7th Wednesday after Pentecost

Summary of the Morrow’s Meditation

We will meditate to-morrow upon two other means for performing all things well; the first is the thought of the last judgment; the second is the thought of a happy or a miserable eternity. We will then make the resolution: 1st, often to ask ourselves, during the day, what God will say at the last day of this action, of this prayer, of this conversation, of the employment of this present day, of this confession, of this communion; 2d, often to say, as a means of encouraging ourselves to do good and to avoid evil: O heaven, how desirable Thou art! O hell, how terrible! Our spiritual nosegay shall be the words of St. Paul: “After this the judgment” (Heb. ix. 27).

Meditation for the Morning

Let us adore Jesus Christ declaring to us, in the gospel, that on the judgment-day we shall have to render to Him an account of all our actions, of all our speeches, even of our idle words (Matt. xii. 36), that is to say, of those which are not justified by any reasonable motive, and that this judgment will be followed by eternal torment in the case of some, and by a blissful eternity for others (Matt. xxv. 46). Let us thank Him for a warning so well adapted to make us perform everything in a holy manner.

FIRST POINT

The Thought of the Last Judgment an All-powerful Motive for Doing Everything Well

Who, in fact, would not do all things well if he said to himself, The action I am performing will be severely examined in the presence of God, as regards itself, all its circumstances, the intention which caused me to perform it, and the more or less zeal with which I did it? From the most common act up to the highest; from the most obscure which is known to myself alone, up to the most brilliant which is known to the public, all will be submitted to the judgment (Heb. ix. 27). Shall I not then be in the position of the faithless steward, when his master said to him, Give an account of thy stewardship (Luke xvi. 2), or in that of the King of Babylon, to whom it was said, Thou hast been weighed in the balance; the weight of the evil has weighed down the good (Dan. v. 27), thy kingdom shall be taken from thee? (Ibid. 28.) Oh, if this thought were but to accompany each one of our actions, how holy every one of them would be! Let us think seriously upon it. If we thus judge ourselves, we shall not be judged (I. Cor. xi. 31).

SECOND POINT

The Thought of a Blessed or a Miserable Eternity another Motive for Doing all Things Well

It is very true that God offers His paradise to us at a very cheap rate, since He promises it to even our smallest and commonest actions. Oh, how well suited is the thought of such happiness to encouraging us and animating us to do all things well. If in order to acquire the rewards given by the world, rewards which are so full of vanity, so uncertain, so unable to make us happy, we give ourselves so much trouble and anxiety, what ought we not to do for the recompenses bestowed by Heaven, so solid as they are, so sure, so delightful, and which nothing can take from us (John xvi. 22). In the same degree as the thought of heaven is well suited to endowing us with courage to do all things well, the thought of hell is all-powerful in animating us to do well; for, in presence of the sacrifices and the acts of renunciation which are imposed upon us by the perfection of our ordinary actions, we have only to say to ourselves: What is it in comparison with hell, where, if I am not a saint, I shall burn forever? There is no temptation which can resist this question. We read in the lives of the Fathers of the desert that a young religious, being wearied of the cavern in which he had constituted himself a hermit, went to speak of his troubles to a holy old man. “My son,” he replied to him, “you never can have meditated on what hell is, from which you are preserved by your solitude, for what comparison can there be between the one and the other?” Do we make use of these serious thoughts for the purpose of encouraging ourselves to fly from what is evil and to practise what is good?

Resolutions and spiritual nosegay as above.