October 4, 2026
The Gospel according to St. Matthew, xxii. 1-14.
"And Jesus spoke this parable: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a king who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants to call them that were invited to the marriage; and they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell them that were invited: Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my beeves and fatlings are killed, and all things are ready; come ye to the marriage. But they neglected, and went their ways, one to his farm, and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands on his servants, and, having treated them contumeliously, put them to death. But when the king had heard of it he was angry, and sending his armies he destroyed those murderers and burnt their city. Then he saith to his servants: The marriage indeed is ready; but they that were invited were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as you shall find call to the marriage. And his servants going forth into the ways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and good: and the marriage was filled with guests. And the king went in to see the guests: and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment. And he saith to him: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment? But he was silent. Then the king said to the waiters: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen."
Summary of the Morrow's Meditation
We will meditate to-morrow upon the last sentence in the gospel of the day, where, under the figure of the chastisement inflicted upon the man invited to the wedding who had not on the wedding garment, are represented to us the torments of hell reserved for the sinner who has soiled the robe of his innocence, and who has not bleached it by penitence, and we shall see that the thought of hell is: 1st, a remedy against sin; 2d, an efficacious help for forming the soul to virtue. We will then make the resolution: 1st, never to remain for twenty-four hours in a state in which, if we died, we should be damned; 2d, to encourage ourselves in the midst of difficulties imposed by virtue by this thought: What is this compared with hell, where, if I am not a saint, I shall always burn? Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St. Augustine: "Let us go down to hell during our life, that we may not go down there after our death."
Meditation for the Morning
Let us adore Jesus Christ reminding us of the pains of hell, to the end that we may be impelled to avoid them. These are a terrible darkness, a weeping and gnashing of teeth caused by torments; these are bound hands and feet, that is, a will compelled to desire obstinately the evil which it hates, and to hate furiously the good, the excellence of which it recognizes. Let us think seriously and often of this unhappy state. We shall find in this thought a remedy against sin and an efficacious help to form the soul to virtue.
FIRST POINT
The Thought of Hell a Remedy against Sin.
This remedy has the triple effect of making us expiate our past sins, correct our actual sins, and prevent those to which the future may expose us. 1st. We must expiate our past sins. Filled with the thought that we have deserved hell, and that God has pardoned us only on the condition that we offer Him a compensation by penance, there is no penance which seems too hard, and the soul need rather to be restrained than excited, as in the case of the hermits of Egypt who, because of a single fault, condemned themselves during their whole life to austerities at which our effeminacy would tremble. 2d. The thought of hell corrects actual faults. Seriously meditating upon this thought makes it impossible to remain a single day in a state of sin, even when it is doubtful. It is folly to risk our eternity and not to take the sure means for escaping a misfortune which is, at the same time, terrible and eternal. 3d. This thought prevents sins to which the future might expose us. When we say, like St. Teresa, always, never; always suffer, never an end to our sufferings, never a moment of freedom from them, it is impossible to expose ourselves voluntarily to the danger of sin; not to watch over ourselves, our actions, our words, our thoughts; not to fly from everything that would expose our salvation to danger, even occasions and appearances of sin, dissipation, idleness, dangerous society, books, or conversations into which too great freedom enters; it is impossible, lastly, not to pray with our whole heart, and not to take every precaution to avoid sin.
SECOND POINT
The Thought of Hell an Efficacious Remedy for Forming the Soul to Virtue.
This thought, in point of fact, lays the foundation of virtue through the humility which it inspires; it raises the edifice of it by the acts which it gives us courage to practise; it puts the crown on it by the love which it kindles in the heart. 1st. This thought renders us humble. We have already seen, on the Friday of the second week after Pentecost, that if we had committed but one single sin, and that even had this sin been forgiven, we should never be anything more than a person who has escaped hell, who has deserved to be, throughout eternity, insulted and despised by devils; and we are ignorant whether we do not still deserve this treatment, for no one knows whether he is worthy of love or of hatred, nor do we know whether, supposing that we are worthy to-day of heaven, we shall not, on some future day, render ourselves worthy of hell; in order to do so, nothing more is wanted than a moment of weakness, a thought of pride, of which the rebel angels are a proof; nothing more than a calumny, an impurity, according to St. Paul; nothing more than a desire, a look, according to Jesus Christ; now, are not all these considerations supremely suitable to keep a soul abased in humility? 2d. The foundation of virtue being thus laid, the thought on which we are meditating raises the edifice of virtue by acts which it gives us courage to practise. Doubtless it costs us something to renounce ourselves, to break with frivolity, dissipation, self-love; to subject ourselves to a rule of life and no longer to lose our time; but when we think of hell, what is all that, we say, compared with hell, wherein, if I am not a saint, I shall always burn? And then we hesitate no longer. It costs us something to mortify and humiliate ourselves, to suffer grief, contradiction, contempt, and insults; but when we think of hell, what is all that, we say to ourselves, compared with hell, wherein, if I am not a saint, I shall always burn? And thence we conclude: Ah, if it were necessary to wean myself from all kinds of pleasures, to practise upon my body the severities of the most austere penance, if I had to pass days and nights in prayer, bury myself alive, cut off my hand, tear out my eyes, sacrifice possessions and liberty, health and life, I ought not to hesitate a moment, for what is all that compared with hell, wherein, if I am not a saint, I shall always burn? Thus, full of courage, the soul reasons which thinks of hell; thus St. Augustine reasoned, when he begged of God to make him suffer fire and iron here below, provided that He would spare him in eternity. It was thus that an ancient hermit understood it when he said to a young religious who was wearied of his cavern, "Ah, my son, you can never have meditated much on what hell is, from which you are preserved therein." It was thus that all the martyrs understood it, all the anchorites, all the illustrious penitents, in a word, all the saints, for it was through it that they attained the courage whereby they became saints. It is thus that the thought of hell raises the edifice of virtue. 3d. It is the consummation of virtue through the love which it kindles in the heart. For there is no medium; either we must burn here below with the flames of holy love, or we must burn eternally in the flames of divine justice. Now, in the presence of such an alternative there is no room for hesitation. Nothing is so cruel as hell; nothing is so sweet as love. Besides, how could we help loving God, who places us so high in His esteem and love that He desires, at all costs, to be loved by us, since He has only made hell in order to force us to love Him? How could we help loving God, whose anger, even though it be provoked by our crimes, creates an order of things which is in our greatest temporal and eternal interests? Now this is what He has done in creating hell; for, if there were no hell, what would the consequences have been to us? Natural, divine, and human laws would be without sanction, passions without any bridle, vice without any barrier; there would be no virtue, no guarantee of order for society here below, no elect for heaven, and paradise would be a kingdom devoid of inhabitants. Be Thou therefore blessed and loved, O my God, not only for having prepared for us the happiness of heaven, but also for having created hell to frighten our passions. Thou hast thereby made it a kind of necessity for us to save ourselves, and Thy anger has served the designs of Thy love. How, lastly, not love a God who has worked so many miracles and has had recourse to so many means to preserve us from hell? The Incarnation, the Redemption, the maintenance of Thy Holy Church, the priesthood and all the sacraments, all interior and exterior graces, all the solicitations of the Holy Spirit in the bottom of our hearts, all the instructions given us, and all the good examples set us, are as so many ingenious devices of God, who desires to save us all. Oh, how greatly does such goodness merit the whole of our love! And what shall we say of the divine patience which did not allow us to fall into the depths of hell, when we deserved to do so? It kept us, as it were, suspended by a hair over the abyss; it had only to open its hand, let us go, and we should have been lost (Ps. xciii. 17; xxxv. 13). O God, who hast waited for me to do penance, may all creatures bless and love Thee! (Dan. iii. 57, 58.) Alas! how many others, after a single sin, have fallen into the abyss, whilst I, who am much more guilty than they, still breathe. I have at my disposition all Thy graces whereby to save myself. O divine goodness! O ineffable predilection! Touched by so much love, O my God, I will henceforth make my whole life a permanent testimony of my gratitude. I ought to be sacrificed to Thy anger, I will sacrifice myself to Thy love; I ought to blaspheme Thee, I will everywhere proclaim Thy praise and Thy goodness; I ought to curse Thee, I will bless Thee always; I ought to suffer for ever, I will love Thee always!
Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.