Remember man that dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return ... In all thy works remember thy last end,· and thou shalt never sin ... With desolation is all the land made desolate: because there is none that considereth in the heart. [1]
These, Dearly Beloved in Jesus Christ, are admonitions which, at all times, but more especially at the present season, and in our present circumstances, merit our serious attention. For we require all the aids which reason and revelation offer to us, in order to be enabled to maintain our souls in simplicity before God, and to keep out of them those unruly desires which worldly prosperity, or the expectation of it, is too apt to excite : desires, which war against our peace, and destroy all concern for our eternal welfare. May the Holy season we commence prove to us the Days of Salvation, by recalling our thoughts to the one thing necessary.
How instructive is the ceremony with which our Holy Mother the Church opens the penitential offices of this time! On our humbled foreheads, she inscribes in ashes, fit emblem of our mortality, these words : Remember man that thou art dust and into dust thou shalt return. Year after year, this solemn admonition has been delivered to you; year after year, has it been addressed to each of you individually; year after year has the remembrance of this admonition vanished from your minds, almost before the ashes sprinkled upon your heads have ceased to appear.
We feel, Dearly Beloved, that we are particularly called upon in our present circumstances, to remind you of your mortality, and to warn you lest you stumble on the very edge of a precipice; our love for you, and our solicitude for your welfare, compel us to endeavour to draw you from a position of peril. We wish to arouse you from a state of indifference, or to guard you against falling into it, by a consideration of the last end of man: Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell, and Eternity! These, are the awful realities of our existence, to which we are hastening rapidly; and we announce them, not to inspire terror and dismay, but rather hope and consolation, for the Church assures us this is the acceptable time - the days of Salvation, when the Lord is prepared to dissemble our iniquities, that he may spare. May these truths make the good more fervent, may they determine the sinner to renounce all impiety, to live soberly, justly, and piously, so that he also may expect the blessed hope and meeting of our Lord Jesus Christ !
With sin, came Death into the world; it is appointed that all men shall die: to this decree we must all sooner or later bow .... Each day's experience testifies that, in the words of Holy Job : “Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is full of miseries ... He comes forth like a flower, and is destroyed, and flees as a shadow;·his days are short, the number of his months is with you: you have appointed his bounds which cannot be passed.” [2]
And alas ! there are those who from the shortness of life, draw an argument to justify their criminal indulgence of sensual desires ... But no ! [such persons] cannot close their eyes to the light which revelation imparts; they cannot be deaf to the voice of all nations, and tribes, and tongues; they cannot resist the impulse of their own feelings; they cannot imagine that a God, infinite in justice and in goodness, has created us, and endowed us to no purpose with faculties aspiring to a perfectibility in this life not to be obtained; that He has ordained an order of things in which vice is seen to triumph; and virtue, conjoined with want and wretchedness, is so frequently calumniated and despised. The sufferings and steadfastness of the just will receive their recompense; the crimes of the wicked their condign punishment : God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every purpose, and for every work.
When the thread of life, at the appointed time, shall be dissevered, the soul, released from its earthly tenement which shall quickly speed to decay, will return to Him who created it: to render an account of the things done in the flesh and to receive retribution according to its works. And, hence, Dearly Beloved in Jesus Christ, the death of the sinner is said to be very evil, followed by a condemnation to the second death which the inspired Apostle describes in these awful words: “The lake of fire is the second death, the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolators, and all liars, their portion shall be in the pool burning with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” [3]
On the other hand, how different the death of the just! Over these that second death will have no dominion, hence it is written : “ Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; they rest from their labours and their works follow them.” [4] And the God of all virtue awaits their coming that he may bestow the promised recompense. Whilst those who have done evil shall indeed be raised in the body, but it will be the resurrection of condemnation; the material part of the just, “sown in corruption shall rise in incorruption; sown in dishonour shall rise in glory.” [5] In the meanwhile, “the souls of the just are in the hands of God, and the torment of death shall not approach unto them. They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house: and you shall make them drink of the torrent of your pleasure. For with you is the fountain of life." [6] ... Associated with the angels and with the good of all ages, in canticles of jubilation, they will celebrate eternally their happiness, their gratitude : “Alleluia! the Lord God omnipotent reigns … Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give glory to him, for the marriage of the lamb is come. " [7] Thus is expressed the mysterious union of the beatified soul with its Creator, through Jesus Christ, the end of her being, the consummation of her redemption, the completion of her sanctification.
Oh ye! who are yet in the dawn of life, prepare for yourselves a place amongst the blessed. Then will you experience that it is good for a man to have borne the yoke of the Lord from his youth.
And you, who are advanced in life, whose pilgrimage must be in order of nature, shortly terminate, prepare for the awful change; render your old age venerable by your virtues. So live, Parents, that amidst the sorrows of your children there may be joy. May the recollection of the spotless tenor of your lives, of your continual good example, of your faithful discharge of all your duties to God, of your integrity in all your dealings, of your assiduous attention to all the exercises of your Religion - be to them a comfort, when comfort they most need.
Dearly Beloved in Christ. If you desire to die the death of the just, live the life of the just. “Fear not,” says Saint Augustine, “he who lives in the Grace of God will die in the Grace of God.” On the other hand, Saint Jerome declares his conviction, “that of those who lead an habitually evil life - very few sincerely repent and obtain mercy.” How many are taken away suddenly! How many defer till too late! How many are prevented by circumstances from obtaining the attendance of the Sacred Ministry, and the aid of the ordinary means instituted by Jesus Christ to convey the merits of his Passion to the soul!
O ye! Dearly Beloved in Jesus Christ, who study to live well, that you may die the death of the just, during this holy Time increase in piety, in fervour, in all good. Trim your lamps and with the prudent Virgins await the coming of your Lord “Behold, says he, I come quickly and my reward is with me. He that is righteous, let him be more righteous. And he that is holy, let him become more holy ... Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me, to render every man according to his works.” [8]
And in conclusion, we address ourselves in all fatherly solicitude to you, Dearly Beloved, who have lived long in habits of sin, in indifference, in the neglect of the ordinances of your Holy Religion : Do not, we entreat you, continue in a state which renders all that your Saviour has suffered for you, all the divine inspirations, fruitless and useless in your regard. Determine to commence with this holy season, a new life : Do not, by systematic contempt of the abstinences and fasts, of the retirement and spiritual exercises of this penitential time, deprive yourselves of the grace so abundantly poured forth, and thus perhaps fill up the measure of your iniquities. Follow the injunction of your Saviour : Enter into your chambers, close the door, that is, in secret commune with your own soul, alone in the presence of God; and say in the words of St Augustine : “Tomorrow, perchance today, I may be of the number of the dead, and how shall I appear before thee, my God! "
Having thus judged yourselves, Dearly Beloved in Jesus Christ, at once go, like the Prodigal Son, to your loving Father, who has so long awaited your return; purify your consciences, by an humble avowal of your transgressions and omission; take up with courage the Cross of the Lord; fulfil the duties of this holy time; repair all wrong done as far as in you lies; merit by the sincerity of your repentance to be forgiven, to be made partakers of the Holy Communion, of the Heavenly food which nourishes the soul unto eternal life; dead to sin, live to God, and may He in his infinite goodness enable you to persevere, and crown all his merits in your regard, by granting you the inestimable favour of dying in his love.
Now, may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God the Father, who has loved us and has given us everlasting consolation and good hope in grace, exhort your hearts and confirm you in every good work and deed, that, made worthy of your vocation, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in you and you in Him. And may the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
The image of Archbishop Polding is based on a photograph taken circa 1860 and has been digitally enhanced by the Saint Bede Studio.
AMDG
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