Consideration XII - THE IMPORTANCE OF SALVATION

"Rogamus autem fratres, ut negotium vestrum agatis" (1 Thess. 4:10).

Point I

The business of eternal salvation is certainly the affair that matters to us more than all others; but this is the most neglected by Christians. No diligence is spared, no time is lost, to arrive at that position, to win that lawsuit, to conclude that marriage: how many consultations, how many measures are taken! One does not eat, one does not sleep! And then, to secure eternal salvation, what is done? How do people live? Nothing is done — indeed, everything is done to lose it; and the greater part of Christians live as if death, judgment, hell, paradise, and eternity were not truths of faith but fables invented by poets. If a lawsuit is lost, a harvest ruined, what pain is felt! And what effort is made to repair the damage! If a horse or a dog is lost, what diligence to find it! The grace of God is lost, and one sleeps, jests, and laughs. What a thing! Everyone is ashamed to be called negligent in worldly affairs; and then so many are not ashamed to neglect the business of eternity, which matters most of all! They call the Saints wise, who attended only to saving themselves, and then they themselves attend to all the other things of the world and nothing to the soul! But you, says St. Paul, you, my brothers, attend only to the great business you have of your eternal salvation, for this is the affair that matters most to you. "Rogamus vos, ut vestrum negotium agatis." Let us therefore be persuaded that eternal salvation is for us the most important business, the only business, and a business that is irreparable if it is ever lost.

It is the most important business. Yes, because it is the affair of greatest consequence, since it concerns the soul, and if the soul is lost, everything is lost. The soul should be esteemed by us as more precious than all the goods of the world. "Anima est toto mundo pretiosior," says St. John Chrysostom.

To understand this, it is enough to know that God Himself gave His Son to death to save our souls! "Sic Deus dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum unigenitum daret" (John 3:16). And the Eternal Word did not refuse to purchase them with His own blood. "Emti enim estis pretio magno" (1 Cor. 6:20). So that, says a holy Father, it seems that man is worth as much as God is worth: "Tam pretioso munere humana redemtio agitur, ut homo Deum valere videtur." Hence Jesus Christ said: "Quam dabit homo commutationem pro anima sua?" (Matt. 16:26). If the soul, then, is worth so much, for what good of this world would a man exchange it by losing it?

St. Philip Neri was right to call mad anyone who does not attend to saving his soul. If there were on earth both mortal and immortal men, and the mortal ones saw the immortals all occupied with worldly things — acquiring honors, goods, and earthly pleasures — they would certainly say to them: Oh, what fools you are! You can acquire eternal goods, and you think of these wretched, passing things? And for these you condemn yourselves to eternal pains in the next life? Leave these earthly goods for us poor wretches alone, for whom at death everything will end. But no — we are all immortal; and how is it then that so many, for the miserable pleasures of this earth, lose their souls? How is it, says Salvian, that Christians believe there is a judgment, a hell, an eternity, and then live without fearing them? "Quid causae est, quod christianus, si futura credit, futura non timeat?"

Affections and Prayers

Ah, my God, how have I spent the many years You gave me for the purpose of procuring my eternal salvation? You, my Redeemer, purchased my soul with Your blood, and then entrusted it to me so that I might attend to saving it, and I have attended to nothing but losing it by offending You, who have loved me so much. I thank You for still giving me time to remedy the great loss I have suffered. I have lost my soul and Your beautiful grace. Lord, I repent; I am sorry with all my heart. Ah, pardon me, for I resolve from this day forward to lose everything, even life, rather than Your friendship. I love You above every good, and I resolve to love You always, O supreme Good, worthy of infinite love. Help me, my Jesus, so that this resolution of mine may not be like my other past purposes, which were all betrayals. Let me die first, rather than return again to offending You and ceasing to love You.

O Mary, my hope, save me by obtaining for me holy perseverance.

Point II

The business of eternal salvation is not only the most important, but it is the only business we have in this life. "Porro unum est necessarium." St. Bernard laments the foolishness of Christians who call the follies of children follies, and then call their own earthly affairs business. "Nugae puerorum, nugae vocantur, nugae maiorum, negotia vocatur?" These follies of the great are greater follies. And what good is it, says the Lord, to gain the whole world and lose your soul? "Quid prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur, animae vero suae detrimentum patiatur?" (Matt. 16:26). If you are saved, my brother, it does not matter that on this earth you were poor, afflicted, and despised: being saved, you will have no more woes, and you will be happy for all eternity. But if you err and are damned, what good will it do you in hell to have taken all the pleasures of the world and to have been rich and honored? When the soul is lost, pleasures are lost, honors are lost, riches are lost — everything is lost.

What will you answer to Jesus Christ on the day of reckoning? If a king sent his ambassador to transact some great business in a city, and that man, instead of attending to the affair entrusted to him, attended only to banquets, plays, and feasts, and thereby let the business fail — what account would he give the king upon his return? But, O God, what a greater account will he give to the Lord at the judgment who, placed on earth not to amuse himself, not to make himself rich, not to acquire honors, but to save his soul, has attended to everything except his soul! The worldly think only of the present, not of the future. St. Philip Neri, speaking once in Rome to a talented young man named Francesco Zazzera who was devoted to worldly pursuits, said to him: "My son, you will have great fortune; you will be a good lawyer, then a prelate, then perhaps even a cardinal, and who knows, perhaps even Pope. And then? And then?" "Go," he said to him at last, "think about these last two words." Francesco went home, and thinking about those words — "and then? and then?" — he left his worldly occupations, left the world as well, and entered the very Congregation of St. Philip, and began to attend to God alone.

It is the only business, because we have but one soul. Benedict XII was asked by a prince for a favor that could not be granted without sin; the Pope answered the ambassador: "Tell your prince that if I had two souls, I could lose one for him and keep the other for myself; but since I have only one, I neither can nor wish to lose it." St. Francis Xavier used to say that there is only one good and one evil in the world: the only good is to be saved; the only evil is to be damned. St. Teresa also repeated this to her nuns, saying: "My sisters, one soul, one eternity." Meaning: "one soul" — if this is lost, all is lost; "one eternity" — if the soul is lost once, it is lost forever. Therefore David prayed: "Unam petii, et hanc requiram, ut inhabitem in domo Domini" (Ps. 26:4). Lord, one thing I ask You: save my soul, and nothing more.

"Cum metu, et tremore, vestram salutem operamini" (Phil. 2:12). He who does not fear and tremble at being lost will not be saved; hence, to be saved, one must labor and do violence to oneself. "Regnum coelorum vim patitur, et violenti rapiunt illud" (Matt. 11). To attain salvation it is necessary that at death our life be found conformed to that of Jesus Christ. "Praedestinavit uniformes fieri imaginis Filii sui" (Rom. 8:29). And therefore we must labor on the one hand to flee occasions of sin, and on the other to avail ourselves of the means necessary for attaining salvation. "Regnum non dabitur vagantibus," says St. Bernard, "sed pro servitio Deo digne laborantibus." Everyone would like to be saved without inconvenience. What a thing! says St. Augustine: the devil works so hard and does not sleep in order to make us perish; and you, when it is a question of your eternal good or evil, are so negligent? "Vigilat hostis: dormis tu?"

Affections and Prayers

Ah, my God, I thank You that at this hour You have me at Your feet, and not in hell, which I have so many times deserved. But what good would the life You preserve for me do, if I continued to live deprived of Your grace? Ah, may it never be so. I turned my back on You, I lost You, O my supreme Good; I am sorry with all my heart. Would that I had died a thousand times first! I have lost You, but Your prophet tells me that You are all good and gladly let Yourself be found by a soul that seeks You: "Bonus est Dominus animae quaerenti illum" (Lam. 3:25). If in the past I fled from You, O King of my heart, now I seek You, and I seek nothing but You. I love You with all my affection. Accept me; do not disdain to let Yourself be loved by the heart that once despised You. "Doce me facere voluntatem tuam." Teach me what I must do to please You, for I wish to do it all. Ah, my Jesus, save this soul of mine, for which You spent Your blood and Your life; and may saving me mean giving me the grace to love You always, in this life and in the next. So I hope, through Your merits.

And so I also hope through your intercession, O Mary.

Point III

An important business, an only business, an irreparable business. "Sane supra omnem errorem est," says St. Eucherius, "dissimulare negotium aeternae salutis." There is no error like the error of neglecting eternal salvation. For all other errors there is a remedy: if one loses a possession, he can acquire it by another means; if he loses a position, there may be a way to recover it; even if someone loses his life, if he is saved, everything is remedied. But for one who is damned, there is no more remedy. One dies but once; if the soul is lost once, it is lost forever. "Periisse semel, aeternum est." Nothing remains but to weep eternally with the other miserable fools in hell, where the greatest pain that torments them is the thought that for them the time to remedy their misery is over. "Finita est aestas, et nos salvati non sumus" (Jer. 8:20). Ask those wise men of the world who now are in that pit of fire — ask them what sentiments they now hold, and whether they are content to have made their fortunes on this earth, now that they are condemned to that eternal prison? Hear how they weep and say: "Ergo erravimus!" But what good does it do them to recognize the error they committed, now that there is no more remedy for their eternal damnation? What pain a person on this earth would feel if, having been able to repair the ruin of his palace at little cost, one day he found it collapsed, and considered his negligence when he can no longer fix it!

This is the greatest pain of the damned: to think that they have lost their souls and are damned through their own fault. "Perditio tua, Israel, tantummodo in me auxilium tuum" (Hos. 13:9). St. Teresa says that if a person loses through his own fault a garment, a ring, even a trifle, he finds no peace, does not eat, does not sleep. O God, what a pain it will be for the damned man at the moment he enters hell, when, seeing himself already locked in that prison of torments, he will go on thinking of his misfortune, and will see that for all eternity there will never be any remedy! So he will say: I have lost my soul, paradise, and God; I have lost everything forever — and why? Through my own fault.

But someone will say: If I commit this sin, why should I be damned? Perhaps I may still be saved. I reply: But perhaps you may still be damned. Indeed, I tell you it is more likely that you will be damned, since the Scriptures threaten damnation to obstinate traitors, as you are at this moment: "Vae filii desertores, dicit Dominus" (Is. 30:1). "Vae eis, quoniam recesserunt" (Hos. 7:13). At least with this sin you commit, are you not putting your eternal salvation in great danger and doubt? And is this a business to put at risk? It is not a question of a house, a villa, a position: it is a question, says St. John Chrysostom, of plunging into an eternity of torments and losing an eternal paradise: "De immortalibus suppliciis, de coelestis regni amissione res agitur." And this business that matters everything to you — do you want to risk it on a "perhaps"?

You say: Perhaps, who knows, I will not be damned; I hope that afterward God will pardon me. But in the meantime? In the meantime, you have already condemned yourself to hell. Tell me, would you throw yourself into a well saying, "perhaps, who knows, I will not die"? No. And how then can you rest your eternal salvation on so weak a hope? On a "who knows?" Oh, how many with this accursed hope have been damned! Do you not know that the hope of those obstinate in wanting to sin is not hope but deception and presumption, which moves God not to mercy but to greater indignation? If now you say you cannot resist the temptation and the passion that dominates you, how will you resist later, when your strength will not increase but fail from committing sin? For on one hand the soul will then be more blinded and hardened by its own malice, and on the other hand divine helps will diminish. Do you perhaps hope that God will increase His lights and graces to you after you have increased your sins?

Affections and Prayers

Ah, my Jesus, always remind me of the death You suffered for me, and give me confidence. I tremble that at my death the devil may drive me to despair at the sight of so many betrayals I have committed against You. How many promises I made You never to offend You again, in the light You gave me, and then I returned to turning my back on You, hoping for pardon! So because You did not punish me, I injured You all the more? Because You showed me more mercy, I committed more outrages? My Redeemer, give me great sorrow for my sins before I depart this life. I repent, O supreme Good, of having offended You. I promise You from this day forward to die a thousand times rather than leave You again. But meanwhile, make me hear what You said to Magdalene: "Remittuntur tibi peccata tua"; let me feel great sorrow for my sins before I arrive at death, otherwise I fear that my death will be troubled and unhappy. "Non sis tu mihi formidini, spes mea, in die afflictionis" (Jer. 17:17). In that last moment, O my crucified Jesus, do not be a terror to me. If I die then without having wept for my sins and without having loved You, then Your wounds and Your blood will give me terror rather than confidence. I ask You then not for consolations and earthly goods in this remaining life; I ask You for sorrow and love. Hear me, my dear Savior, for the love that made You sacrifice Your life for me on Calvary.

Mary, my Mother, obtain for me these graces together with holy perseverance until death.