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Chapter 24Imit.1.24

De judicio et poenis peccatorum.

Before the Strict Judge

The reader is urged to live with the final judgment ever in view, recognizing that no excuse will avail and that present sorrow is purifying.

In all things, look to the end, and consider how you will stand before a strict Judge—to whom nothing is hidden, who is not swayed by bribes, nor accepts excuses, but will judge what is just. O most wretched and foolish one—what will you answer to God, who knows all your evil deeds, when you sometimes fear the face of an angry man?✦ Why do you not prepare yourself for the day of judgment?1 When no one will be able to be excused or defended through another, but each person will carry the full weight of his own burden.✦ Now your labor is fruitful, your weeping acceptable, your groaning will be heard, your sorrow atoning and purifying.

The Purgatory of Patience

Patient endurance of injuries is presented as a wholesome purgatory, and the reader is warned not to delay repentance through self-deception.

A patient person has a great and wholesome purgatory: one who, enduring injuries, grieves more over another's malice than over his own wrong; who willingly prays for those who oppose him and forgives sins from the heart; who does not delay seeking forgiveness from others; who has mercy more easily than he grows angry; who frequently does violence to himself and strives to bring his flesh entirely under the spirit's control.✦✦23 It is better now to purge sins and cut away vices than to reserve them to be purged in the future.4 Truly we deceive ourselves through the disordered love we have for the flesh.5

The Fire That Devours Sin

Future punishment is described in vivid terms, with each vice receiving its own fitting torment.

What else does that fire devour except your sins? The more you spare yourself now and follow your flesh, the more harshly you will pay afterward — and the greater the fuel you are storing up for burning. In the very things a person has sinned, in those they will be punished more severely. There the slothful will be purified with burning goads, and the gluttonous will be tormented with enormous hunger and thirst. There the lustful and lovers of pleasures will be drenched in burning pitch and foul-smelling sulphur. And like maddened dogs, the envious will howl from grief.

The Reversal of All Things

The coming judgment will reverse all earthly values: the humble will be confident, the proud will tremble, and the just will stand firm.

There will not be a single vice that does not carry its own particular torment with it. There the proud will be filled with every shame, and the greedy will be straitened by the most wretched want. A single hour there will be heavier in punishment than a hundred years here in the bitterest penance. There the damned will have no rest and no consolation. Here, though, you sometimes get relief from your labors and enjoy the comfort of friends. Be anxious now, and grieve for your sins, so that on the day of judgment you may stand secure at once with the blessed. "Then" indeed "the just will stand with great firmness against those who afflicted and oppressed them." Then the one who now humbly submits himself to the judgments of men will stand to judge. Then the poor and the humble will have great confidence, and the proud will tremble on every side.

Then the Truth Will Shine

The coming judgment will reveal the true worth of humility, patience, obedience, and contempt for the world.

Then it will be clear who in this world was truly wise — the one who learned, for Christ's sake, to be thought a fool and held in contempt. Then every tribulation endured patiently will be pleasing, and every iniquity will be silenced.6 Then every devout soul will rejoice, and every irreligious one will mourn. Then afflicted flesh will exult more than if it had always been nourished in luxury. Then a plain demeanor will shine brightly, and fine clothing will be dimmed. Then a humble dwelling will be praised more than a gilded palace. Then steadfast patience will help more than all the power of the world. Then simple obedience will be exalted far more than all the cunning of the world.

The Joys That Outweigh the World

A good conscience, devout prayer, silence, holy works, strict penance, and contempt for riches will all prove more valuable than their worldly counterparts.

Then a pure and simple, good conscience will bring you more joy than learned philosophy. Then a contempt for riches will weigh more than the whole treasury of the sons of earth. Then you will find more comfort in devout prayer than in a luxurious meal. Then you will take more joy in keeping your silence than in long conversations. Then holy works will count for more than many fine words. Then a strict life and demanding penance will avail more than every earthly pleasure.

Learn to Suffer Now

The reader is urged to practice endurance in small things now, since eternal torments cannot be escaped and one cannot enjoy both present pleasure and future glory.

Learn now to suffer in small things, so that then you may be freed from greater ones. Test here first what you can endure, and afterward — If you cannot endure even this much now, how will you bear eternal torments? If a slight suffering makes you so impatient now, what will hell do to you then? Look, the truth is you cannot have both joys at once — taking your pleasure here in this world and afterward reigning with Christ.

Love God and Serve Him Alone

All is vanity except to love and serve God; perfect love casts out fear, and without the fear of God no one remains in goodness.

If you had lived all the way up to this very day always in honors and pleasures, what good would it all do you if you were suddenly about to die this instant? All things, therefore, are vanity, except to love God and to serve him alone.✦7 For whoever loves God with their whole heart fears neither death, nor punishment, nor judgment, nor hell, because perfect love makes the way to God secure.✦8 If someone still delights in sinning, it is no wonder they fear death and judgment. Still, it is good that if love does not yet call you back from evil, at least the fear of hell holds you in check. But whoever sets aside the fear of God will not be able to stand firm in goodness for long; instead, they will quickly run into the devil's snares.

Read the original Latin

In omnibus rebus respice finem, et qualiter ante districtum judicem stabis, cui nihil est occultum, qui muneribus non placatur, nec excusationes recipit, sed quod justum est, judicabit. O miserrime et insipiens, quid respondebis Deo, omnia mala tua scienti, qui interdum times vultum hominis irati? Ut quid non prævides tibi in judicii die? Quando nemo poterit per alium excusari vel defendi, sed unusquisque sufficiens onus suum portabit sibi ipsi. Nunc labor tuus est fructuosus, fletus acceptabilis, gemitus exaudibilis, dolor satisfactorius et purgativus.

Habet magnum et salubre purgatorium homo patiens, qui suscipiens injurias, plus dolet de alterius malitia, quam de sua injuria, qui pro contrariantibus sibi libenter orat, et ex corde culpas indulget; qui veniam ab aliis petere non retardat, qui facilius miseretur quam irascitur, qui sibi ipsi violentiam frequenter facit, et carnem suam omnino spiritui subjugare conatur. Melius est modo purgare peccata, et vitia resecare, quam in futuro purganda reservare. Vere nos ipsos decipimus per inordinatum amorem, quem ad carnem habemus.

Quid aliud ille ignis devorat, nisi peccata tua? Quanto amplius nunc tibi ipsi parcis, et carnem sequeris, postea lues tanto durius, et majorem materiam comburendi reservas. In quibus homo peccavit, in illis gravius punietur. Ibi acidiosi ardentibus stimulis purgentur, et gulosi ingenti fame ac siti cruciabuntur. Ibi luxuriosi et voluptatum amatores ardenti pice et foetido sulphure perfundentur. Et sicut furiosi canes, præ dolore invidiosi ululabunt.

Nullum vitium erit, quod suum proprium cruciatum non habeat. Ibi superbi omni confusione replebuntur, et avari miserrima egestate arctabuntur. Ibi erit una hora gravior in poena, quam hic centum anni in amarissima poenitentia. Ibi nulla requies, nulla consolatio damnatis. Hic tamen interdum cessatur a laboribus atque amicorum fruitur solatiis. Esto modo sollicitus, et dolens pro peccatis tuis, ut in die judicii sis securus propetenus cum beatis. Tunc enim justi stabunt in magna constantia adversus eos, qui se angustiaverunt et depresserunt. Tunc stabit ad judicandum qui modo se subjicit humiliter judiciis hominum. Tunc magnam fiduciam pauper et humilis habebit, et pavebit undique superbus.

Tunc videbitur sapiens in hoc mundo fuisse, qui pro Christo didicit stultus esse et despectus. Tunc placebit omnis tribulatio patienter perpessa et omnis iniquitas oppilabit os suum. Tunc gaudebit omnis devotus et maerebit omnis irreligiosus. Tunc plus exultabit caro afflicta, quam si semper in deliciis fuisset nutrita. Tunc splendebit habitus vilis, et obtenebrescet vestis subtilis. Tunc plus laudabitur pauperculum domicilium, quam deauratum palatium. Tunc plus juvabit constans pacientia, quam omnis mundi potentia. Tunc amplius exaltabitur simplex obedientia, quam omnis sæcularis astutia.

Tunc plus lætificabit pura et simplex conscientia et bona quam docta philosophia. Tunc plus ponderabit contemptus divitiarum, quam totus thesaurus terrigenarum. Tunc magis consolaberis super devota oratione, quam super delicata comestione. Tunc potius gaudebis de servato silentio, quam de longa fabulatione. Tunc plus valebunt sancta opera, quam multa pulchra verba. Tunc plus valebit stricta vita et ardua poenitentia, quam omnis delectatio terrena. Disce nunc in modico pati, ut tunc a gravioribus valeas liberari. Hic primo proba quid possis pati postea. Si nunc tam parum non vales sustinere, quomodo poteris æterna tormenta sufferre? Si modo modica passio te tam impatientem efficit, tunc gehenna quid facietur? Ecce vere non potes modo duo gaudia habere, delectari hic in mundo, et postea regnare cum Christo.

Si usque in hodiernum diem semper in honoribus et voluptatibus vixisses, quid totum tibi profuisset, si jam in instanti mori contingeret? Omnia ergo vanitas, præter amare Deum, et illi soli servire. Qui enim Deum ex toto corde amat, nec mortem, nec supplicium, nec judicium, nec infernum metuit, quia perfectus amor securum ad Deum accessum facit. Quem adhuc peccare delectat, non mirum, si mortem, judicium timeat. Bonum tamen est ut, si necdum amor a malo te revocat, saltem timor gehennæ te coerceat. Qui vero timorem Dei postponit, diu stare in bono non valebit, sed diaboli laqueos citius incurret.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Prov.29.25;John.12.43 — The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is secure. John.12.43 — For they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.
  2. ↩Gal.6.5 — For each one will carry their own load.
  3. ↩Matt.5.44 — But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
  4. ↩1Cor.9.27 — But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, so that after preaching to others, I myself might not be disqualified.
  5. ↩Eccl.1.2 — Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
  6. ↩1John.4.18 — There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears has not been perfected in love.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Ut at sentence onset is ambiguous: it could be interrogative ('How is it that you do not prepare yourself?') or result/purpose ('So that — why do you not…?'). The interrogative reading ('Why…?') was chosen as the most natural English rendering, treating Ut quid as a rhetorical question. An alternative rendering would be: 'How is it that you do not prepare yourself for the day of judgment?'
  2. 2 ↩Purgatorium here is metaphorical — the patient endurance of injury is itself a purgation of sin, not a reference to the post-mortem state.
  3. 3 ↩Spiritui rendered 'the spirit's control' to preserve the Pauline flesh–spirit opposition (cf. 1 Cor 9:27).
  4. 4 ↩Purganda (gerundive) conveys necessity and futurity — sins that will need purging, pointing toward post-mortem purgation.
  5. 5 ↩Amorem rendered 'love' per lexeme policy for amor; 'disordered' captures inordinatum as a theological term for misdirected attachment.
  6. 6 ↩The italicized span 'et omnis iniquitas oppilabit os suum' is a candidate biblical allusion; final resolution deferred to tx-08 Moses stage.
  7. 7 ↩Vanitas echoes Ecclesiastes 1:2; the cadence is preserved per lexeme policy.
  8. 8 ↩Perfectus amor rendered as 'perfect love' carries the theological sense of love brought to its fullness, not merely moral flawlessness.