into
the caldron of fire. As you read of God's punishments
in Scripture, have you ever observed that no one
pleads for those whom God condemns? Father does not
plead for son, nor brother for brother, nor friend
for friend. Yes, even God's privileged servants, Noe,
Daniel, Job, would seek in vain to alter the sentence
of your Judge. At the wedding feast no voice is
raised to intercede for him who is driven from the
banquet. No one pleads for the slothful servant who
buried the talent entrusted to him by his Master. No
one makes intercession with the Bridegroom for the
five foolish virgins who, after despising the
pleasures of the flesh and stifling in their hearts
the fire of concupiscence, nay, after observing the
great counsel of virginity, neglected the precept of
humility and became inflated with pride on account of
their virginity. You know the history of the
avaricious man of the Gospel, and how vainly he
pleaded with Abraham for a drop of water to quench
his burning thirst. Why, then, will we not help
one another while we can? Why will we not render
glory to God before the sun of His justice has set
for us? Better let our tongues be parched with
privation and fasting during the short space of this
life, than by sinful indulgence expose ourselves to
an eternal thirst. If we can hardly endure a few days
of fever, how will we bear the parching thirst and
burning torments of that fire which will never die?
If we are so appalled at a sentence of death
pronounced by an earthly judge, which, at most,
deprives us of but forty or fifty years of life, with
what feelings will we hear that sentence which
deprives us of an immortal life and condemns us to an
eternity of misery? With what horror we read of
the tortures inflicted by executioners upon
malefactors; yet the most cruel are only shadows
compared to the eternal torments of the life to come.
The former end with this life; but in Hell the worm
of conscience shall never die, the executioner shall
never grow weary, the fire shall never be
extinguished. What, then, will be the feelings of the
wicked when suddenly transported from the midst of
earthly happiness to this abyss of unspeakable
miseries? In vain will they denounce their blindness
and bewail the graces they refused. What can the
pilot do when the ship is lost? Of what use is the
physician when the patient is dead? Whither will we
turn, on that terrible day, when the heavens and the
earth, the sun, moon, and stars, when all creatures,
will raise their voices against us to testify the
evil we have committed? But even were these silent,
our own consciences would still accuse us. These
reflections, dear Christian, we have gathered chiefly
from the writings of St. John Chrysostom. Do they not
prove the necessity of living with the fear of this
supreme judgment constantly before us? This fear was
never absent from the heart of St. Ambrose,
notwithstanding the vigilant fervor of his life. "Woe
is me," he exclaims in his commentary on St. Luke �
"Woe is me if I weep not for my sins! Woe is me, O
Lord, if I rise not in the night to confess and
proclaim the glory of Thy name! Woe is me if I do not
dissipate the errors of my brethren and cause the
light of truth to burn before their eyes, for the axe
is now laid to the root of the tree." Let him,
therefore, who is in a state of grace, bring forth
fruits of justice and salvation. Let him who is in a
state of sin bring forth fruits of penance, for the
time approaches when the Lord will gather His fruit;
and He will give eternal life to those who have
labored courageously and profitably, and eternal
death to those whose works are barren and useless.
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