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We know our God is a God of
unlimited mercy.
So long as we have breath in our
earthly lungs and turn to Him in true repentance, seeking His forgiveness and
mercy, we will receive it.
But not a single human being can
presume upon God’s mercy, since He is also a God of Justice.
Presumption is, as the Baltimore Catechism
tells us, “a rash expectation of salvation without making proper use of the
necessary means to obtain it.”
We ignore God, His graces, promptings
and teachings at our eternal peril.
In order not to be caught by
surprise, we would do well as we end the old year and welcome in the new one, to
set aside sufficient time today to silently reflect on how we have lived this past
year and ponder whether or not we need to make adjustments in how we will live
the rest of our lives - be it seconds, minutes, weeks, months or years.
May the following challenging but
necessary reality check help us to make a fruitful reflection:
“O Christian soul, what will be your sentiments at the hour of death with
regard to this world and all its perishable goods, vain honors, false riches
and cheating pleasures. Alas! The world
must then end in your regard. It will
turn upside down before your eyes, and you will begin to see the nothingness of
all those things on which you had here set your heart. How will you then despise all worldly honors
and preferences when you see yourself at the brink of the grave, where the worm
will make no distinction between the king and the beggar. How little account, will you then make of the
esteem of men, who then will think no more of you. How will you undervalue your riches, which
now must be left behind you, when six feet of earth and a coffin and a shroud
will be all your possession. How
despicable will all worldly pleasures seem to you, which at the best could
never give you any true satisfaction, and now fly from you and dissolve into
smoke in your sight! Ah, my poor soul, enter now into the same sentiments,
which you shall certainly have at the hour of your death! Thus, and only thus, you shall be out of
danger of being imposed upon by this deceitful world.
(From Think
Well on It by Bishop Richard Challoner (pages 22-23)
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A sobering picture. Whenever I find myself thinking about something I'd like to have but can't really afford, I picture myself dead and then think hard about whether I really "need" it at all.
ReplyDeletebarb:
ReplyDeleteHow different we would live our lives if we followed your advice!
It makes you realize, once again, that many secular traditions (i.e. new years resolutions) came out of a deeply spiritual place. People don't realize how they're living out the spiritual life even when they claim not to believe.
ReplyDeleteGreat insight. Astonishing, isn't it Kathleen, how God can still reach those who claim not to believe in Him
ReplyDelete