St. Alphonsus Liguori: Daily Meditations for Fourth Week after Easter

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Tuesday – Fourth Week After Easter

Morning Meditation

“WHILST WE HAVE TIME, LET US WORK GOOD.”

Death may not, perhaps, come upon us for twenty or thirty years; but it may come very soon; perhaps in a year or a month. And still we lose our time, and, instead of adjusting our accounts, we go on multiplying our sins, which will merit the sentence of eternal death. While we have time, let us work good.

I.

Be you then also ready; for, at what hour you think not, the Son of man will come-(Luke xii. 40). The Lord says: “Be ready.” He does not tell us to prepare ourselves when death approaches, but to be ready for His coming; because when we are thinking least of death the Son of man will come and demand an account of our whole life. In the confusion of death it will be most difficult to adjust our accounts so as to stand guiltless before the tribunal of Jesus Christ. Death may not perhaps come upon us for twenty or thirty years; but it may also come very soon, perhaps in a year or in a month. If anyone had reason to fear that a trial should take place on which his life depended, he certainly would not wait for the day of the trial, but would, as soon as possible, employ an advocate to plead his cause. And what are we doing? We know for certain that we must one day be judged, and that on the result of that judgment depends not on temporal, but eternal life. We also know that that day may be very near at hand; and still we lose our time, and, instead of adjusting our accounts, we go on daily multiplying our sins which will merit the sentence of eternal death.

If, then, we have hitherto offended God, let us henceforth endeavour to bewail our misfortune for the remainder of our life, and say continually with the penitent King Ezechias: I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul-(Is. xxxviii. 15). The Lord gives us the remaining days of life that we may make up for the time that has been badly spent. Whilst we have time, let us work good.-(Gal. vi. 10). Let us not provoke the Lord to punish us by an unhappy death; and if, during the years that are passed, we have been foolish and have offended Him, let us now attend to the Apostle exhorting us to be wise for the future, and to redeem the time we have lost.

O Lord, how wretched I have been in having for so many years gone after the vanities of the world and left Thee, my sovereign Good! But from this day forward I desire to possess Thee as my only Treasure, as the only Love of my soul.


II.

See, therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil . . . understanding what is the will of God.-(Ephes. v. 15,17). The days are evil. According to St. Anselm, the meaning of these words is that the days of this life are evil, because in them we are exposed to a thousand temptations and to the danger of eternal misery; therefore, to escape perdition, all possible care is necessary. “What,” says St. Augustine, “is meant by redeeming the time, unless, when necessary, to submit to temporal loss in order to gain eternal goods?” We should live only to fulfil with all diligence the Divine will; and, should it be necessary, it is better to suffer in temporal things, than to neglect our eternal interests.

Oh, how well did St. Paul redeem the time he had lost! St. Jerome says that, though the last of the Apostles, he was, on account of his great labours, the first in merits. “Paul, the last in order, but the first in merits, because he laboured more than all.” Let us consider that, in each moment, we may lay up greater treasures of eternal goods. If the possession of all the land round which you could walk, or of all the money you could count in a day, were promised you, would you lose time? Would you not instantly begin to walk over the ground, or to reckon the money? You now have it in your power to acquire, in each moment, eternal treasures; and will you notwithstanding, waste your time? Do not say that what you can do today you can also do tomorrow; because this day will be then lost to you, and shall never return. You have today; but perhaps tomorrow will not be given you.

I give Thee thanks, O my God, for having waited for me. What would have become of me had I died one of those nights in which I went to rest under Thy displeasure! But as Thou hast waited patiently for me, it is a sign that Thou wishest to pardon me. Pardon me, then, O my Jesus! I am sorry, and I will never sin again.

Spiritual Reading

SALVE, REGINA, MATER MISERICORDIAE! HAIL, HOLY QUEEN, MOTHER OF MERCY!

XV.-MARY IS THE MOTHER OF PENITENT SINNERS

This most benign Lady only requires that the sinner should recommend himself to her, and purpose amendment. When Mary sees a sinner at her feet, imploring her mercy, she does not consider the crimes with which he is loaded, but the intention with which he comes; and if the intention is good, even should he have commiitted all possible sins, the most loving Mother embraces him, and does not disdain to heal the wounds of his soul; for she is not only called the Mother of Mercy but is so, truly and indeed, and shows herself such by the love and tenderness with which she assists us all. And this is precisely what the Blessed Virgin herself said to St. Bridget: “However much a man sins, I am ready immediately to receive him when he repents; nor do I pay attention to the number of his sins, but only to the intention with which he comes: I do not disdain to anoint and heal his wounds; for I am called, and truly am, the Mother of Mercy.”

Mary is the Mother of sinners who wish to repent, and as their Mother she cannot do otherwise than compassionate them; nay, more, she seems to feel the miseries of her poor children as if they were her own. When the Canaanite woman begged our Lord to deliver her daughter from the devil who possessed her, she said: Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David, my daughter is grievously troubled by a devil-(Matt. xv. 22). But since the daughter, and not the mother, was tormented, she should rather have said, “Lord, take compassion on my daughter” and not have mercy on me: but no, she said have mercy on me, and she was right; for the sufferings of children are felt by their mothers as if they were their own. And it is precisely thus, says Richard of St. Laurence, that Mary prays to God when she recommends a sinner to Him who has had recourse to her; she cries out for the sinful soul: “Have mercy on me!” “My Lord,” she seems to say, “this poor soul that is in sin is my daughter, and therefore, pity not so much her as me, who am her Mother.”

Would that all sinners had recourse to this sweet Mother, for then certainly all would be pardoned by God. “O Mary,” exclaims St. Bonaventure in rapturous astonishment, “thou embracest with maternal affection a sinner despised by the whole world, nor dost thou leave him until thou hast reconciled the poor creature with his Judge”-meaning, that the sinner, whilst in the state of sin, is hated and loathed by all, even by inanimate creatures; fire, air, and earth would chastise him, and avenge the honour of their outraged Lord. But if this unhappy creature flies to Mary, will Mary reject him? Oh, no, provided he goes to her for help and in order to amend she will embrace him with the affection of a Mother, and will not let him go, until, by her powerful intercession, she has reconciled him with God and reinstated him in grace.

Evening Meditation

THE PRACTICE OF THE LOVE OF JESUS CHRIST

XXI. "CHARITY IS PATIENT.” -THE SOUL THAT LOVES JESUS CHRIST LOVES TO SUFFER

I.

This earth is the place for meriting, and therefore it is a place for suffering. Our true country, where God has prepared for us repose in everlasting joy, is Paradise.

We have but a short time to stay in this world; but in this short time we have many labours to undergo: Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries-(Job xiv. 1). We must suffer, and all must suffer: be they just or be they sinners, each one must carry his cross. He that carries it with patience is saved; he that carries it with impatience is lost. St. Augustine says the same miseries send some to Paradise and some to hell: “One and the same blow lifts the good to glory and reduces the bad to ashes.” The same Saint observes that by the test of suffering the chaff in the Church of God is distinguished from the wheat: he that humbles himself under tribulations, and is resigned to the will of God, is wheat for Paradise; he that grows haughty and is enraged, and so forsakes God, is chaff for hell.


II.

On the day when the cause of our salvation shall be decided, our life must be found conformable to the life of Jesus Christ, if we would enjoy the happy sentence of the predestined: For whom he foreknew he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son (Rom. viii. 29). This was the end for which the Eternal Word descended upon earth, to teach us, by His example, to carry with patience the cross which God sends us: Christ suffered for us, wrote St. Peter, leaving you an example, that you should follow his steps-(l Pet. ii. 21}. So that Jesus Christ suffered on purpose to encourage us to suffer. O God! what a life was that of Jesus Christ! a life of ignominy and pain! The Prophet calls our Redeemer despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows-(Is. liii. 3}. A man held in contempt, and treated as the lowest, the vilest among men, a man of sorrows; yes, for the life of Jesus Christ was made up of hardships and afflictions.