Verba Christi ad sponsam declarancia, que sit christiana mors et quomodo homo bene moritur vel male et quomodo amici Dei non debent tribulari, si videant seruos Dei corporaliter mori crudeliter.
The Sleep of the Righteous
Christ distinguishes between the physical death of the righteous, which is but a sleep, and the true death of the soul.
The Son says: "Don't be afraid, daughter: this sick woman won't die, because her works are pleasing to me." And when she had died, the Son said again: "Look, daughter, what I told you is true." She isn't dead, because her glory is great." For the separation of the body and soul of the righteous is nothing but sleep, because they are awake in eternal life. That, however, is what should be called death: when the soul, separated from the body, lives in eternal death.
The Meaning of Christian Suffering
True Christian death is defined by imitating Christ's innocent and patient suffering, which serves as a path to heaven.
Many people don't look ahead to what's coming, yet they hope to die a Christian death. For what is a Christian death, if not to die as I died: innocently, voluntarily, and patiently? Should I be held in contempt just because my death was considered shameful and harsh? Or were my chosen ones foolish because they endured things that were held in contempt? Or was this the work of fate and the movement of the stars? Certainly not. But the reason I and my chosen ones endured such hardship was to show, by both word and example, that the path to heaven is difficult, and so that you might constantly reflect on how much purity is required of those who are evil, if even the chosen and the innocent have had to endure such harshness.
The Fruit of a Holy Death
While a worldly life leads to a wretched end, those who suffer with love for God find their hardships purify them and secure their eternal reward.
So, understand that anyone who lives a dissolute life and dies with the will to sin—someone caught up in the ways of the world, who only wants to live longer and doesn't know how to give thanks to God—dies a shameful and wretched death.1 But anyone who loves God with their whole heart and suffers innocently—whether burdened by a shameful death or a long illness—lives and dies happily; for a harsh death lessens both sin and the penalty for sin, and increases one's crown. Look, I’m bringing to your mind two people who, in the world's eyes, died a despised and bitter death; yet if they hadn't received such a death through my great mercy, they wouldn't have been saved. But because the Lord doesn't strike twice those who are contrite in heart, they have attained the crown. Therefore, the friends of God shouldn't be troubled if they are scourged for a time or if they die a bitter death, because it's a great blessing to suffer and be troubled in this world for a little while, so that they don't have to face a more severe purgatory, where there will be no escape and no time to do penance.
Read the original Latin
Filius loquitur: "Noli timere, filia: non morietur ista infirma, quia placent michi opera eius." Cumque illa esset mortua, iterum dixit Filius: "Ecce, filia, verum est quod dixi tibi. Non est ista mortua, quia gloria eius magna est.
Nam separacio corporis et anime iustorum non est nisi sompnus, quia vigilant in eterna vita. Illa vero dicenda est mors, quando anima separata a corpore viuit in eterna morte.
Multi quippe non attendentes futura optant, ut moriantur christiana morte. Quid enim est christiana mors nisi mori, sicut ego mortuus sum: innocenter, voluntarie et pacienter?
Numquid ego ideo contempnendus sum, quia mors erat contemptibilis et dura? Aut ideo electi mei fatui, quia contemptibilia paciebantur? Aut hoc voluit fortuna et operabatur cursus stellarum? Nequaquam.
Sed ideo ego et electi mei paciebamur dura, ut ostenderemus verbo et exemplo viam ad celum esse duram et ut assidue cogitaretur, quanta opus est mundicia malis, si tam aspera passi sunt electi et innocentes.
Ergo scito, quod ille moritur contemptibiliter et male qui dissolute viuens moritur in voluntate peccandi, qui habens mundi processum optat, ut longius viuat, et nescit regraciari Deo.
Qui vero Deum diligit toto corde et tribulatur innocenter despecta morte aut longa infirmitate grauatur, ille et viuit et moritur feliciter, quia mors aspera et minuit peccatum et penam peccati augetque coronam.
Ecce reduco tibi ad memoriam duos, qui despecta et amara morte iudicio hominum moriebantur; qui nisi talem mortem ex misericordia mea magna obtinuissent, saluati non fuissent. Sed quia Dominus non pungit bis contritos corde, ideo venerunt ad coronam.
Propterea amici Dei non debent contristari, si flagellantur temporaliter aut si amara morte moriuntur, quia felicissimum est lugere ad horam et turbari in mundo, ne veniatur ad purgatorium grauius, ubi non erit fuga nec tempus laborandi."
Notes
- 1 ↩The term 'contemptibiliter' here carries the sense of a death that is spiritually ignoble or lacking in grace, rather than merely 'despised' by others.
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