THE HOUR OF DEATH
‘Nothing is more certain than death’, says the Idiota, ‘but nothing is more uncertain than its Hour’.
a) The Certainty of Death
In 150 years from now all those who are at present alive will have passed out of this world: all those who now fill the bustling streets of our cities, who fill our houses, who inhabit the countryside, who sail the sea, or fly and travel, who wake and sleep: all these will havedeparted. “Days will be formed and no-one in them” (Ps. 138.16). In the same way, of allthose who lived 150 years ago, not one is still alive. “Yesterday for me: to-day for thee” (Eccl. 38. 23).
What foolishness, then, to live on this earth as though it were to be our eternal dwelling – what foolishness for a traveller passing through a country on an important mission to spend all he possesses on a house that he must soon abandon, or for a man crossing a desert to settle at an oasis and advance no further. What eminent wisdom, by contrast, to live as though each day, each act, were our last; to fill each day and each act with an ever more perfect love of God: to prepare us for our passage into Eternity.
b) The Uncertainty of the Hour
“And you like men who wait for their Lord, when He should return from the wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open to Him immediately. Blessed are those servants who the Lord, when He cometh, shall find waiting….
Read the Rest at Rorate Caeli.
