to me? Does it not look like me? Wilt thou take a soul like that
and place it in thy paradise?" At these words the sinner looks
down upon himself and sees his own soul. He has never seen it
before. Oh, what a sight! As a man is horror-struck the first
time he sees his blotched and bloated face after an attack of
small-pox, so is he horror-struck at the sight of his own soul.
{246}
Oh, how horribly ugly and defiled it is! What are those stains
upon his soul Ah! they are the stains of sin. Each one has left
its separate mark; and to look at that soul you might see its
history. There is the gangrene of lust, and the spot of anger,
and the tumor of pride, and the scale of avarice. Ah! how hideous
it is, and how horrible to think how it is changed, for it was
once like that beautiful angel that stands by its side, all
radiant with light and beauty. It has no resemblance now. The
words of the demon are true; it resembles him. But the accuser
goes on: "I claim this body as mine." He turns to the body, as it
lies in the bed: "I claim those eyes as mine, by the title of all
the lascivious looks they have given. I claim those hands as
mine, by the title of all the robberies and acts of violence they
have committed. I claim those feet as mine, because they were
swift to carry him to the place of forbidden pleasures, and slow
to go to the house of God. I claim these ears as mine, by the
title of all the detraction they have drunk in so greedily. I
claim this mouth as mine, by the title of all the blasphemies and
impurities it has uttered. See," says he, "this body is mine; it
bears my mark;" and as he speaks he points to a scar in the
forehead, the remnant of a wound received in a drunken affray in
a house of ill-fame. Surely he has said enough; but he is not
accustomed to be believed. He has now spoken the truth indeed,
because truth serves his purpose better than falsehood would have
done. But he knows he is a liar, and therefore needs
confirmation; so he goes on: "I have witnesses, if you want them.
Shall I bring them up?" Jesus Christ gives his permission. And
now see, at his word, a band of lost spirits come up from hell.
Oh! how pale and haggard they look, and how they glare on the
sinner as they fix on him a look of recognition. Who is that who
speaks to him first, and holds out her long withered fingers to
him, and says, with a horrid laugh: "I think you know me."
{247}
Oh! that is the poor girl he seduced. She says: "I followed thee
to ruin; it is fitting thou shouldst follow me to hell." But
there is another woman. Who is that? That is his poor wife; his
poor wife, who had to put up with all the cruelties and violence
he practised in his beastly drunkenness; who was led by want to
steal, and by despair to drunkenness. She looks upon him with a
blood-shot eye. "My husband," she says: "thou wert my tormentor
in time; I will be thy tormentor in eternity." But who are those
young people, that young man and young woman? Oh, they are his
eldest children, his boy and girl, of whom he took no care; who,
finding nothing but a hell at home, went out--the one to the
tavern and the gaming-room, the other to the ball and the dance
and the lonely place of assignation, and, after a short career of
dissipation, were both cut off in their sin. They meet him, and
now they say: "Father, thou didst pave the way of perdition for
us, and now we will cling to thee, and drag thee deeper, who art
at once the author of our life and of our destruction." Ah! has
not the demon made out his case? Can there be hope for one like
that? Are you not ready to condemn him yourselves to hell? But
wait--perhaps he did good penance. And the Judge, turning to the
angel guardian says: "My good and faithful servant, what has thou
to say in behalf of this soul, which was committed to thy
especial care?" The angel looks down upon the ground and sighs,
and answers, "Most just and holy Sovereign, alas! I have nothing
to say that can set aside the accusation Thou hast beard. All I
can do is to vindicate Thy justice and my fidelity. I have given
to the man all the graces Thou hast prepared for him. He was a
Catholic. He had the sacraments. He had warnings. He had faith.
He had many special graces. He had the mission; and I myself
often spoke to him in his heart, calling him to do penance, but
he never did do penance. He was careless in attendance at Mass.
{248}
He was seldom at the confessional, and when he did come he made
his confession without a sincere purpose of amendment, and soon
relapsed into his former sins, and at last he died without
penance. Therefore there is nothing left for me but to resign my
charge and to return the crown"--here the angel takes up a
beautiful crown--"to return the crown which Thou hadst made for
him, that Thou mayst place it on another brow." "Dost Thou not
hear," the demon once more cries out impatiently--"Dost thou not
hear what the angel says? Yes, this man is mine, has always been
mine. I did not create him, and yet he always served me. Thou
didst create him, and yet he has refused to obey Thee. I never
died for him, yet he has been my willing slave. Thou didst die
for him, and yet he has "blasphemed Thy name, broken Thy laws and
despised Thy promises. Thou didst allure him by kindness, but
wert not able to win his affection. I led him to hell, and found
him willing to follow. O Jesus, thou Son of the living God, if
Thou dost not give me this soul, there is neither truth in Thy
word nor justice in Thy awards." The demon speaks boldly, but
Jesus Christ suffers him to speak so, because he speaks truly;
and oh, with what terror does the poor sinner hear that truth!
But terror is not the only feeling that is to fill his heart.
Despair is to come in, to make his misery complete. He begins to
cry for mercy. "O God, mercy! have mercy, O Jesus Christ! Do not
let me perish whom Thou hast redeemed. I have had the faith; oh,
do not let me come to perdition! Only one quarter of an hour to
do penance!" Can Jesus Christ resist such an appeal? No, my
brethren, if there were a real disposition to do penance in the
heart. I will undertake to say that if the devils of hell were
willing to do penance, God would forgive them. But there is no
penance in the other world. There is only the desire to escape
punishment, not the desire to escape sin; and being out of the
order of the present providence of God, which leaves the will
free, there is no real conversion there.
{249}
Therefore Jesus Christ answers: "O wicked man, thy deeds condemn
thee. Thou callest for mercy, but it is too late. The time for
mercy is over! Mercy! thou hast shown no mercy to thyself, to thy
wife or children. Mercy! I have shown thee mercy all the days of
thy life. I sent thee my preachers, and thou didst refuse to
listen. There is no mercy now but justice--and therefore I
pronounce the everlasting sentence. I consign this man's soul to
hell, and his body to the resurrection of damnation." Did you
hear that howl? That was the devil's howl of triumph. Jesus
Christ is gone. The angel is gone; and the devil goes to the
body. They have not done washing it. He begins to wash too. What
is he doing. He is washing the forehead; for on that forehead,
the mark of Christ, the holy cross, was placed in baptism, and he
is washing it out, and with a brand from hell he places there his
own signet--the signet of perdition. And now the soul, feeling
the full extent of her misery, cries out: "I am damned. I am
damned! no hope more; not even Purgatory. Oh, I never thought it
would come to this; I did but do as the others. I was no worse
than my companions, and now I am lost. I that was a Catholic, I
that had always a good name, and was liked by my friends. And oh,
are the judgments of God so strict? What will become of my
companions whom I left on the earth, wild and reckless like my
self? Will they too follow me to this place of torment! Oh, why
did not the priest speak of this? Alas! he did, but I would not
hear. Alas, alas, it is too late now! Shall I never see Jesus
Christ again? Must I forever despair?" And a voice rises from the
walls of eternity with ten thousand reverberations: "Despair."
Can there be any thing more dreadful still? Yes, the sinner's cup
has one more ingredient of bitterness--remorse. You know what a
comfort it is to be able to say, "It was not my fault, I did what
I could." But the sinner will not have that comfort. On the
contrary, he will say, "I might have been saved. It is all true
which the angel said.
{250}
I was a Catholic, and had the means of salvation. I might have
been saved, saved easily, more easily than I was lost. I was
never happy; sin never made me happy. I sinned, and gained for
myself misery even in the other world. Fool that I was, I might
have done penance, and been happier after it, in time and in
eternity. How little God asked of me! I had the mission, if I had
but made it well. Oh, what trouble I took to be damned, and how
little was required of me to be saved! Yesterday, God was ready;
the sacraments were at hand, the church door open, the priest was
awaiting me; but now all is closed. Oh, if I had them now!" But
his complaints are silenced. An iron grasp is on his throat. The
demon has his black hand on his throat and chokes him; then he
puts his horrid arms around him, and hugs him as the anaconda
hugs her victims. He carries him swiftly through the air: down,
down they go--until at last they reach the gates of hell. They
creak upon their hinges, they open, the demon enters with his
prey, and casts it on the bed of flames prepared for it. Then a
yell is heard throughout those dismal regions: "One more Catholic
vocation thrown away, one more soul lost, one more devil in
hell."
Come, let us go back to that room where the corpse is laid out.
They have just finished preparing it for the grave, and all that
we have described has been taking place in that very room too,
and they have not known it. They have smoothed the body and laid
a white cloth over it; and they say, how natural it looks. It
wears the smile they remember it used to wear in youth, and that
poor soul they are talking of is damned. Jesus Christ has been
there, and adjudged it to hell. And this is going on every day.
Wherever death takes a man, there judgment meets him. Jesus
Christ meets men in all kinds of places.
{251}
You know how death met Baltassar. He was a drunkard, an
adulterer, a sacrilegious robber; and one night, when he was
drunk, and held a grand feast, surrounded by his concubines, and
with the vessels of God's house on his table, a hand appeared on
the wall and wrote this sentence: "Mene, Mene, Thecel, Phares;"
and that night he died. Yes! in the midst of their sin; in the
place where they go, Jesus Christ meets the soul, and condemns it
to hell. He meets it in the grogshop, where wild companions are
gathered together, and one of them falls to the ground, under the
blow of a companion, and dies. There upon that spot, with those
bad companions standing around, with the sound of blasphemy in
his ear, Jesus Christ, unseen, meets that soul and condemns it to
hell. Another is shot in the street, on his way to keep an
assignation, and then and there, in the street, Jesus Christ
meets him and condemns him to hell. One dies in the low hovel,
where squalid vice and misery have done all they could to
brutalise the inmates, and then and there Jesus Christ, in that
hovel, meets the soul and condemns it to hell. Another dies in a
bed covered with silken tapestry, and as he dies he sees the face
of Jesus Christ looking in through the silken curtains to
pronounce the sentence against him, who had made a god of this
world. Another dies in prison, and there in that cell where human
justice placed him, divine justice meets him, and in that prison
Jesus Christ meets him and condemns him to hell. Yes, wherever
death meets you, O sinner, there Jesus Christ will meet you, and
there he will condemn you. It may be tomorrow. It may be in the
very act of the commission of sin. It may be without any
opportunity of preparation, you will stand before an inflexible
and unerring Judge. Oh, then, do not delay now to propitiate Him
while you can. In that tribunal after death, there is no mercy
for the sinner; but there is another tribunal, which He has
established, where there is mercy--the tribunal of penance. There
the accuser is not the demon, but the sinner himself; and he is
not only his own accuser, but his own witness against himself.
There the angel guardian waits with joy, not with sorrow. There
Jesus Christ is present, but not in wrath.
{252}
There the sentence is, "I absolve thee from thy sin," not "I
condemn thee for thy sin." Oh, then, appeal from one tribunal to
the other. Appeal from Jesus Christ to Jesus Christ. Appeal from
Jesus Christ at the day of judgment to Jesus Christ in the
confessional. And if thou wouldst not be condemned by Him when
thou seest Him after death, be sure thou gettest a favorable
sentence from Him now in the Sacrament of Penance. "_Make an
agreement with thy adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way
with him: lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the judge,
and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into
prison. Amen. I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence
till thou pay the last farthing._" [Footnote 23]
[Footnote 23: St. Matt. v. 25.]
---------------------------
Sermon IV.
Heaven.
(Mission Sermon.)
"Rejoice and be exceeding glad,
because your reward is very great in heaven."
--St: Matt. v. 12.
Some of you may remember the joy with which, after a sea voyage,
you arrived at home. The voyage had been very long and wearisome.
You had suffered, perhaps had been in danger. At last you heard
the sailors cry "Land;" and after a while, your less practised
eye began to discern the blue hills of your native country. Oh,
how that sight revived you! How your sufferings and dangers were
all forgotten in the thought of the welcome that awaited you at
home!
{253}
Well, life is a voyage on the ocean of time; often a tempestuous,
always a dangerous voyage; and in order to animate our courage,
to cheer and console us, God has allowed us from time to time to
catch a glimpse by faith of our distant home of heaven. Let us
lift up our thoughts now to that happy land, the land that is
very far off, the land that is wide and quiet; the celestial
paradise, the home of the blessed, the city of God. I know that
we cannot gain any sufficient idea of it. I know that eye hath
not seen its beauty, ear hath not heard the story of it, neither
hath the heart of man conceived its image; but we must do as men
do with some costly jewel: turn it first on one side, then on
another, to catch its brilliancy; and if at the last we fall
down, blinded and dazzled by the splendors which meet us, we
shall in this way at least conceive something of the greatness of
those things which God has provided for those who love Him.
The Holy Scripture represents the pleasures of heaven in three
different lights: first, as Rest; second, as Joy; third, as
Glory. Let us, then, meditate upon them for a while, under each
one of these three aspects.
First, then, heaven is a place of rest, by which I understand the
absence of all those things which disturb us here. True, there is
happiness even in this life, but how unsatisfactory, how
fleeting! Here we are never far off from wretchedness, and never
long without trouble. You go into a great city: how rich and gay
every thing looks; what crowds of well-dressed people pass you!
Ah! in the next street there is the dismal hovel where poverty
hides its head, and the children cry for bread, and there is no
one to break it to them. You are strong and healthy, and it is a
strange, fierce joy for you on a cold day to struggle with the
buffetings of the wintry blast; but see, the rude wind that
kindles a glow on your cheek steals away the bloom from yonder
sick man, whose feeble step and sharpened features tell of
suffering and disease.
{254}
You have a happy family, and when you go home your children
clamber up on your knees, and your wife meets you with a smile of
affection. Alas! next door, the widow weeps the night long, and
there is none to comfort her, for the young man, the only son of
his mother, has been carried to his long home. And as if this
were not enough, as if sickness and poverty and death did not
cause misery enough in the world, men's passions, hate and envy,
lust, avarice, and pride, unite to make many a moment wretched
that might else have been happy. But in heaven these things shall
be no more. In heaven. there shall be complete and perfect rest.
The poor man will no more be forced to toil hardly and anxiously
to put bread in his children's mouths--to rise up early, and late
take rest; for there they shall not hunger nor thirst any more.
The sick man then shall leap as a hart; he shall run and not be
weary; he shall walk and not faint. The widow's tears shall be
dried, for husband and son shall be again restored to her. Oh,
what a day shall that be, when dear friends shall meet together,
never to part again, and God shall wipe all tears from their
eyes, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away; when the bodies of
the saints, glorious and immortal, no longer subject to decay or
fatigue or death, clothed in light, shall enter the gates of the
celestial city, and shall have a right to the tree of life! And
there shall be no sin there, no gust of passion, no reproach of
conscience, no sting of temptation. In this life, says St.
Augustine, we have the liberty of being able not to sin, but in
heaven we shall have the higher liberty of not being able to sin.
Brother shall not rise up against brother, neither shall there be
war any more, for the former things are passed away. There shall
be no strife or hatred or envy; no wrong or oppression; no
unkindness or coldness; no falsehood or insincerity; but within a
perfect peace, and without an unalterable friendship between all
the inhabitants of this happy land, each rejoicing in the other's
happiness and glory. And there is no end to these joys of heaven.
{255}
Here our best pleasures are alloyed by their transitoriness; but
there, there is no fear for the future. No wave disturbs the
deep, clear sea of crystal that lies before the throne of God.
The angel has sworn that time shall be no longer, and the great
day of eternity has begun. O heavenly Jerusalem! O city of God!
which has no need of sun or moon to enlighten it, for there is no
night there! welcome haven of rest to the poor exiles of earth!
Blessed are they that shall enter thy gates of pearl and tread
thy streets of gold, for thou art the perfection of beauty and
the joy of the whole earth. In thy secure recesses the wicked
cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. "Blessed are they
that die in the Lord, for they rest from their labors. They shall
not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. My
people shall be all just; they shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, to glorify me."
But though it is easier to describe heaven as a place of rest,
that is not the whole description of it. Heaven is also a place
of joy, and of joy the most complete, the most pure, the most
satisfying that the human heart can possess. Joy in seeing and
loving God, or, as it is called, in the Beatific Vision. This it
is in which consists essentially the Christian idea of heaven. I
say the Christian idea, for our faith teaches us to look forward
to a happiness very different from what we could have expected by
nature. Of course natural reason teaches us to look forward to a
future life, but it promises no other knowledge of God but such
as is possible to our own natural powers when fully developed.
But Christianity promises us a knowledge of God to which our
natural powers, however enlarged, could never aspire. It teaches
us that we shall see Him as He is--not only think about Him and
commune with Him and adore Him, but actually look upon His
unveiled Divinity, gaze upon Him face to face. It is not of our
Lord's glorified humanity that I speak.
{256}
That, too, we shall see, and that will be a sight of unspeakable
beauty and joy; but we shall see more: we shall look upon and
into the Divine Essence. Now to our natural powers this is
impossible. A blind man can know a great deal about the sun. He
may hear it described, he may reason about it, he may feel its
effects, but he cannot lift up his eyes to heaven and see it. So,
naturally speaking, we have not the faculty whereby to see God.
"_No man hath seen God at any time_," says St. John.
"_Whom no man hath seen, or can see, who inhabiteth the light
inaccessible_," says St. Paul. [Footnote 24]
[Footnote 24: St. John i. 18; I. Tim. vi. 16.]
Clearly there must be some great change in us, something given to
us that does not belong to us as men, in order to enable us to
see God, and the Holy Scripture tells us what that change shall
be: "_We shall be like to Him, for we shall see Him as He
is_," says St. John. [Footnote 25]
[Footnote 25: I. Ep. St. John iii. 2.]
We ourselves shall become divine and godlike. The human intellect
shall be marvellously strengthened by a gift which the Church
calls the light of glory, which shall enable us to look upon God
and live. We are told in Scripture that God walked in the garden
of Eden and talked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. This
high companionship was broken by the fall. Man was reduced to the
rank that essentially belonged to him, and was deprived of that
which had been accorded to him of grace. But by baptism he
acquires once more a right to that familiar intercourse with God,
and in heaven he enters upon its enjoyment. For this reason
heaven is called our fatherland. It is our lost inheritance
recovered. There we ourselves shall be the sons of God, and God
will be our Father. Think what is the relation of an affectionate
son to a good and wise father. What submission with
equality--what complete sympathy and community of interest--what
intimate communication of thought and feeling! So, O Christian
soul! shall it be between you and God. God will be your God, and
you will be His child.
{257}
Thou shalt dwell in His home, and all that He hath shall be
thine. "_All things are yours, the world, or life, or death, or
things present, or things to come; for all are yours, and you are
Christ's, and Christ is God's_." [Footnote 26]
[Footnote 26: 1 Cor. iii 23.]
Yes, God himself shall be yours. You shall look around you and
see His towering altitudes, and count them as your own. You shall
look deep down into the depths of His wisdom and be wise as God
is. You shall find yourself upborne by His power and goodness,
enveloped by His glory, and adorned with His beauty. Oh! my
brethren, is not this joy? Tell me, tell me, young men, tell me,
children, tell me truly, one and all, what have been the happiest
moments of your life? Was it the moments you have spent in sin?
Was it the hour of some earthly success or triumph? Or was it not
rather at some hour when God was near to you, and you felt the
music of His voice and the perfume of His breath--some time when
you were praying, or when you had made a good confession or
communion, or when you were listening to a sermon? I know it was.
I know there are times when every man has felt the words of the
Psalmist: "_What have I in heaven? and besides Thee what do I
desire upon earth? Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that
is my portion forever._" [Footnote 27]
[Footnote 27: Ps. lxxxii. 26.]
What are all the attainments of learned men to Him who is
all-wise? What are all the conceptions of genius to Him who is
all-beautiful, or the moral excellencies of good men to Him who
is all-holy? Yes, the thought of God is the source of the purest
and highest pleasure on earth. That thought has ravished the
saints with ecstasy, and made the martyrs laugh at their
torments. And if merely to think about God in this life can make
us so happy, what must it be to see Him in the life to come?
{258}
To know God and to love Him, to know Him as we are known by Him,
to love Him with our whole souls, to possess Him without the fear
of losing Him, to take part in His counsels, to enter into His
will, and to share in His blessedness--this is a joy, perfect and
supreme; and this is the joy of heaven. This is the joy offered
to you. This is all-satisfying. The soul can desire nothing more.
This is permanent, for heaven is eternal. This is always new, for
God is riches and beauty inexhaustible and infinite. Oh, my
brethren, do not envy those who were near our Lord's person when
He was upon earth. I know it is natural to do so. I know it is
natural to say, "If I could but have seen His face, or heard the
sound of His voice;" but no! yours is a still happier lot. Do not
envy Magdalene, who kissed His feet, nor St. John, on whose
breast He leaned, nor the Blessed Virgin, who bore Him in her
arms. Is it not permitted to the poorest and the weakest of you
to see Him, not in His humility, but in his glory--to converse
with Him and dwell with Him in the land of the living? Oh!
blessed are they that dwell in Thy house! The world passeth away,
and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth
forever. Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and do it!
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God! One would
have thought that this was enough. To be free from all the trials
and sufferings of this present life, and to enjoy the fullest
happiness a human soul is capable of--one would think that were
heaven enough, and that no more could be added. But the bounty of
God has added another element to the happiness of heaven. Heaven
is a place of glory--not of rest only, but of glory also. "Glory,
honor and peace," says the apostle, "to every man that doeth
well." Heaven is the place of God's glory, and it is also the
place of the glory of the saints. Even here the good are honored
--the really good. True, for a while they may be despised and
persecuted, but, in the long run, nothing is honored so much as
virtue.
{259}
During the lifetime of Nero and St. Paul, Nero was a powerful
emperor, praised and flattered by his courtiers, and St. Paul a
friendless and despised prisoner; now, Nero is abhorred as the
wicked tyrant, and St. Paul honored by all men as the saint and
hero. But this is not enough. In heaven the honor of the saints
will be magnificent. God himself will honor them. This is one
reason for the last judgement, that God may publicly give honor
to the good. "_Whosoever shall glorify me, him will I
glorify_," says the Almighty; [Footnote 28] and they who are
saved will be admitted to heaven with respect and solemnity, as
those whom the King delights to honor.
[Footnote 28: 1 Ki. ii. 30.]
This is represented to us in the description of the last
judgment: "Then shall He turn to them on the right hand and say:
'Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world.'" See how He praises them.
See how He honors them and makes kings out of them. They are
astonished: it seems too much. They know not how they have
deserved it. But He insists upon it as their right. He repeats
the good actions they have done. "I was hungry and ye gave me
meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me to drink. I was naked and ye
clothed me." Do you hear this, my brethren? So will it be with
you when you stand before God to be judged. He will hold in His
hand a beautiful diadem of gold, and he will say: "This is for
thee." And thou shalt be amazed and shalt say: "No, Lord, this is
not for me. I am nothing but a laboring man. I am but a poor boy.
I am only a servant-girl. I am not the child of the rich and
great. No one ever made way for me in the street, or rose up when
I came into their company." But Christ shall say: "Nay! a prince
thou art, for thou hast done the deeds of a prince."
{260}
Then He will begin to mention them one by one--your kindness to
your old mother and father--your humble confession that it was so
difficult to make, and which you made so well--the time you
overcame that great temptation, and resolved, once for all, to be
virtuous--the occasion of sin you renounced--the prayers you
said in humility and sincerity--the sacrifices you made for your
faith--the true faith you kept with your husband or wife--the
patience you practised in pain or vexation. Then He will show you
your throne in heaven, so bright you will think it an apostle's,
or the Blessed Virgin Mary's, or that it belongs to God himself;
and then the tears of joy and surprise will drop from your eyes,
and your heart will be nigh bursting with confusion; but He will
smile upon you, and take you by the hand, and say: "Yes, thou
hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over
many things." Then He will give thee a certain jurisdiction, a
certain power of intercession; make thee an assessor in His high
court of heaven, and make thee to sit on a throne with Him,
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And others shall honor thee.
The saints shall honor thee. The Blessed Virgin shall honor thee.
Now thou honorest her, so much at a distance from thee, and
callest her Lady; but then it shall be as it was when St. John
and the Blessed Virgin dwelt together in one home. Thou shalt
still honor her as the Mother of Jesus, and she shall honor thee
as His disciple. St. Peter and St. John and St. James and St.
Andrew shall honor thee. Now thou makest thy litanies to them;
but then it will be as it was when Peter and Thomas and Nathanael
and the sons of Zebedee were together, and Jesus came in the
midst and dined with them. The saints shall be one family with
thee. They will walk with thee, and sit with thee, and call thee
by name, and tell thee the secrets of Paradise. And the angels
shall honor thee. Now thou addressest thy angel guardian on
bended knee; but then he will say to thee: "See thou do it not; I
am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren, who have the
testimony of Jesus." And the Church on earth shall praise thee.
As long as time shall last, she shall make mention of thee as one
of those who rejoice with Christ in His glorious kingdom, and,
clothed in white, follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.
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Yes, and the wicked and the devils shall honor thee. Now they may
affect to despise you--now they may persecute you and trouble
you; but then they will be forced to do you honor, and, groaning
within themselves for anguish of spirit, and amazed at the
suddenness of your unexpected salvation, shall say: _These are
they whom we had sometime in derision, and for a parable if
reproach. We fools esteemed their life madness and their end
without honor. Behold how they are numbered among the children of
God, and their lot is among the saints_." [Footnote 29]
[Footnote 29: Wisd. v. 3, 4, 5.]