Sunday Afternoon Readings

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 23, 24 June 1925, Page 51

Sunday Afternoon Readings

(By Right Rbv. Mgb. Power for the N.Z. Tablet.)

XXXIII—A HAPPY DEATH.

usl "Though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me." Yes, He is with us Who took human flesh and died in it, that He "might deliver them, who, through the fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to slavery." The fear of the slave is no longer ours, only that filial, reverential fear that keeps us close to Abba, our Father and our God.'' "With him that feareth the Lord, it shall go well in the latter end, and in the day of his death he shall be blessed." In death is rest for (Joel's people: ''Let peace come, let him rest in his bed that hath walked in his uprightness." Death has a sting only for the -inner. "But thanks be to God, Who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Such then, is a happy death, very different from the death of a sinner, the most miserbble termination of an ill-spent life. But there are different degrees of happiness, even in death. His is a happy death., who dies in the state of grace, yet without having paid any of the temporal debt for mortal sins forgiven, and with' the burden of his venial sins still upon his soul. There is another happy death, but happier-that of one who dies not merely in the state of grace, but with many or all of hi s venial sins pardoned, and with much of ins temporal debt already pari by his voluntary mortifications during life. The happiest death of all is that of on,, who dies after having all his sins, mortal and venial forgiven, and after having fully paid his temporal debt. Such is the death of one who has perfectly done the work that God had given him to do on earth. For such a one death will be an immediate passage to his Father's face and to a place beside his Father's Throne.

Which of those .shall our death be? All will depend upon the manner in which we now take up our cross and follow Christ. But even though our death he the merely happy one, it will be a death of surpassing consolation, for it will bring us at once into perfect submission to God's will, and will make us most eager to be thoroughly cleansed and purified in the penal waters -pi' Purgatory. The souls of the saved will welcome Purgatory. Even it' it were left to their own choice they would not enter /Heaven before their souls were purified' 1 from : the •dross of earth. No sooner has the soul left the body and darted to the feet of. God, than it feels itself seized, and scorched and shrivelled; consumed, yet. quickened by Mis keen sanctity. It cannot endure His glance : Take me a-way, and in the lowest deep j There let me be, And there in hope the lone night-watches keep, Told out for me. \\ \\

There, motionless and happy in my pain, | Lone, not forlorn,— - H r ; There will I sing my sad perpetual strain, Until the morn. 1 ..'..:'.','...' "..'.'. ....,j, There will I sing, and soothe my stricken breast, Which ne'er can cease To throb, and pine, and languish, til! possest Of its sole peace. There-will I sing my absent Lord and Love— Take, me away, That sooneri I may rise, and go above, And see Him in the truth of everlasting day. And how the golden prison of purgatory, in mercy and in love, opens its gate, and the angels of purgatory receive the soul, and gently, gently lower it into the penal waters; deep, and deeper it sinks into the dim distance, and there begins its night of trial. ~: Lone, not forlorn, wrote Cardinal Newman. Yes, thanks be to God, not forlorn; lor here upon earth those who were- his fellow-pilgrims and fellow-laborers will remember him, and will offer those heartfelt prayers that will bring hint many a season of refreshment, light, and peace. Lovingly will they use the golden key of charity and the silver key of prayer, lor these alone can reopen the prison gate. Lovingly will they attend the Holy Mass, which 'soothes as nothing else can soothe the suffering souls. When they see the chalice lifted up , for adoration, they will know that it holds the Blood that flowed from the liberal breast of Christ, and they will beseech it to overflow upon the poor soul that is ever calling upon its friends: -Have pity, on me, have pity "ii me, at least you my friends, lor the hand of God hath touched me."

And the merciful Christ will hear the prayers that are offered round His altar, and the prayers of tin. Just in Heaven, who are waiting for the Holy Souls to swell their song of prai.se, and He will hasten His process of purification: "He shall sit, refining the silver." You know what the refiner does: He takes the lump of silver with all its dross and alloy as it came from the earth and thrusts it into his thrice-heated crucible' and then sits down before it. He watches and watches, inner moving Iron, his placehe knows there will come a moment when the refining will be completed, beyond which if must not remain. That moment comes when the .silver reflects his own gaze, and he can behold his face as in a mirror. The souls Mi Purgatory are in a thrice heated crucibleheated by the fire of the prison, by the fire of charity enkindled by souls on earth who pray for the dead, and by the fire of purest love,that .comes. from the waiting sous in Heaven. Christ,-the Refiner, looks into His crucible; He beholds it eating wav the dross from the silvery soul, but vapors still becloud it. Again and again He peers through the cloud, and hastens and hastens the process of purification; He heats His crucible afresh by the new prayers that come I from you ■ Ah, glory to God! Backward and backward roll the vapors, and deep i n the crystal soul God sees His face.' The words of St. Paul are justified: "To me, to live is Christ: and to die is gain."