ALL ENDS, AND SOON ENDS.
The grass of the field, which is today and tomorrow, is cast into the oven. MATT. vii. 30.
ALL ENDS, AND SOON ENDS.
Behold! All the goods of the earth are like the grass of the field, which today is blooming and beautiful, but in the evening it withers and loses its flowers, and the next day is cast into the fire. This is what God commanded the Prophet Isaiah to preach when he said to him: "Cry out. What shall I cry out? All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof is as the flower of the field. (Isa. xl. 6. Hence, St. James compares the rich of this world to the flower of grass: at the end of their journey through life, they rot, along with all their riches and pomps. The rich. . . Because, like the flower of the grass, he shall pass away. For the sun rose with a burning heat, and parched the grass, and the flower thereof fell off, and the beauty of the shape thereof perished: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. St. James, they fade away and are cast into the fire, like the rich glutton who made a splendid appearance in this life, but afterwards was buried in hell. Let us, then, dearly beloved Christians, attend to the salvation of our souls, and to the acquisition of riches for eternity, which never ends; for everything in this world ends, and ends very soon.
Everything ends
When one of the great of this world is in the full enjoyment of the riches and honours which he has acquired, death shall come, and he shall be told: Take order with thy house; for thou shalt die, and not live. Oh! ” What doleful tidings! The unhappy man must then say: Farewell, world! Farewell, villa! farewell, grotto! Farewell, relatives! Farewell, friends! Farewell, sports! Farewell, balls! Farewell, comedies! Farewell, banquets! Farewell, honours! All is over for me. There is no remedy: whether he will or not, he must leave all. When he dies, he shall take nothing away, nor shall his glory descend with him. St. Bernard says that death produces a horrible separation of the soul from the body and from all the things of this earth. "morti“ horrendum divortium.” (Serm. xxvi., in Cant.)
To the great of this world, whom worldlings regard as the most fortunate of mortals, the bare name of death is so full of terror that they are unwilling even to hear it mentioned; for their entire concern is to find peace in their earthly goods. death! Ecclesiasticus, How bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions. But how much greater bitterness shall death itself cause when it actually comes to the miserable man who is attached to the goods of this world! Every separation produces pain. Hence, when the soul shall be separated by the stroke of death from the goods on which she had fixed all her affections, the pain must be excruciating. It was this that made King Agag exclaim when the news of approaching death was announced to him: “Doth bitter death separate me in this manner?
The great misfortune of worldlings is that when they are on the point of being summoned to judgment, instead of endeavouring to adjust the accounts of their souls, they direct all their attention to earthly things. But, says St. John Chrysostom, the punishment which awaits sinners, on account of having forgotten God during life, is that they forget themselves at the hour of death. “Anima dversione percutitur impius, ut moriens obliviscatur sui, qui vivens oblitus est Dei. But how great soever a man’s attachment to the things of this world may be, he must take leave of them at death. Naked he has entered into this world, and naked he shall depart from it. says Job, “I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither.
In a word, they who have spent their whole life having lost their sleep, their health, and their peace in accumulating riches and possessions shall take nothing with them at the hour of death: their eyes shall then be opened; and of all they had so dearly acquired, they shall find nothing in their hands. Hence, on that night of confusion, they shall be overwhelmed in a tempest of pain and sadness. “ rich man, When he sleeps, he shall take away nothing with him! He shall open his eyes and find nothing... a tempest shall oppress him in the night.
St. Antonine relates that Saladin, king of the Saracens, gave orders at the hour of death that the winding sheet in which he was to be buried should be carried before him to the grave, and that a person should cry out: “Of all his possessions, this only shall Saladin bring with him.” The saint also relates that a certain philosopher, speaking of Alexander the Great after his death, said: “Behold the man that made the earth tremble.” The earth, as the Scripture says, was quiet before him. He is now under the earth. Behold the man whom the dominion of the whole world could not satisfy: now four palms of ground are sufficient for him. Terram heri conculcabat, hodie ab ea conculcatur; et cui heri non sufficiebat mundus, hodie sufficiunt quatuor ulnæ terræ.Augustine, or some other ancient writer, says that, having gone to see the tomb of Caesar, he exclaimed: “Princes feared thee; cities worshipped thee; all trembled before thee; where has thy magnificence gone?”
Listen to what David says: “I have seen the wicked highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon. And I passed by, and lo! he was not. Oh! How many such spectacles are seen every day in the world! A sinner who has been born in lowliness and afterwards acquires wealth and honors, so as to excite the envy of all. When he dies, everyone says, He made a fortune in the world; but now he is dead, and with death all is over for him.
Why are earth and ashes proud? Such is the language which the Lord addresses to the man who is puffed up by earthly honors and earthly riches. "Miserable creature, whence comes such pride? You enjoy honors and riches; remember that you are dust. "For dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return. You must die, and after death, what advantage shall you derive from the honours and possessions which now inflate you with pride? Go, says St. Ambrose, to a cemetery, in which are buried the rich and poor, and see if you can discern among them who has been rich and who has been poor; all are naked, and nothing remains of the richest among them but a few withered bones. ” Respi sepulchra, die mihi, quis ibi dives, quis pauper sit vexam. . How profitable would the remembrance of death be to the man who lives in the world! shall be brought to the grave, and shall watch in the heap of the dead. At the sight of these dead bodies, he would remember death, and that he would one day be like them. Thus, he should be awakened from the deadly sleep in which perhaps he lives in a state of perdition. But the misfortune is that worldlings are unwilling to think of death until the hour comes when they must depart from this earth to go into eternity; therefore, they live as attached to the world as if they were never to be separated from it. But our life is short, and shall soon end: thus all things must end, and must soon end
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