Posted by Morning Meditation
FROM THE JUST LIFE IS NOT TAKEN, BUT ONLY EXCHANGED FOR A BETTER.
He who wishes to see God must necessarily pass through the gate of death. Death is the end of labour and the gate of life, says St. Bernard. This is the gate of the Lord: the just shall enter into it.
I.
Death is not only the end of labours but it is also the gate of life. He who wishes to see God must necessarily pass through this gate. This is the gate of the Lord: the just shall enter into it (Ps. cxvii. 20). St. Jerome entreated death to open its gates to him: Aperi mihi, soror mea. Death, my sister, if you do not open the door to me, I cannot enter to enjoy my Lord. Seeing in his house a picture in which death was represented with a knife in the hand, St. Charles Borromeo sent for a painter, and ordered him to substitute for the knife a golden key, in order that he might be more and more inflamed with a desire of death, which opens Paradise and admits us to the vision of God.
If, says St. John Chrysostom, a king had prepared for one of his subjects apartments in his own palace, but for a time obliged him to live in a tent, how ardently would the vassal sigh for the day on which he should leave the tent to enter into the palace. In this life the soul, being in the body, is as it were confined in a prison which she must leave in order to enter the celestial palace. Hence David prayed to the Lord to bring his soul out of prison (Ps. cxl. 8). When the holy Simeon held the Infant Jesus in his arms, he asked no other grace than to be delivered from the prison of the present life. Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, (Luke ii. 29). “As if detained by necessity, he,” says St. Ambrose, “begs to be dismissed.” The Apostle desired the same grace when he said: I am straitened, having a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ (Phil. i. 23).
How great was the joy of the cup-bearer of Pharaoh when he heard from Joseph that he should soon be rescued from the prison and restored to his position! And will not a soul that loves God exult with gladness at hearing that it will soon be released from the prison of this earth and go to enjoy God? While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord (2 Cor. v. 6). While the soul is united to the body, it is at a distance from the vision of God, as if in a strange land, and excluded from its true country. Hence, according to St. Bruno, the departure of the soul from the body should not be called death, but the beginning of life.
O God of my soul, I have hitherto dishonoured Thee by turning my back upon Thee, but Thy Son has honoured Thee by offering to Thee the sacrifice of His life on the Cross. Through the honour which Thy beloved Son has given Thee, pardon the dishonour which I have done Thee. I am sorry, O Sovereign Good, for having offended Thee, and I promise henceforth to love nothing but Thee. From Thee I hope for salvation: whatever good is in me at present is the fruit of Thy grace; to Thee I ascribe it all. By the grace of God, I am what I am (1 Cor. xv. 10). If I have hitherto dishonoured Thee, I hope to honour Thee in Heaven by blessing and praising Thy mercy forever.
II.
The death of the Saints is called their Birthday; because at death they are born to that life of bliss which will never end. St. Athanasius says: “To the just, death is only a passage to eternal life.” “O amiable death,” says St. Augustine, “who will not desire thee who art the end of evils, the conclusion of labour, the beginning of everlasting repose?” Hence the holy Doctor frequently prayed for death that he might see God.
The sinner, St. Cyprian says, has just reason to fear death, because he will pass from temporal to eternal death. But he who is in the state of grace, and hopes to pass from death to life, fears not death. In the Life of St. John the Almoner, we read that a certain rich man recommended to the prayers of the Saint an only son, and gave the Saint a large sum of money to be distributed in alms, for the purpose of obtaining from God a long life for his son. The son died soon after; and when the father complained of his death, God sent an Angel to say to him: “You sought for your son a long life: he now enjoys eternal life in Heaven.” This is, as was promised by the Prophet Osee, the grace which Jesus Christ merited for us. O death, I shall be thy death (Osee xiii. 41). By dying for us, Jesus has changed death into life. When Pionius, the Martyr, was being brought to the stake, he was asked by those who conducted him, how he could go to death with so much joy. “You err,” replied the Saint: “I go not to death but to life.” Thus, also, did the mother of the youthful St. Symphorian exhort him to Martyrdom. “My son,” said she, “life is not taken from you; it is only exchanged for a better one.”
I feel a great desire to love Thee, O my God. This Thou hast given me: I thank Thee for it, O my Love! Continue, continue the aid which Thou hast begun to give me. I hope to be henceforth Thine and entirely Thine. And what greater pleasure can I enjoy than that of pleasing Thee, my Lord, Who art so amiable, and Who hast loved me so tenderly! O my God, I ask only for love, love, love, and I hope always to ask this love of Thee, until, dying in Thy love, I reach the kingdom of love where I shall be filled with love, and never for a single moment for all eternity cease to love Thee and to love Thee with all my strength. Mary, my Mother, who lovest thy God so intensely, and who desirest so vehemently to see Him loved, obtain for me the grace to love Him ardently in this life, that I may love Him ardently forever in the next.