Delay of Conversion by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger

[Stone]

Delay of Conversion

by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1877

I will take occasion to speak today of a singular infatuation which prevails to an alarming extent both among the sick and those in health, and which is fraught with danger to the soul. I allude to the delay of conversion. Confession is postponed from day to day, for each one hopes that he will have time for reconciliation with God, even though advancing age or increasing weakness should prove the futility of that hope.

I am sure that scarcely a sinner exists in whose breast a lingering spark of faith still glimmers, who does not cherish the hope that, at some future time, he may return to his duty. Yes, although he may have given over his soul to the devil, he does not despair to return to God, though it be at his dying hour. Very good! There is a possibility, of course, that he may be converted by a miracle at the last; but what folly to wait for a miracle! O folly! folly! O blind and infatuated worldlings!

A preacher can scarcely ever select this subject for a discourse to his hearers without having before him some one to whom it applies.

My subject today, therefore, shall be the great danger in which the soul is placed, of eternal reprobation, by this lamentable delay in returning to God.

Mary, patroness of a happy death, pray that thy poor, erring children may obtain the grace of a true conversion, and return, without delay, to the service of thy Son! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, for the greater honor and glory of God!

"Delay not to be converted to thy God; today when thou shalt hear His voice, do not harden thy heart." The Holy Ghost thus admonishes us; our own conscience whispers the same. Let us not still its voice; but walk according to the light of faith and the dictates of reason.

There are many, even among Catholics, who delay their conversion until the hand of the Lord is upon them, and they are stretched upon their dying bed. During life their object seemed to be to defraud their Creator of the love and obedience due Him; and now they would even defraud the devil of what they so assiduously prepared for him. Can aught but a miracle save such a creature? What can be said to one who thus delays his conversion?

Listen, sinner! your cry is: "Tomorrow! tomorrow! yet, for a little while, I will drive the thought of God away! "By this you acknowledge that you intend to change your life at some future time; then, too, you admit that at present you are leading an evil life. A sick person tries to obtain relief without delay. Christian! sinner! is corporal illness to be mentioned in the same breath with that dreadful malady which oppresses your soul? There is but one evil, but it is the origin and source of all evils, and that is: Sin! You believe this, and yet your cry is: "Tomorrow! tomorrow!" O folly! O presumption! You say: "Another time! Then, according to your own confession, sin is no gain. No, it is not. On the contrary, it is loss. And what a loss! It means the loss of God, of heaven, of all that is worth having, if you die in your present state.

Is there one among you who, losing a sum of money, would not immediately take steps to recover it? And what is money in comparison to divine grace? Christian! sinner! some other time, do you say? Would you say to the physician who comes to you in sickness: "I do not require your services now; come some other time; come in a month or a year?" Behold, you are sick unto death; and, according to St. Ambrose, your malady is either pride, avarice, anger, gluttony, envy or impurity. Christ is your Physician, the Sacrament of Penance your remedy; use it, and be healed.

"Some other time," you say. If a conflagration were raging in your vicinity, and waves of the fiery sea were rolling madly towards your home, would you say: "Tomorrow! tomorrow! it will be time enough then to extinguish the flames?"

"Some other time," you say. If you fell from a ship into the ocean; and if I, seeing you fall, hastened to your rescue, would you repulse my aid, and say: "Tomorrow! tomorrow! it will be time enough then?"

O sinner! your soul is engulfed in the restless waves of passion, and the priests of your Holy Church eagerly extend a helping hand, longing to aid you; but you say: "Some other time; I am not in danger yet!"

Now, I ask you one question: Will it always be in your power to return to God? You fain would answer : Yes! and believe you are in the right; but I must warn you that you may be most sadly mistaken. You are free; but do you consider the force of habit?

Holy Scripture assures us that the young man does not turn in old age from the path he pursued in youth. There are exceptions, it is true; but experience tells us that they are few. And when did our Lord assure you that His efficacious grace would be ready for you whenever it suited your convenience to accept it?

"I will have time enough, later on I will listen to the voice of God." You have no assurance that you will. Listen to this terrible warning: " You shall seek Me, but you shall not find Me; you shall die in your sins! As our sins have their measure, so also has the grace of God, which He alone knows. And are you willing to expose yourself to the frightful risk of losing your soul? Be wise, and today when you hear His voice, harden not your heart. Do not say: "God is merciful, and I can repent even on my death-bed." He is merciful, but He is just also; and how many are called before the judgment-seat of Christ without a moment's warning! This is especially the case; in America, where fatal accidents are of constant occurrence. And even were you certain of the very day and hour of your death, are you sure that you will have a priest to assist you? Do not say: "Yes, I am sure; I live so near the Church, I can not fail to have the priest." I tell you, that were the priest to take up his abode in your very house, you could have no such assurance. Many have allowed themselves to be deluded thus; and, death surprising them, they have gone to "the house of their eternity" without the support and aid of the Holy Sacraments, and, perhaps, alas, have been lost forever!

Be not presumptuous in postponing your conversion; for even if you should have a priest to assist you in your last moments, could you, after a life spent in forgetfulness of God and His commandments, so dispose your soul in a moment as to benefit by his assistance? You know not in what state you will be in that awful hour. Your mind may be weakened, and your body enfeebled and convulsed with pain, so as to prevent you from making your confession properly. And could you be absolved in that helpless condition?

I do not say that the priest would not pronounce the words of absolution, but would they be of any avail? You might be unable to elicit one single act of heartfelt contrition.

What is meant by true contrition? That sorrow which will enable you to detest sincerely all that you for years have loved and esteemed more than God, to whom you are indebted for every thing. Consider it well, O sinner! You have loved the world and its creatures during a life-time, clinging to them as long as you could; and now that you see them slipping away, you pretend to forsake them, and to turn lovingly to that God towards whom you have been more than indifferent. Ah, friends! nothing less than a miracle of grace is needed here! The priest may be deceived; but to God the heart of the dying impenitent sinner is fully revealed in all its deformity. Think of the terrible examples we read in Holy Scripture! The dying Antiochus was loud in his professions of repentance and of resolutions to lead a godly life, if God would spare him. "He prayed to the Lord, of whom he was not to obtain mercy," because he only prayed as does a slave writhing under the pain of the lash. In health, he would have gone on in his wickedness. Therefore, O sinner! listen to the warning you receive today, and delay not to be converted to the Lord thy God!

Would that, from all here present, who are in mortal sin, the priest, in the tribunal of penance, could receive the blessed assurance, that during this sermon, " at the same hour" that you listened to my words, you resolved, within your hearts: "I will delay no longer; I will make a good confession, and save my soul." To which the whole celestial host cry: Amen!