Hunolt Sermons/Volume 1/Sermon 7

We shall die when we least expect it. Preached on the twenty- second Sunday after Pentecost.

"That you may be sincere and without offence to the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of justice." (Phil 1:10)

The holy Apostle has left us a beautiful exhortation in those words: "This I pray, that your charity may more and more abound in knowledge and in all understanding." To what end? "That you may be sincere and without offence to the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of justice." "Unto the day of Christ; " that is, the day when Our Lord will come to take us from this world by death; and the meaning of the Apostle is, that we should now, during life, gather the fruits of justice, so that the day of our death, the day of the coming of the Lord, may find us filled with them. My dear brethren, it is infallibly certain that the Lord will come to take each one of us from the world by death; and therefore we must all prepare in time for His coming, for much depends on it. It is infallibly certain that He will come but once; therefore we must prepare with great care, so that that one occasion may be fortunate for us. It is infallibly certain that we do not know the time at which this one coming of the Lord will occur; therefore we must be always ready for it. These are the points we have been meditating on hitherto. today I add one more, or rather Our Lord Himself adds it; namely, that He will come not only at a time that is unknown to us, but also when we least expect Him and are least thinking of His coming; or to speak more clearly:

We shall die at the hour when we least expect it; therefore, if we care for our salvation, we must use all diligence to be always prepared for death. " Be you, then also ready: for at what hour you think not the Son of man will come."

This is the subject of the present meditation, which I begin at once, relying on the grace and help of the Holy Ghost, which I hope to obtain through the intercession of Mary and of the holy guardian angels.

A noble youth who wished to enter religion was asked by one of his friends why he had chosen such an austere life, and how he could make up his mind to abandon father, mother, friends, and relations, and to renounce the rich inheritance that would fall to his lot, with all the honors and wealth appertaining thereto. He answered laughingly: "There is a singular custom in the world which drives me to take this resolution." "And what is that custom? " asked his friend. " It is a custom that people have of dying, was the reply; " and on account of it I wish to go somewhere where I can prepare for death in a better manner." A clever answer, and a wise resolution in such an important matter! It is one, too, that we should take to heart and reflect on deeply. If that young man had thought a little more, and had learned by experience how to prepare for death, he could have made a better answer by saying: There is a strange custom in the world that people have of dying unexpectedly, at a time when they least think they will die; therefore I must be off at once out of the world to prepare myself carefully for death. To die unexpectedly is far more dangerous than merely to die; for the worst feature of death is that he takes us unawares. Hence we pray in the litanies: " From a sudden and unprovided death deliver us, Lord."

Meanwhile, my dear brethren, the fact stands and we cannot alter it. We must die, and, generally speaking, when we least expect. A few saints, who were always resigned to the will of God, and also criminals brought forth to execution excepted, there is, I may say, hardly one who dies but at a time when he thinks he shall not die. This seems a hard saying, and I might myself have some difficulty in believing it if I were not persuaded of its truth, partly by daily experience, and partly by the inspired word of God. This latter is so clear on the point that we can have no doubt of it if we had no other testimony in proof of it than the few words quoted from St. Luke: " Be you then also ready, for at what hour you think not the Son of man will come: " therefore He will come at a time when we do not await death. It seems, indeed, that Our Lord's whole wish was to impress this truth as deeply as possible on our minds; for He repeats the warning so often, partly by Himself, partly by His apostles and disciples: "Take you heed, watch and pray." "And take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be over charged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life: and that day come upon you suddenly: " lest it come upon you when you think it far off. Let your lamps be always burning, that when the bridegroom comes unexpectedly they may not be extinguished. " Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands."

Hence the Lord sometimes compares death to a thief, according to the words of the Apostle: " The day of the Lord shall so come as a thief in the night." No thief is so daring as to venture to attempt a robbery in a place that he knows to be well guarded. If he sees the good man of the house on watch at the door as he is passing by, he salutes him as if they were old friends, and says to himself: there is no use in trying to steal any thing there; the people are on their guard. But when all the household is sunk in sleep, not suspecting any danger, then is the thieves opportunity; then without making a noise he breaks through the wall, or the window, slips into the house and brings away all that he can lay hands on, and when the master of the house awakes in the morning he finds that he has been robbed. " The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night." He will steal in when a man is least on his guard and take away his life when he was still in hopes of living for a long time. "For when they shall say, peace and security, " continues the Apostle, " then shall sudden destruction come upon them." Sometimes death is compared to a butcher; thus the Lord says by the Prophet Jeremias: " I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter; " they will be merry and joyful in their prosperity, and live without forethought, nor will they be aware that death has already sharpened his knife to pierce their hearts in a short time. Sometimes he is compared to a fisherman and to a fowler: as the wise Ecclesiastes says: " Man knoweth not his own end but as fishes are taken with the hook, and as birds are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the evil time, when it shall suddenly come upon them." The fish snaps greedily at the bait, the bird at the corn spread for it. Why? They wish to enjoy the food prepared for them, in order to preserve their lives. Meanwhile the one swallows the hook with the bait, and the other is caught in the net while eating the corn. Thus both find death where they expected to find pleasure and the means of prolonging their lives. " So men are taken in the evil time;" so it is with us: when we think we are benefiting our health and lengthening our lives, we are hurried off by a sudden and unforeseen death.

You rich ones of the world, when do you think the time will come for you to die? Oh, you answer in your thoughts, not so soon, surely! But remember the rich man whom Our Lord puts forward as an example for you by the Evangelist St. Luke. When he was about to pull down his barns to build larger ones, and was saying to himself: " Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years: take your rest, eat, drink, make good cheer; " even then he heard the unexpected voice of the Lord: " You fool, this night do they require your soul of you; and whose shall those things be which you have provided?" You vain, delicate tenderlings, whose only thought is pleasure and the gratification of your senses, when do you think the time will come for you to die? Not yet, you said," there is no sign of death in us so far; we are not sick and have no danger to dread. But be ware! and hear how the hour was fixed by the Prophet Job for worldlings like you: "Their houses are secure and peaceable," as they falsely imagine; "they take the timbrel, and the harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell." mortals, who rely on your health and strength, and heedlessly think with the wicked servant in the gospel of St. Matthew: " My Lord is long a-coming," I can do what I like, for it will be a long time before he comes; I can eat and drink, and fight and quarrel, enjoy myself at balls and dances, and turn night into day; death is still far off! So you think, and so did that servant think too; but read what happened to him: " The lord of that servant shall come in a day that he hopes not, and at an hour that he knoweth not: and shall separate him, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." The huge statue that God showed King Nabuchodonosor in a dream was crumbled into pieces by a stone that fell on it, as we read in the Book of Daniel. It is a figure of those who are exalted high above others by their position in the world; the stone is a figure of death, that without respect or distinction of dignity or rank overthrows the mightiest potentates, and turns them into dust and ashes. But where did the stone come from? " A stone was cut out of a mountain without hands: and it struck the statue;" from this you can under stand how unexpected is the coming of death. A stone that is cut out on purpose seldom strikes any one; for the mason who is pulling down a wall, or the slater working on a roof, looks first to see if there is any one in the way before throwing down a stone or slate; but if the stone or slate falls of its own accord, or is blown down by the wind, then there is no one to look out or give warning, and it strikes whoever happens to be in the way. Death, my dear brethren, is a stone cut without hands, which falls by chance, unexpectedly, without warning, and at once crushes the greatest, bravest, and mightiest potentates of earth in a moment when they least await it.

This is the hour in which Balthasar, who seemed so happy in the midst of his riches and pleasures, and who desired to be adored as a god this is the hour in which he read that terrible sentence that he was so far from expecting, which put an end to his life and kingdom. This is the hour in which the proud Aman, before he had time to look around, was hurled from the highest pinnacle of honor, and hanged on a gallows. This is the hour in which Holofernes was killed by a woman in his sleep on his own bed. This is the hour in which Sisara, also during his sleep, was slain by having a nail driven through his head. This is the hour in which Pharao was drowned in the Red Sea, Absalom pierced to the heart as he hung on a tree, Amnon murdered as he was carousing at table. This is the hour in which a multitude of disobedient Jews, while, as the Scripture says, " the flesh was between their teeth, atoned for their gluttony by a sudden death. This is the hour in which all the first-born of Egypt were slain in the middle of the night, experiencing the vengeance of the Lord while they slept, as they thought, in security and without the least apprehension of death. Remember how the pestilence that God sent to punish the pride of David in numbering his people swept off seventy thousand of them; not one of them till thought he would die in three days; there was no sign of plague in the air; no sickness to give warning of its approach; the towns were well provided with doctors and medicines, and yet in a very short time seventy thousand died who were up to that strong and healthy, and imagined they had a long life before them. Consider how a hundred and eighty-five you sand soldiers of Sennacherib's army were slain in one night by an angel. They had not yet encountered the enemy; they were not afraid of a sudden attack; they were all strong and healthy, and not one of them thought of dying that night. Nevertheless, without any attack on the part of the enemy, without having been in any regular engagement, they all died that night and entered suddenly into their eternity.

Why should we rake up mouldering bones, and seek for examples from ancient times? Look at the world of our own days, consider the dying of whatever age and condition they may be; few of them, no, hardly one of them but is surprised by death in some way or other, and dies at a time when he thought he would live longer. For in the first place, they die suddenly who, being in the vigor of health, are assassinated, or drowned, or meet with a fatal accident, or are struck by lightning or by a fit of apoplexy, or who die in the delirium of a violent fever, or in a lethargy. These are ways of dying that may be rare in small communities; but for all that they are common enough in the world and occur very frequently, almost daily. It is beyond a doubt that all those people die when they do not expect death.

You have perhaps heard, my dear brethren, what Bonfinius relates of the wedding of Ladislaus, king of Hungary and Bohernia. This monarch, who was in the bloom of youth and health, sent an embassy into France to bring from there the daughter of King Charles, whom he had already been formally betrothed to. The embassy was accompanied by six hundred knights out of the noblest families of Hungary, Bohemia, and Austria, led by Ulrich, Bishop of Passau, who brought with him a hundred nobles of Passau to escort the royal bride. Besides all these there were also four hundred ladies of the court to wait on the bride, and to add to the splendor of her escort. The magnificence of their apparel, the number of their attendants, the grandeur of their coaches and carriages made them look like so many gods and goddesses as they entered Paris. A vast multitude of the common people thronged the streets and lanes of the city to see the entry of the embassy, while the nobility occupied the windows of the houses. Thus they entered Paris to the sound of the drum and trumpet and the harmony of various musical instruments. The king, full of joy, and the bride, full of expectation, watched the procession eagerly from the palace. And behold, through the very gate through which it was entering, in the very midst of the festivities, came a courier in full gallop to announce to the king and the intended bride that Ladislaus had died suddenly in Prague, the capital of Bohemia. O woe and misery! In a moment all joy was at an end; festivities were changed into mourning; the king was overwhelmed with grief; the princess received a shock from which she never recovered; all Paris was sunk in grief; the preparations they had made, the money they had spent, the splendid embassy, all went for nothing. Thus the whole affair ended in sorrow and wailing. Who would have thought that? Not one in the whole world, and least of all Ladislaus himself, who, as he was on the point of getting married, was surprised by a sudden death. Drexelius writes of a certain man who dreamed one night that a lion had killed him. He arose in the morning and went with his companion to church, not thinking of his dream. Before the door there was a statue of a lion with open jaws. Seeing it he remembered his dream, and related it laughingly to his friend. " There, he said, " is the lion that killed me last night." With these words he put his hand in the lion's jaws, saying: " Come now, you have your enemy in your power; bite me if you can; eat my hand off!" But hardly had he finished speaking than he fell to the ground mortally wounded. How was that? In the mouth of the lion there was a scorpion hidden, which, as soon as it felt the hand disturbing it, bit it, and by the virulence of its poison caused the man's death at once. Now, who would have thought that death was concealed in a lifeless statue? And yet that poor man found his death there where he least expected it. Again, it is unfortunately a common thing for people to die in the state of sin without doing penance; otherwise those words of Our Lord, " few are chosen," would not be war ranted. Now, who is there who has any faith in God, in hell, or in heaven, who if he thought he was about to die would not at once be reconciled with God? Why, then, do the majority die impenitent? It is not their intention to do so; they do not think the end is so near: therefore they defer repentance from one day to an other, die and go into eternity in the state of sin. It is clear, then, that all those people, and they are the majority, die when they least expect it.

In the third place, one can die in childhood or youth, or in the prime of life, or in old age. I will say nothing of children; for who could think that they should end their lives when they have hardly begun to live? Are they not often destined to different callings and states, while still in their cradles, by their parents? And yet they often die when neither they themselves nor any one else expects. If a man dies in the prime of life, at thirty or forty, Who would have thought it? they say of him. He was so strong and healthy; and now he is dead ! Yes, indeed, he is dead; although neither he himself nor any one else expect ed it. How many old people are there to whom one dares not speak of death for fear of annoying them? And the older they get the more confidence they have of living for a long time. Even the oldest think they have still a year of life left; and nothing will persuade them that the year they have begun may be the last for them. " It is true, says St. Jerome, " that there is no one so old who does not promise himself another year of life." If he says of himself: I must soon die; I feel it in my limbs; it is all over with me; I have already one foot in the grave, he does so only to hear what others have to say about the matter, and to give them a chance of flattering him with the hope of a long life. Why should you talk of dying? they say to him. You are still, thank God! strong and hearty, old as you are, and you have a good appetite; you may live to be a hundred, etc. That was just what he was wanting. And thus it happens that he, too, dies unexpectedly, like the others. Finally, there are those who die after a long and tedious illness. But the most of those even die when they least expect it. For show me, if you can, one sick person who, no matter how bad he is, does not at least hope for another day of life? And we know too, by experience, that one effect of a slow consuming fever is that the patient will not be persuaded that his illness is dangerous; he imagines himself to be quite strong, although death is in his eyes, until at last, while he is eating or drinking, or as often happens, expressing a desire to go somewhere for a change, he breathes his last. How many sick people are not deceived by their own children, domes tics, and friends, who are unwilling to speak a word to them of any danger of death for fear of troubling them? Every one who visits them tries to encourage them; you must hope for the best, is the word; there have been many far worse who have pulled through all right; you must not be anxious; the doctor is a clever man, and he will surely be able to help you; and so on. Is it not so, my dear brethren? And how often are sick people only too ready to believe such flattering suggestions, since they have a natural love of life and fear of death, and thus put off receiving the last sacraments until they are at the last gasp? I have already excepted malefactors condemned to death; but how many of them, as I know by experience, die sooner than they imagine? For when they are blindfolded at the place of execution, or have the rope about their necks, it is usual to commence what they think to be a long prayer, but before they are aware of it the drop is lowered or their heads are severed from their bodies. It is then, and remains true that the Lord will come when we know not and that we shall die at a time when we expect not. "At what hour you think not the Son of man will come, What follows now from all this, my dear brethren? That which I have already told you in my last sermon, and of which Christ Himself warns us: " Be you ready " that is, be ready now, this very moment. For we must be always on our guard; not for a moment should we remain in mortal sin and at enmity with God. Once for all we should make the same resolution as that young man of whom I told you; that is, since there is a custom amongst men of dying unexpectedly we must so live as to be ready for death even when we do not expect it and think that it is still far from us. And this, as the Venerable Bede says, speaking of the text I have quoted, is the reason why God has decreed that the hour of death should come upon us when we least look for it, " that since we cannot foresee it, we may be always ready for it." We should act like one whose enemy is always on the watch to surprise him and take his life; he is always on his guard; he never goes unarmed or alone, so that he may be always in a position to defend himself if attacked, How I bewail, then, the state of that vast number of men who, unarmed and unprepared, spend whole years as carelessly as if they had nothing to fear from the enemy who is unceasingly

plotting against their lives; and these unhappy people live in the state of sin because they do not think that the hour of death has come for them. Therefore they remain in the proximate occasion of sin; therefore they refuse to restore ill-gotten goods; therefore they put off doing penance; therefore they are tepid and cold in the divine service: all because they imagine that the ..hour of death is still far from them. If a man happens to die suddenly they run to see the dead body; all who hear of the incident wring their hands and cry out: Is it possible that the man is already dead? He was so well yesterday! Only a few days ago I spoke with him! I saw him this morning at church! A few hours ago he certainly did not think that he would be lying dead now! These and similar reflections are generally made on such occasions. But that one should take advantage of the occurrence and enter into himself and think: That man was healthy, and he is now dead; the same thing may happen tome; I am now strong and vigorous; but perhaps in a short time I may be a corpse like him; if that happened to me, should I be fit to go into eternity? Good reason as there would be for such re- flections, there are few who make them. Be you ready, then, cries out Our Saviour; you especially who live so carelessly, for you must know that at what hour you know not the Son of man will come. " Therefore be ready. "

Just and pious Christians, how happy you are in this respect! How peacefully you can sleep at night! How joyfully you can go through your day's work! For you always have a good conscience and bear about with you sanctifying grace and the friendship of God. Death may come upon you in public or private; he can do you no harm, but rather good; and whether you die suddenly or after a long illness you are never taken unprepared, and therefore you need never fear death. Even holy servants of God have died suddenly when they did not expect death; but their deaths were not on that account unhappy, but rather holy. St. Simon Stylites, as some authors assert, was surprised by death while standing on his pillar and thrown to the ground. St. Francis de Sales died when about to set out on a journey. St. Francis Xavier was found dead alone on an island, without a soul near him. The zealous and holy Father Francis Cardosa was found dead in his chair, sitting at his table, with a sermon on death before him and his finger still pointing to the words: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord." Did these, and perhaps hundreds like them, die an unprovided death? No, my dear brethren; they are saints in heaven; they were taken away by a sudden death, which is neither bad nor to be feared in itself; but their death was not an unprovided one, because they were ready for it. There is a difference between an unforeseen and an unprovided death; the latter is bad, but the former is not always so. What a difference there was between the five wise and the five foolish virgins! Yet the former, as well as the latter, slept when the bridegroom came? "They all slumbered and slept." The sole reason why the former were admitted to the nuptials and the latter excluded was that the wise virgins had their lamps well provided with oil when the bridegroom came unexpectedly whilst the five foolish virgins had to go to buy oil. " Now whilst they went to buy the bridegroom came: and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut." Once for all, he who is not at all times and in all places ready and prepared with a con science adorned by sanctifying grace has reason to dread lest death should surprise him at any moment and hurry him into an unhappy eternity. Once for all, he who leads a good, Christian life need not fear death at any moment.

There are here and there certain simple-minded people who imagine that if they repeat or carry about with them certain prayers they will not die a sudden or unprovided death, and that they will never perish violently by water, fire, or sword. This is a vain, hurtful, and superstitious practice, which cannot be justified either by God, or the Church or by the nature of the ample. prayers themselves. And even if a hundred revelations are brought forward to prove their efficacy they are still nothing better than a fraud. The best, no, the only safe means to be sure of a happy death is to lead a pious Christian life, or other wise, if God gives that grace to the dying person, to repent sincerely of having led a sinful life. You may not perhaps have heard, my dear brethren, of that rich young man who was addicted to the vanities of the world and especially to the vice of impurity, and who placed all his hopes of salvation in a prayer of the kind I mention? He used to say this prayer every day to the Blessed Virgin, and ask her, at the same time, not to allow him to die suddenly without having some warning of his approaching end, so that he might have time to repent of and confess his sins and so save his soul. On one occasion, after having prayed in this style, an angel appeared to him and said: "Yes, your prayer is heard; you will not die before a sign has been given you that death is at hand; meanwhile I advise you to amend your wicked life." Who would not think that this warning of the an gel should have sunk deeply into the young man's heart, and that he would at once have profited by it? But it was quite the contrary with him; being now, as he imagined, safe, he continued his vicious ways and gave free rein to his passions. " I will be converted," he said to himself, " when my angel guardian gives me the promised sign of approaching death." Before long he experienced violent headaches, so that he was obliged to keep his room, and soon after he was attacked by a fever. His friends and acquaintances advised him to receive the last sacraments, so as to be prepared for any danger that might result from his illness and place his soul in safety. "What?" exclaimed the young man, "why do you trouble me about receiving the sacraments? There is no fear of my dying yet; I am sure of that." His illness grew worse daily; his friends continued their pious exhortations; but to no purpose. " I will not die yet," was his only answer; "and besides I am not ready now to receive the sacraments; I will do so when I get better." Finally his last hour came, and his guardian angel appeared to him again. " Now," said the angel, " your time is come; you must die." " Alas! " ex claimed the sick man, " how shamefully you have betrayed me! Is that the way you keep your word? Did you not promise you would not let me die without giving me some sign of my approaching end? And now you come only when death is already at my door?" "I have faithfully kept my word," replied the angel, "and have given you signs enough; the unusual head aches you suffered from, the fever that attacked you, the constant exhortations of your friends to confess your sins and receive the last sacraments, the warnings of the priest whom they sent for so often to see you; were not these all so many signs that death was at hand ? But you took no notice of them, and would not believe them; and now your time is come." Thus the unhappy wretch died in despair without the sacraments, and went into eternity in the state of sin. No prayer, I repeat, no devotions, no matter what they may be, can make me sure of salvation; the safest, no, the most necessary means to a good death is to lead a pious, Christian life.

Continue, devout souls, to keep yourselves ready in this manner for the hour of death, and you will be able to say to your consolation, like that holy Bishop: "Every hour I stand at the gate of eternity, " every moment I am ready to enter; and with the Prophet David: " And now what is my hope? is it not the Lord ? " What else have I to do in this world but to serve the Lord? In whom else can I hope if not in Him, whom I love above all things, and by whom I hope to be taken up to heaven? Oh, what a beautiful thing it is, my dear brethren, to have always a good conscience! Happy indeed are they who can, thus prepared, await death calmly every hour and moment. " Let my soul die the death of the just." O my Lord and my God! that I may die with the just I will try by Your grace to live with them also. Then may death come when, how, and where he wills, even in this very moment. Amen.

+Text

"Prepare you the way of the Lord: make straight His paths." (Luke 3:4)

It is remarkable, my dear brethren, that the Catholic Church has selected for the four Sundays of Advent those passages of the Gospels which relate to the coming of the Lord, or to preparing the way for His coming, as is the case with the last three Sundays of this holy season. What is the reason of that? To exhort us to prepare our hearts spiritually for the coming of the new-born Saviour, and what is still more important, to keep our souls in readiness when our Judge shall come to call us out of this world. It is infallibly certain, etc. Continues as above.