NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XLIX, Issue 21, 25 May 1922, Page 26

NOTES

Death What a terrible saying was that of the scoffer, Voltaire Travaifler sans rdisonner, c’estleseul mo ye tv de rend re fa vie supportable ! “To labor and not to reason is the only means of making life endurable.” What a confession of failure on the lips of a man who exalted reason and did his best to destroy religion. In his garden, plying the hoe, his life near its end and the lights of this world paling, he tries to make his last days not happy, merely endurable, by stifling the activity of the mind given him by God. Otherwise he might go mad ; he could not face the thought of death ; hence he would not think of it at all. It is sad to read how he and other infidels met their ends. Some of them would not think of it; others made a brave show of mirth right to the last moment, wearing a smile on their lips until the rigor of death twisted it away for ever; others yet pretended that they did not fear it, that they despised it. Poor, pitiful playacting it all was, on a par with the ghastly buffoonery that used to go in that Salle d(‘s Ncants in Paris where emblems of death decorated the dining-room, where the tables were like coffins, and even some of the guests reclined in coffins and wore shrouds. Such pretence is in vain. For those who love the world, for those who make its pleasures and its riches their gods, death has terrors that it has not for the faithful and for the toilers, even if the latter may not have much faith. Think of the worldly old Cardinal Mazarin (who was never a priest) tottering round his rooms and moaning over having so scon to leave behind the priceless pictures and statues that he loved, and compare his sighs with St. Paul’s prayer to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Death is not a terrible thing for the Christian: it is only terrible for those who have set up for themselves in this world a lasting city. A Cry for Rest It is sad to think of those for whom the world has no joys and who have not the light of Faith to promise them joy hereafter. The longing of a weary heart for death is always pathetic, but it is a thing of sorrow when it is not cheered by the vision of the things unseen that lie behind. The following rhyme is drenched with real Weltschmerz : Here lies a woman who was always tired, She lived in a house where no help was hired; Her last word at death was, “Dear friends I am going 7 o O To where there’s no working, no washing, no sewing: But everything there is exact to my wishes, For where they don’t eat there’s no washing of dishes. I’ll be where the loud anthems will always be ringing, For having no voice I’ll be quit of the singing. Don’t mourn for me now, don’t mourn for me never; I’m going to do nothing for ever and ever.” Kin to that was the curious German epitaph discovered in a quiet country churchyard: “I will rise, 0 Lord, when Thou callest me. 0 let me rest awhile, for I am very weary.” When religion has been removed from the heart by people like Sir Robert Stout what hope is there for humanity ? Schopenhauer could recommend nothing better as the end of all human labor than Nirvanah, nothingness, eternal unconsciousness. Is it a wonder that the harvest of schools that banish God should be a generation living for pleasure and gratification of the senses? It is no wonder; but woe to them that have robbed the people.

Self => Love Selfishness creeps into even the holiest things and it is only the saints who completely conquer it. Even tho love of God is marred by it, for there are two species of man’s love for God, in one of which God is loved simply because lie is infinitely good and perfect, and in the other lie is loved because He is so good to us. The first is true charity or true love; the second is imperfect. It is so as regards the love of friends. When self comes in love is imperfect, and often blameworthy ; but when self is excluded and when we love our friends truly, with the pure love of friendship, we have the noblest and finest thing in life after God’s grace, which is really His love. When St. Catherine of Siena tells us that nothing has so great an- influence over the heart of man as love, she speaks of love at its highest, ot unselfish love for God and for our friends. “Man,” she says, “was created by love and therefore it is his nature to love.” Human nature is prone to evil but it is a heresy to say that it is essentially sinful. The human affections are given us by God as means of sanctification, and Christ Himself showed us an example of love for our own friends, whether relations or not, in His love for His Mother and also in His friendships with John, Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. Hay, He did not conceal His grief and His sorrow when He stood by the grave of His friend Lazarus, as He must ,have done had grief for dead friends and love for them been in any wise a fault. St. Theresa was a saint about whose largeness of heart and mind there can bo no doubt. This is what she told of her sorrow at leaving her relations: “When I left my father house I felt pain like that which one feels in one’s agony, and I do not believe that death can be more painful.” She was also of the opinion that one cannot have too much intelligence or too much heart. In matter of fact most of the troubles of the world arise from the lack of both intelligence and heart among men and women. Friends In the introductory volume to the series of French Lives of Saints, M. Joly writes: “The friendships of the saints are therefore no matter for astonishment. Neither is it surprising that in the history of most of those saints who have reformed or founded religious institutions, we find that the love and devotedness of a holy woman exercised a great influence on their won;.” Pere Lacordaire’s luminous sentence is well known: We always need a friendly heart, and Our Lord Himself had St. John.” It was he also who said: “Friendship is the most perfect of all human sentiments, because it is the freest, the purest, the deepest.’’ In a fine passage, the Italian philosopher, Silvio Pellico, says: “If you find a friend honor him with a high friendship. This noble sentiment has been .sanctioned by all the philosophers, by religion itself. Even the Redeemer consecrated it. On His own heart He allowed the head of John to rest, and before expiring on the Cross He pronounced these divine words of filial tenderness and friendship: Mother, behold thy Son ! Son, behold Thy mother.’ ” There are narrow-minded people who think one ought to entertain an equal affection for all. They have read their Je w Pe-sf anient badly: Our Lord was wrong if they are right. And, indeed, as Lacordaire and St. Francis and St. Thomas point out, it is an impossibility. As it is natural for man to lean on those whom he can trust in the dark hours that come to us all, it is also natural for him to have for a few, a very few as a rule, a love which he cannot extend to all. Even St. Peter was not allowed to rest upon the Master’s heart. Moreover, St. Peter knew and understood that John was the special friend of Christ, for did he not admit that, for our example, when he whispered to John to ask who was the trator ? The ideal world would be one in which we could ’all be true friends, all united in the bonds of a warm affection ; but we must wait until we are among the angels to attain that degiee of peifection. \ Meantime, let us be worthy of the friends God lias given us.