SIXTH DAY. =Judgment.= by Saint Alphonsus De Liguori MEDITATION I. Particular Judgment. I. Place yourself, in imagination, in the same situation in which you will be when dying and in your agony, when not more than an hour or less will remain for you. Imagine that in a very short time you will have to be presented before your Judge, Jesus Christ, to render an account of your whole life. Nothing will then so much alarm you as remorse of conscience. Put, therefore, your accounts in order, before the arrival of the great accounting day. When you are on the point of entering into eternity, how will remorse for past sins, diffidence, increased by the suggestions of the devil, and uncertainty as to our future lot, cast us into a tempest of confusion and fear ! Let us therefore now unite ourselves to Jesus Christ, and to Mary, that at that critical moment they may not abandon us. How terrified shall we be at the thought, that in a few moments we shall be judged by Jesus Christ ! St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, being ill, and being asked by her director why she trembled, answered: How terrible is the thought of being obliged to appear before Christ as our Judge. O Jesus ! remember that I am one of those whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy blood. We beseech Thee, there fore, help Thy servants, whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood. II. It is the common opinion among divines that in the same place and moment in which the soul departs, it is judged by Jesus Christ. So that in that same moment the trial is gone through, and the sentence passed and put in execution. O fatal moment, in which is decided the happy or miserable lot of each one for eternity ! The Ven. Father da Ponte, when he thought of judgment, trembled to such a degree as to shake the room in which he was. O Jesus ! if now Thou wert to judge me, what would become of me? Eternal Father, look upon the face of thy Christ? I sincerely repent of all the sins that I have committed against Thee: look on the blood, the wounds of Thy Son, and have pity on me. III. The soul goes forth and leaves the body, but it is some time doubtful whether the person is alive or dead. While the bystanders are doubting, the soul enters into eternity. The priest, satisfied at length that the man is dead, sprinkles the corpse with holy water and repeats the prayer of the Church: Come to his assistance, all ye saints of God; meet him, ye angels of the Lord. But if the soul be lost, the saints and angels can no longer assist it. Jesus will come to judge us appearing with the same wounds that -he received for us in his Passion. These wounds will be a source of great consolation to penitents, who with true sorrow have bewailed their sins during life, but will be a source of great terror to sinners who have died in their sins. O God ! how painful will it be for man to behold him for the first time as his indignant Judge ! It will be more painful than hell itself. Man will then behold the majesty of the Judge: he will see how much He has suffered for the love of him; he will see the many mercies which He has exercised toward him, the many and great means which He has afforded him of gaining salvation; he will see the vanity of all worldly things, and the greatness of those which are eternal; he will see, in a word, all these truths, but without any advantage. Then will there be no more time to repair past errors. What is done is done. My beloved Redeemer ! grant that when I first behold Thee, I may see Thee with an appeased countenance; and for this end give me now light, give me strength to reform my life. I desire always to love Thee. If hitherto. I have despised Thy graces, I now esteem them above all the kingdoms of the world.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 02:47:28 +0000
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