Day: October 16, 2024

Thought for the Day – 16 October – Meditations with Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori (1696-1787) Bishop, Confessor, Most Zealous Doctor of the Church

CONSIDERATION XIV

Life is a Journey to Eternity
“Man goeth to his long home.”
(Eccles xii: 5)

FIRST POINT:
FROM beholding that, in this world, so many evil-livers live in prosperity and, so many righteous men, on the contrary, live in adversity, even the Gentiles recognised, by the light of nature alone, this truth – as there is a God and, as this God is just, so there must be another life, in which the wicked will be punished and the good rewarded! What these Gentiles saw by the light of reason alone, we, Christians, confess, by faith: “Here we have no abiding city but we seek
one to come.” (Heb xiii; 14). This world is not truly our country but, for us, it is a place of passage, through which we must pass quickly to our “long home.”
“Man goeth to his long home.”

Therefore, my reader, the house in which you dwell is not your house; it is an hostel from which, quickly and when you least expect it, you will have to depart.
Know, when the time of your death has arrived, those most dear, will be the first to thrust you out.
And what will be your real home? A grave will be the home of your body, until the day of judgement and your soul will have to go to its long home, either to Paradise or to Hell.
Wherefore, St Augustine addresses you: “Thou art a guest; thou beholdest and thou passest onwards.”
That traveller would be insan, who, passing through a country, would wish to lay out there all his inheritance in the purchase of a villa or a house in that place which, in a few days he must leave.
Reflect, yet, says the Saint, that in this world thou art a passenger, do not place thy affections on what thou seest, behold and pass on and procure a good home where you will have to dwell forever.

If thou art saved, happy art thou. Oh, what a beautiful home is Heaven! All the palaces of Monarchs, so exceedingly rich, are hovels when compared with the City of Heaven which alone can be called “the perfection of beauty.” (Lam ii: 15).
In that place, you will not have anything left to desire; remaining in the company of the Saints and of Jesus Christ, without further fear of harm. In short, you will live in an ocean of delights,and in perpetual joy which will never end:
“Everlasting joy upon their heads.” (Isa xxxv 10). This joy will be so great that, through all eternity, at every moment, it will appear to be ever new.

But, if thou art lost; unhappy thou! Thou wilt be confined in a lake of fire, abandoned by all and without God. And for what time? Perchance, when a hundred thousand years shall have passed by, your punishment will be ended? What end!
A hundred thousand million years and ages will pass by, and your hell will be ever at its beginning. For what are a thousand years in comparison with eternity? Less than a day that has passed,
“A thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday, seeing that it is past as a watch in the night.” (Ps xc: 4).

Do you wish to know what will be your home which will receive you in eternity? It will be exactly that which you deserved and which you chose by your own actions!

Affections and Prayers

Behold, then, O Lord, the home which I have deserved by my life; alas, Hell! where, from the first sin which I committed, I ought to remain, abandoned by Thee, deprived of the hope of being able to love Thee more.
Let Thy mercy forever be blessed which, having waited for me, also gives me time to atone for my sin! Let the Blood of Jesus Christ be blessed which has obtained this mercy for me.
No, my God, I do not desire further to abuse Thy patience. I repent, above every other sin, having grieved Thee, not so much on account of having deserved hell, as that I have abused Thy infinite goodiiess.
Never more, my God, never more; let me die rather than offend Thee more. If I were now in Hell, O my Sovereign Good, I could not love Thee any more, neither couldst Thou further love me. I love Thee and I desire to be loved by Thee.
I do not deserve this but Jesus Christ merits it, Who so sacrificed Himself upon the Cross that Thou mightst be able to pardon and love me.

Eternal Father, for the love, then, of Thy Son, give me grace to love Thee ever and to love Thee much, more and more.
I love Thee, O my Father, for having given Thy Son!