p. 85Homily for the Last Sunday in the Year

The world passes away; we pass away with it. Kings, emperors, all go. We are swallowed up in eternity, from which we never return. There is only one thing to be done—to save our poor soul.

The saints were not attached to the goods of earth; they thought only of those of heaven. Worldly people, on the contrary, think of nothing but the present time.

A good Christian is like those who go into foreign countries to lay up money; they never think of remaining abroad, and they have nothing more at heart than to return to their own country, when once their fortune is made. Again, we should do like kings. When they are going to be dethroned, they send their treasures before them; and these treasures are waiting for them. So a good Christian sends all his good works to the gate of heaven.

The good God has placed us on the earth to see how we shall conduct ourselves, and whether we shall love Him; but no one remains on it. A man who had been condemned to the galleys for a hundred years came back from them, it is said. When he returned, every body had disappeared: he recognised nothing but the houses. …

If we were to reflect upon this, we should incessantly raise our eyes to heaven, our true country. But we let ourselves be carried here and there by the world, riches, and material enjoyments; and we do not give a thought to the only thing that should occupy us.

Look at the saints. How detached they were from the world and from matter! With what contempt they looked upon all these things! A religious, having lost his parents, found himself in possession of great wealth. When the news reached him, he said, “How long is it since my parents died?” “Three weeks,” they answered. “Tell me, can a person who is dead inherit property?” “Certainly not.” “Well, then, I cannot inherit from those who have been dead three weeks, since I have been dead these twenty years.” Ah! the saints understood the nothingness, the vanity of this world, and the happiness of giving up every thing for that bright hope of heaven!

There are two sorts of avarice: the avarice of heaven, and the avarice of earth. The miser of the earth does not carry his thoughts beyond time. He never has riches enough; he is always heaping up, heaping up. But when the moment of death comes, he will have nothing. I have often told you so; it is just like those who make too large a provision for winter, and when the next harvest comes, they do not know what to do with it: it only serves to embarrass them. We carry away nothing; we leave every thing.

What would you say of a person who should lay up in the house great stores of provisions that he would be obliged to throw away, because they would spoil; and who should neglect the precious stones, gold, and diamonds, which he might keep, and carry away with him, and which would make his fortune? … Well, my children, we do the same; we attach ourselves to matter, to what must come to an end; and we do not think of acquiring heaven, the only real treasure.

A good Christian, a heavenly miser, makes very little account of earthly goods; he thinks only of embellishing his soul, of laying up what will always please him, what will last for ever. Look at the kings, the emperors, the great ones of the earth: they are very rich; but are they happy? If they love the good God, they are; but if not, they are not happy. For my part, I think none are so much to be pitied as the rich when they do not love the good God.

The saints were not attached to wealth as we are; they were attached to what will make them happy for all eternity.

Go from world to world, from kingdom to kingdom, from riches to riches, from pleasure to pleasure,—you will never find happiness. The whole earth can no more satisfy an immortal soul, than a pinch of meal can satiate a famished man.

When the Apostles had seen our Lord ascend into heaven, they found the earth without Him so dreary, so vile, so contemptible, that they sought after the tortures that would the sooner snatch them away from it, and reunite them to their good Master. The mother of the Machabees, who saw her seven children die, and who died seven times, said to them, to encourage them, “Look up to heaven.” …

Our Lord rewarded the faith of the saints by showing heaven to their senses. Some of them have been in paradise. St. Stephen, while he was being stoned, saw heaven opened above his head. St. Paul was rapt into heaven, and declared that he could give no idea of what he had seen there. St. Teresa saw heaven, and, as she says, every thing on earth seemed to her ever after nothing but dirt.

But we, alas! are nothing but matter. We creep upon the ground, and know not how to raise ourselves on high: we are too clumsy, too heavy.

The earth is a bridge for us to pass over the water.

A bad Christian cannot understand this sweet hope of heaven, which consoles, which animates a good Christian. All that makes the happiness of the saints appears hard and difficult to him.

These are consoling thoughts, my children; with whom shall we be in heaven? With God, who is our Father; with Jesus Christ, who is our Brother; with the Blessed Virgin, who is our Mother; with the angels and saints, who are our friends.

A king, in his last moments, said with regret, “Must I, then, leave my kingdom, to go to a country where I know no one!” This was because he had never thought of the happiness of heaven. We must make friends there for ourselves now, that we may meet them again after death, and then we shall not be, like that king, afraid of knowing no one.