One day we went together to visit a very aged lady in her last illness. Her
piety, which was of no ordinary kind, made her look forward calmly to the
approach of death, for which she had prepared by the reception of the
Sacraments of Penance and of the Blessed Eucharist. She only awaited the
visit of her doctor before asking for that of Extreme Unction.
All her worldly affairs were in perfect order, and but one thing troubled
her, namely, that her children who had all assembled round her, on hearing
of her danger, were too indefatigable in their attendance upon her, and
this, as she thought, to the detriment of their own health. Our Blessed
Father wishing to comfort her, said tenderly: "Do you know that I, on the
contrary, when I am ill, am never so happy as when I see my relatives and
servants all busy about me, tiring themselves out on my behalf. You are
astonished, and ask me why I feel like this. Well, it is because I know
that God will repay them generously for all these services. For if a cup of
cold water given to a poor man in the love and for the love of God receives
such a reward as eternal life; if our least labours undertaken for the love
of God work in us the weight of a supreme glory, why should we pity those
whom we see thus occupied, since we are not ill-disposed towards them, nor
envious of their advantages? _For unto you it is given_, said St. Paul to
the christians of his day, _not only to believe in Christ, but also to
suffer for Him_.
"The reapers and vintagers are never happier than when they are heavily
laden, because that proves the harvest, or the vintage, to have been
plentiful. In truth, if those who wait on us, whether in health or in
sickness, are only considering us, and not God, and are only seeking to
please us, they make so bad a use of their toil that it is right they
should suffer for it. He who serves the prophet for the love of the prophet
shall receive the reward of the prophet. But, if they serve us for the
love of God they are more to be envied than pitied; for he who serves the
prophet in consideration of Him who sends him shall receive the reward of
God, a reward which passes all imagination, which is beyond price, and
which no words can express."
In his visiting of the sick when on their death-bed our Blessed Father was
truly an angel of peace and consolation. He treated the sick person with
the utmost sweetness and gentleness, speaking from time to time a few words
suited to his condition and frame of mind, sometimes uttering very short
ejaculatory prayers, or aspirations for him, sometimes leading the sufferer
to utter them himself, either audibly, or, if speech was painful to him,
secretly in his heart; and then allowing him to struggle undisturbed with
the mortal pains which were assailing him.
He could not bear to see the dying tormented with long exhortations. That
was not the time, he would say, for preaching, or even for long prayers;
all that was needed was to keep the soul sustained in the atmosphere of the
divine will, which was to be its eternal element in heaven, to keep it up,
I say, by short beatings of the wings, like birds, who in this way save
themselves from falling to the earth.