THE HAPPINESS OF DYING IN DIVINE CHARITY IS A SPECIAL GIFT OF GOD
Finally, the king of heaven leads a human spirit he loves to the end of this life. He helps it at its happy departure. He draws it to the nuptial couch of eternal glory which is the delicious fruit of holy perseverance. Then, dear Theotimus, this soul is completely captivated by the love of its Beloved. It recalls the manifold favours and helps which has predisposed and helped it while it was on its pilgrimage. Continually it kisses that gentle helping hand which guided, drew, and uplifted it all along the way. It proclaims that it is to this Divine Saviour that it owes its happiness. This Saviour has done for it all that Jacob, the great patriarch, desired for his journey when he saw the ladder to heaven (Gen 28: 20-21). “Oh Lord", the person then says, “you were with me and guided me on the way by which I came. You gave me the bread of your sacraments for my nourishment. You clothed me with the wedding garment of charity. You have happily led me to this place of glory which is your house, O my eternal Father! Ah, what remains, Lord, except that I should affirm that you are my God for ever and ever! Amen.
O my God, my Lord, God of love eternal,
You hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterwards you will receive me with honour
(Ps 73: 24).[1]
Such is the order of our way to eternal life. For achieving it, divine providence has ordained from eternity the number, difference, and succession of graces necessary to it together with their dependence on each other.
He willed, in the first place, by a deliberate act of his will, that even after Adam’s sin all humans should be saved (1 Tim 2: 4). However, it is in a way and by means proper to their natural condition, which is endowed with free will. That is to say, he willed the salvation of all those who would give their assent to the graces and favours he would prepare for them, and offer and distribute for this purpose. Among these favours, he willed that vocation should be the first. It was to be so tempered to our liberty that we could accept or reject it as we pleased. To those whom he foresaw would accept it, he willed to offer holy inspirations to penance. To those who would cooperate with these impulses, he planned to grant charity. And those who had charity he resolved to provide with the necessary help to perseverance. To those who would make use of these divine helps, he decided to bestow final perseverance and the glory and happiness of his eternal love.
We can trace a sequence in the dispositions of divine providence where our salvation is concerned. We descend from the first to the last. That is from the fruit, which is glory, to the root of this beautiful tree, which is the redemption achieved by our Saviour. For God in his goodness gives glory in succession to merit, merit in succession to charity, charity in succession to penance, penance in succession to obedience, obedience in succession to vocation, vocation in succession to our Saviour’s redemption. On this rests all this mystical ladder of Jacob. Its end is in heaven, since it rests on the loving bosom of the eternal Father, in which he receives and glorifies the elect. The end standing on the earth, is in the bosom and the pierced side of our Saviour, who for this cause died on Mount Calvary.
This order of the effects of providence was ordained with the dependence which they have on one another in God’s eternal will. To this Holy Church bears witness in the introduction to one of the solemn prayers in these words: “Almighty and eternal God, you are Lord of the living and the dead, and are merciful to all those whom you have foreseen will be yours by faith and good works."[2] The Church acknowledges that glory, which is the crown and fruit of God’s mercy towards all people, is destined only for those who, as divine wisdom has foreseen, will obtain it in the future by obedience to their vocation attained by the living faith that works through charity (Gal 5:6).
To sum up, all these effects depend absolutely on the redemption of our Saviour. He has merited them for us in strict justice by that loving obedience which he practised until death and death on the cross ( Phil 2:8). It is the root from which we receive all graces. We are spiritually grafted on to his stock. If we are engrafted we remain in him. Undoubtedly, by the life of grace that he communicates to us, we shall bear the fruit of glory prepared for us. But if we are broken and thrown away from this tree, it means that by our resistance we break the progress and succession of the effects of his loving kindness. No wonder that at the end we are completely cut off and thrown into everlasting fire as useless branches (Jn 15: 5, 6).
Certainly God has made heaven only for those whom he foresaw as his own. So let us be his by faith and by works, Theotimus. He will then be ours in glory. Now he is among us to be his. Though it is a gift of God to be his, yet it is a gift which God refuses no one. He offers it to all those who freely consent to receive it.
But see, Theotimus, I pray, how ardently God desires we should be his. For this purpose he has made himself entirely ours. He has bestowed on us his death and his life. He gave his life in order that we might be freed from eternal death, and his death so that we might enjoy eternal life. Let us therefore remain in peace and serve God in order to be his in this mortal life and still more so in the life to come.
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[1] The last two lines are from NRSV.
[2] 3rd prayer on Sundays of Lent (AE vol.4, p. 186).