Qualiter Deus vult, quod peccatores moneantur ad confessionem oportune et importune et maxime in fine vite, exemplo vnius, qui LX annis sine confessione vixerat et in fine quasi coacte inductus confessus est et contricione optenta saluatus est.
The Call to Repentance
Christ urges a hardened, dying man to seek confession through the persistent efforts of his wife and a confessor.
A man of great worldly standing, who hadn't been to confession for a long time, was falling gravely ill. His spouse, feeling compassion for him, began to pray on his behalf. But Christ, appearing to the spouse at that moment, spoke to her, saying: Tell your confessor to visit this sick man and hear his confession. When the confessor arrived, the sick man replied that he didn't need confession, insisting that he had confessed many times before. The next day, Christ told the confessor to go back again. When he arrived at the sick man's side, he got the same response as before. On the third day, the confessor returned to the sick man, acting on a revelation given to Christ's bride, and said to him, "Christ, the Son of the living God and Lord of the devil, says to you:
The Seven Demons of the Soul
Christ reveals the seven demonic influences occupying the man's life and calls him to immediate repentance.
“You have seven demons inside you. One sits in your heart, binding it so you won't feel compunction for your sins. The second sits in your eyes, so you don't see what's most useful for your soul. The third sits on your tongue, so you don't speak of things that honor God.” The fourth sits in your lower nature; that's why you've loved every kind of impurity. The fifth is in your hands and feet; that's why you didn't fear robbing and killing people. The sixth is in your inner self, and that’s why you’ve given yourself over to gluttony and drunkenness. The seventh is in your soul, where God ought to be sitting, but now the devil, His enemy, sits there instead. Therefore, repent quickly, because God will still show you mercy.
The Grace of Compunction
The man experiences profound sorrow for his sins, confesses, receives the Eucharist, and passes away.
Then the sick man replied with tears, "How can you convince me of forgiveness, when I'm so ensnared by public sins?" The confessor replied, "I swear to you, because I’ve experienced it myself, that even if you had done greater things, you’ll be saved through compunction." Then he spoke again, with tears: I had despaired of my soul's salvation because I had pledged my allegiance to the devil, who has spoken to me many times.1 By the time I was sixty, I had never made a confession or received the Body of Christ; instead, I made excuses for myself whenever others went to Communion. “But now, Father, I confess to you that I don't remember ever having tears like the ones I have now.” That day he went to confession four times, and the next day, he even received Holy Communion after his confession. Six days later, however, he died.
The Mystery of Divine Mercy
Christ explains that the man's salvation was secured through the power of compunction and the intercession of the Blessed Mother.
Regarding him, Christ spoke to the bride, saying: "This man served the thief whose danger I showed you earlier." And now the devil, to whom he had pledged his allegiance, has fled from him, and this happened because of the compunction he felt. He has already come to purgatory, and the sign of this liberation is the compunction he felt at the end. But you might ask: Why did a man caught up in such great sins deserve to receive compunction? I answer you: My love did this—the love that waits until the very last moment for a person’s conversion—along with the merit of my mother. Even though he didn't love her with his whole heart, he still found a shortcut to his salvation and will be saved, because it was his custom to sympathize with her sorrow whenever he thought of her or heard her name.2
Read the original Latin
Quidam magnus dominus secundum mundum, qui diu non fuerat confessus, grauiter infirmabatur. Cui compaciens sponsa orabat pro eo. Christus vero apparens tunc sponse loquebatur ei dicens:
"Dic confessori tuo, vt istum infirmum visitet audiendo confessionem eius." Cui venienti respondit infirmus non se indigere confessione, testans se sepissime confessum.
Iterum vero sequenti die iubetur a Christo confessori redire. Qui veniens ad infirmum simile sicut prius recepit responsum.
Tercia autem die iterum veniens confessor ad infirmum ex reuelacione Christi sponse facta sic dixit ei: "Christus, filius Dei viui et dyaboli dominus dicit tibi:
'Tu habes in te septem demonia. Vnus sedet in corde ligans illud, ne de peccatis compungaris. Secundus sedet in oculis, ne videas vtiliora anime tue. Tercius sedet in ore, ne loquaris ea, que sunt ad honorem Dei.
Quartus sedet in inferioribus tuis; ideo dilexisti omnem impuritatem. Quintus est in manibus et pedibus tuis; ideo homines spoliare et interficere non verebaris.
Sextus est in interioribus tuis, et ideo gule deditus es et ebrietati. Septimus est in anima tua, vbi Deus sedere deberet, et modo ibi sedet dyabolus, inimicus eius. Ideo penitere cicius, quia adhuc Deus propiciabitur tibi.'"
Tunc infirmus ille cum lacrimis respondit: "Quomodo persuadere michi poteris veniam, qui tot publicis sceleribus sum irretitus?"
Respondit confessor: "Iuro tibi, quia expertus sum, quod, eciam si maiora fecisses, per contricionem saluaberis." Tunc ille iterum cum lacrimis dixit:
"Ego desperabam de salute anime mee, quia homagium feci dyabolo, qui michi multociens locutus est.
Ideo iam sexagenarius numquam feci confessionem nec sumpsi corpus Christi, sed finxi michi negocia, quando alii communicabant. Iam vero confiteor tibi, pater, quod tales lacrimas, quales nunc habeo, numquam recordor me habuisse."
Igitur illo die quater confessus est, et sequenti die eciam post confessionem communicauit. Post hec autem sexto die mortuus est.
De quo Christus ad sponsam sic loquebatur dicens: "Iste homo seruiuit latroni illi, cuius periculum ostendi tibi prius. Et ab eo iam fugit dyabolus, cui homagium fecerat, et hoc fuit propter contricionem, quam habuit.
Et iam venit ad purgatorium, et huius liberacionis signum est contricio, quam habuit in fine. Sed potes querere: Quare meruit contricionem homo, qui tantis sceleribus inuolutus erat?
Respondeo tibi: Hoc fecit dileccio mea, qui vsque ad vltimum punctum expecto hominis conuersionem, et meritum matris mee.
Nam licet homo iste non dilexit eam corde, tamen, quia consuetudo sua fuit compati dolori eius, quociens eam considerabat et audiebat nominari, ideo compendium salutis sue inuenit et saluatus erit."
Notes
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