Seek ye the Lord while he may be found

It is true that at whatsoever hour the sinner is converted, God promises pardon to him. But God has not promised that sinners will be converted at death. On the contrary, He has often protested that they who live in sin will die in sin. Therefore, seek ye the Lord while He may be found (Is. lv. 6).

I. God unceasingly threatens sinners with an unhappy death. Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear (Prov. i. 28). Will God hear his cry when distress shall come upon him? (Job xxvii. 9). I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock (Prov. i. 26). According to St. Gregory, God laughs when He is unwilling to show mercy. Revenge is mine, and I will repay them in due time (Deut. xxxii. 35). The Lord pronounces the same threats in many other places; and yet sinners live in peace as securely as if God had certainly promised to give them at death, pardon and Paradise! It is true that at whatsoever hour the sinner is converted, God promises to pardon him. But He has not promised that sinners will be converted at death. On the contrary, He has often protested that they who live in sin shall die in sin. You shall die in your sins (Jo. viii. 21, 24). He has declared that they who shall seek Him at death, shall not find Him. You shall seek me, and shall not find me (Jo. vii. 34). We must, therefore, seek God while He may be found. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found (Is. lv. 6). A time shall come when it will not be in your power to find Him. Poor blind sinners! They put off their conversion till death, when there will be no more time for repentance. "The wicked," says Oleaster, "never learn to do good, except when the time for doing good is no more." God wills the salvation of all, but He takes vengeance on obstinate sinners.

Should any man in the state of sin be seized with apoplexy and be deprived of his senses, what sentiments of compassion would be excited in all who should see him die without the Sacraments and without signs of repentance! And how great would be their delight did he recover his senses, ask for absolution, and make acts of sorrow for his sins! But is not he a fool who has time to repent and prefers to continue in sin? Or who returns to sin and exposes himself to the danger of being cut off by death without the Sacraments and without repentance? A sudden death excites terror in all; and still how many expose themselves to the danger of dying suddenly, and of dying in sin. Weight and balance are the judgments of the Lord (Prov. xvi. 11). We keep no account of the graces which God bestows upon us; but He keeps an account of them. He measures them, and when He sees them despised to a certain degree, He then abandons the sinner to his sin, and takes him out of life in that unhappy state. Miserable the man who defers his conversion till death! "The repentance which is sought," says St. Augustine, "from an infirm man is infirm." St. Jerome teaches, that of a hundred thousand sinners who continue in sin till death, scarcely one shall be saved. St. Vincent Ferrer writes that it is a greater miracle to bring such sinners to salvation than to raise the dead to life.

Ah, my God, who would have borne with me so patiently as Thou hast? If Thy goodness were not infinite, I should despair of pardon. But I have to deal with a God Who has died for my salvation. Thou didst command me to hope, and I will hope. If my sins terrify and condemn me, Thy merits and Thy promises encourage me. Thou hast promised the life of Thy grace to all who return to Thee. Return ye and live (Ezech. xviii. 32). Thou hast promised to embrace him who is converted to Thee. Turn ye to me and I will turn to you (Zach. i. 3). Thou hast said that Thou knowest not how to despise a humble and contrite heart.

II. What sorrow for sin, what repentance can be expected at death from the man who has till that moment loved sin? Bellarmine relates that when he exhorted to contrition a certain dying person he was assisting, the dying man said that he did not know what was meant by contrition. The holy man endeavoured to explain it to him; but he said: "Father, I do not understand you; these things are too high for me." He died in that state, leaving, as the venerable Cardinal has written, "sufficiently evident signs of his damnation." St. Augustine says, that by a just chastisement, the sinner who has forgotten God during life, shall forget himself at death.

Be not deceived, says the Apostle, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall he reap corruption (Gal. vi. 7). It would be a mockery of God to live in contempt of His laws, and afterwards to reap remuneration and eternal glory. But, God is not mocked! What we sow in this life we reap in the next. For him who sows the forbidden pleasures of the flesh, nothing remains but corruption, misery, and eternal death.

Beloved Christian, what is said for others is also applicable to you. Tell me: if you were at the point of death, given over by the physicians, deprived of your senses, and in your last agony, with what fervour would you ask of God another month or week, to settle the affairs of your conscience! God gives you this time now. Thank Him for it, and apply an immediate remedy to the evil you have done. Adopt all the means of finding yourself in the grace of God when death shall come; for then there shall be no more time to acquire His friendship.

Behold, O Lord, I return to Thee and acknowledge that I deserve a thousand hells! I am sorry for having offended Thee. I firmly promise never again to offend Thee voluntarily, and to love Thee forever. Ah, do not suffer me to be ungrateful any longer for such goodness. O Eternal Father, through the merits of the obedience of Jesus Christ, Who died to obey Thee, grant that I may till death be obedient to all Thy will. I love Thee, O Sovereign Good, and through the love which I bear Thee, I desire to obey Thee. Give me holy perseverance, give me Thy love, I ask for nothing more. Mary, my Mother, intercede for me.