Do not invite death by the error of your life, or bring on destruction by the works of your hands; because God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. For he created all things so that they might exist; the generative forces of the world are wholesome, and there is no destructive poison in them, and the dominion of Hades is not on earth. For righteousness is immortal.
But the ungodly by their words and deeds summoned death;* considering him a friend, they pined away and made a covenant with him, because they are fit to belong to his company.
For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, ‘Short and sorrowful is our life, and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end, and no one has been known to return from Hades.
For we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been,
for the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts;
when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,
and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.
Our name will be forgotten in time,
and no one will remember our works;
our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,
and be scattered like mist
that is chased by the rays of the sun
and overcome by its heat.
For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,
and there is no return from our death,
because it is sealed up and no one turns back.
FromThe Conferencesby St. John Cassian
God’s purpose, according to which he did not make man to perish but to live forever, abides unchanging. When his kindness sees shining in us the slightest glimmer of good will, which he himself has in fact sparked from the hard flint of our heart, he fosters it, stirs it up, and strengthens it with his inspiration,desiring all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For, he says,it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.And again he says:God does not wish a soul to perish, but he withdraws and reflects, lest one who has been cast down perish utterly.
Therefore the grace of Christ is at hand every day. It calls out and says to everyone without exception:Come to me, all you who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest, because he desiresall to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But if he does not call all universally but only a few, it follows that not all are burdened by original sin and by present sin and that these words are not true:All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Nor would it be believed thatdeath has passed through allmen. And so true is it that all who perish do so contrary to God’s will that God is said not to have made deathitself,as Scripture testifies:God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.
Through the prophet Hosea the divine word well expressed this concern of his for us by using the image of Jerusalem as a prostitute who is drawn with wicked ardour to the worship of idols. She says:I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.The divine condescension replies, with a view to her salvation and not to her will:Behold, I will hedge in her paths with thorns, and I will hedge her in with a wall, and she will not find her ways. And she will pursue her lovers and not lay hold of them, and she will seek them and not find them, and she will say: I will return to my first husband, because then it was better for me than it is now.
Again, the obstinacy and contempt with which we rebelliously disdain God when he urges us to return to our own salvation is described in this way:I said that you shall call me Father, he says,and that you shall not cease to come after me. But just as a woman despises her lover, so the house of Israel has despised me, says the Lord. Since he had compared Jerusalem to an adulteress abandoning her spouse, he has also quite appropriately compared his love and abiding kindness to a man who is desperately in love with a woman. For the graciousness and love of God could not be expressed by a better comparison than the example of a man who is passionately in love with a woman and who is all the more inflamed with desire for her the more he feels that he is neglected and despised by her.
The divine protection, then, is always inseparably present to us, and so great is the love of the Creator for his creature that his providence not only stands by her but even goes constantly before her. The prophet, who has experienced this, confesses it very clearly when he says:My God will go before me with his mercy.
Musical Selection
My soul, there is a country, Afar beyond the stars, Where stands a winged sentry, All skillful in the wars.
There, above noise and danger, Sweet Peace sits crowned with smiles, And One born in a manger Commands the beauteous files.
He is thy gracious Friend And (O my soul, awake!) Did in pure love descend, To die here for thy sake.
If thou canst get but thither, There grows the flower of peace, The rose that cannot wither, Thy fortress, and thy ease.
Leave, then, thy foolish ranges; For none can thee secure But One, who never changes, Thy God, thy Life, thy Cure.
Prayer
God of faithfulness,
in your wisdom you have called your servants out of this world;
release them from the bonds of sin,
and welcome them into your presence,
so that they may enjoy eternal light and peace
and be raised up in glory with all your saints.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,