THE SUPREME CONSEQUENCE OF ECSTATIC LOVE[1] - THE DEATH OF LOVERS. FIRST THOSE WHO DIE IN LOVE
Love is strong as death (Song 8:6). Death separates the soul of a dying person from the body and from all things of the world. Sacred love separates the soul of the lover from the body and from all things of the world. There is only one difference between the two: In death separation [from the body] is a consequence of it while love does it only through the intensity of affection. I say “usually" Theotimus, because sometimes charity is so intense that as a consequence it causes the separation of body and soul. Thus love makes the lover die a very happy death which is better than a hundred lives.
Just as it is natural for the damned to die in sin, it is also fitting for the elect to die in the love and grace of God. However, it happens always in different ways. The just never dies unprepared. For the just to be prepared for death is to have persevered in Christian justice to the end. But in fact the just sometimes dies a sudden, unexpected death. So the all wise church does not make us pray in her litanies simply to be delivered from sudden death but from sudden and unprovided death. For death to be sudden is not bad unless it is also unprepared. If weak and ordinary people had seen a thunder from the sky strike dead the great St. Simeon Stylites, would they have not thought scandalous thoughts? We should never think of it in any other way than this: This great Saint was perfectly immolated to God in his heart. He was already consumed by love. Fire came from heaven to perfect the holocaust and to consume it completely (1Kings 18:38). For Fr. Julian a day’s journey away, saw the soul of Simeon going up to heaven and offered incense at the same hour in thanksgiving to God. A good saintly man of cremona,[2] known as Homobonus, one day while hearing mass on both knees in intense devotion, did not get up as usual for the gospel. Because of it those who were near him looked at him and saw that he had passed away.
In our own days, there were very great persons, virtuous and learned who were found dead, some in the confessional, others while listening to a homily. We have seen also some falling dead on leaving the pulpit after preaching with great fervour. These are quite sudden deaths but not unprepared. How many people do we see die of apoplexy, in a coma and a thousand kinds of very sudden deaths. Others die in delirium and madness without the use of reason. All these with baptized children have died in the grace of God and consequently in the love of God.
How could they die in the love of God since they were not even thinking of God at the time of their death? The learned persons, Theotimus, do not lose their knowledge during sleep. Otherwise they would be ignorant when they wake up. They would have to go to school. It is just the same as regards all the habits of [the virtues of] prudence, temperance, faith, hope and charity. They are always within the soul of the just even though they are not always making acts of the same. In a person who sleeps it seems that all the habits are sleeping with him. They awake also with him. Thus a person dying suddenly crushed under a collapsing house or struck by a lightning or suffocated by bronchial catarrh or dying out of his sense due to the violence of some burning fever, certainly does not die in the act of loving God. However, he dies in the habitual state of charity. Hence the wise man says: But the righteous, though they die early, will be at rest (Wis 4:7). To die in the state and habit of love and charity is sufficient to obtain eternal life.
However many saints have died not only in habitual charity and with heavenly love but also in the activity and practice of it. St. Augustine died making acts of contrition which is not without charity. St. Jerome passed away advising his dear spiritual children to love God, neighbour and virtues. St. Ambrose died in ecstasy chatting with his Saviour, soon after receiving the most holy Sacrament of the altar. St. Antony of Padua died after reciting a hymn to the glorious Virgin Mother and speaking to the Saviour with great Joy. St. Thomas Aquinas joined his hands, raised his eyes to heaven, raised his voice aloud and pronounced ecstatically with great fervour these words of the Song of Songs which were the last he had explained: Come, O, my dearly Beloved, let us go together into the fields (Song 7:12) and died. All the apostles and almost all the martyrs died praying to God. The blessed and venerable Bede knew by revelation the time of his death. He went to vespers. It was the day of Ascension. “He stood straight resting his elbows on the stall, without any illness, breathed his last at the same instant he finished chanting the vespers."[3] It was as if to follow justly his Master ascending to heaven in order to enjoy there the beautiful morning of eternity which knows no evening.
John Jerson, Chancellor of the university of Paris was so learned and devout that as Sixtus of Siena said: “We can hardly make out whether he surpassed his learning by his devotion or his devotion by learning." Three days after expounding 50 qualities of divine love expressed in the Song of Songs, he expired suddenly, pronouncing and repeating many times, like an ejaculatory prayer, words drawn from the Song of Songs: O God, your love is strong as death (Song 8:6). St. Martin, as all know, died very attentive to the practice of devotion so that there is nothing more to say. St. Louis, this great king among the saints and great saint among kings, was attacked by plague. He never ceased to pray. After receiving Viaticum, extending his arms in the form of a cross, his eyes fixed on heaven died, fervently praying these words of perfect loving confidence: Well, Lord, I will enter into your house, I will adore you in your holy temple and bless your name (Ps 5:7; 138:2).[4] St. Peter Celestine, overwhelmed by cruel and indescribable sufferings, reaching the end of his days, began to sing like a sacred swan the last of the Psalms. He ended his singing and his life in these loving words: Let everything that breathes praise the Lord (Ps 150:6).[5] The wonderful St. Eusebius, surnamed the Foreigner, died on his knees in fervent prayer. St. Peter the Martyr wrote with his finger in his own blood the profession of faith for which he was dying. He died saying these words: Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit (Ps 31:5; Lk 23:46).[6] The great apostle of Japan, Francis Xavier, passed away holding and kissing the crucifix and repeating each time the aspiration: O Jesus, the God of my heart (Ps 73:26).[7]
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[1] Here ecstatic love stands for highest forms of gratifying love.
[2] Known as Homobonus literally good man; he died on November 13, 1197 (See Kerns, TLG, P. 295).
[3] This account of Bede's death is incorrect. The source of SFS is a book written by Marulus, a Dalmatian priest. Bede died in a piece of sacking at the entrance of his cell, after several months of sickness. See Kerns TLG, P. 297, Pleiade, P 1747, Ref to P. 692, no.3.
[4] The Ps no. is from NRSV. In the original Ps 5:8;137:2.
[5] NRSV. In the original Ps 150:5.
[6] NRSV. In the original Ps 30:6.
[7] NRSV. In the original Ps 72:26.