/lit/ - Literature

>>13466237
A damned soul once appeared to St. Hubert, and said, that two remorses were her most cruel executioners in Hell: the thought of the little which was necessary for her to have done in this life to secure her salvation; and the thought of the trifles for which she brought herself to eternal misery. The same thing has been said by St. Thomas. Speaking of the reprobate, he says: "They shall be in sorrow principally because they are damned for nothing, and because they could most easily have obtained eternal life." Let us stop to consider this first source of remorse, that is, how few and transitory are the pleasures for which all the damned are lost.

Each of the reprobate will say for eternity: If I abstained from such a gratification; if in certain circumstances I overcame human respect; if I avoided such an occasion of sin or such a companion, I should not now be damned; if I had frequented some pious sodality; if I had gone to confession every week; if in temptations I had recommended myself to God, I would not have relapsed into sin. I have so often proposed to do these things, but I have not done them. I began to practice these means of salvation, but afterwards gave them up; and thus I am lost.

This torment of the damned will be increased by the remembrance of the good example given them by some young companions who led a chaste and pious life even in the midst of the world. It will be still more increased by the recollection of all the gifts which the Lord had bestowed upon them, that by their co-operation they might acquire eternal salvation — the gifts of nature health, riches, respectability of family, talents — all gifts granted by God, not to be employed in the indulgence of pleasures and in the gratification of vanity, but in the sanctification of their souls, and in becoming saints. So many gifts of grace, so many divine lights, holy inspirations, loving calls, and so many years of life to repair past disorders — but they shall forever hear from the angel of the Lord that for them the time of salvation is past. "The angel whom I saw standing, swore by Him that liveth for ever and ever ... that time shall be no longer" (Apoc. 10:6).

Alas! What cruel swords shall all these blessings received from God be to the heart of a poor damned Christian, when he shall see himself shut up in the prison of Hell, and that there is no more time to repair his eternal ruin! In despair he will say to his wretched companions: "The harvest is past; the summer is ended; and we are not saved" (Jer. 8:20). The time, he will say, of gathering fruits of eternal life is past; the summer, during which we could have saved our souls, is over, but we are not saved; the winter is come; but it is an eternal winter, in which we must live in misery and despair as long as God shall be God.