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willingly changed his
sentence,'' says St.
Jerome, "because he saw his works changed."
Jon. 3:10.
Unhappy we, says the same saint, when God does not punish us in this life! It is
a sign that he
means us for eternal chastisements. What do we conclude, he continues, when the
surgeon sees the
flesh about to mortify, and does not cut it away? we conclude that he abandons
the patient to
death? God spares the sinner in this life, says St. Gregory, only to chastise
him in the next. Woe
to those sinners to whom God has ceased to speak, and appears not to be in
anger. I will cease
and be angry no more. The Lord then goes on to say: But thou hast
provoked Me in all these things:
and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, that thou mayest remember, and be
confounded.
Ezech. 16:42,43,62. A day will come, he says, ungrateful sinner, when
you shall know what I am;
then shall you remember the graces I have given you, and see with confusion your
black ingratitude.
Woe to the sinner who goes on in his evil life, and whom God in his vengeance
suffers to
accomplish his perverse desires, according to what is said by the prophet:
Israel hearkened not
to Me, so I let them go according to the desires of their heart. Ps.
80:12. It is a sign that the
Lord wishes to reward them on this earth for whatever little good they may have
done, and reserves
the chastisement of their sins for eternity. Speaking of the sinner whom he
treats thus in
this life, the Lord says: Let us have pity on the wicked, but he will not
learn justice,
and he shall not see the glory of the Lord. Is. 26:10. Thus does the
poor sinner hasten on
to his ruin, because seeing himself prosperous, he deceives himself into the
expectation that
as God is dealing mercifully with him now, he will continue to do the same and
by this delusion
he will be led to live on in his sins. But will the
Lord be always
thus:merciful to him? No, the
day of punishment will come at length, when he shall be excluded from paradise,
and flung into the
dungeon of the rebels: And he shall not see the glory of the Lord.
"Let us have pity on the
wicked; far from me be this mercy," says St. Jerome. Lord, he says, extend not
to me this
dreadful pity; if I have offended Thee, let me be chastised for it in this life;
because if Thou
dost not chastise me here in this life, I shall have to be chastised in the
other world for all
eternity. For this reason did St. Augustine say: "Lord, here cut, here burn,
that you may spare
during eternity." Chastise me here, O God, and do not spare me now, in order
that I may be spared
the punishment of hell. When the surgeon cuts the imposthume of the patient, it
is a sign that he
means to have him healed. St. Augustine says: "It is most merciful of the Lord
not to suffer
iniquity to pass unpunished." The Lord deals very mercifully with the sinner
when by chastisement
he makes him enter into himself in this life. Hence Job besought the Lord so
earnestly to afflict
him.
And that this may be my comfort, that afflicting me with sorrow He spare
not. Job 6:10.
Jonas slept in the ship when he was flying from the Lord; but God seeing that
the wretched man was
on the brink of temporal and eternal death, caused him to be warned of the
tempest: Why art thou
fast asleep; rise up, call upon thy God. Jon. 1:6. God, my brethren, now
warns ye in like manner.
You have been in the state of sin, deprived of sanctifying grace, the
chastisement has come, and
that chastisement is the voice of God, saying to you, "Why are you fast asleep?
rise and call upon
your God." Awake, sinner! do not live on forgetful of your soul and of God. Open
your eyes, and see
how you stand upon the verge of hell, where so many wretches are now bewailing
sins less grievous
than yours,
and are you asleep? have you no thought of
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