The Folly of Neglecting Salvation

What doth it profit a man, saith our Lord, if he gain the world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? How many rich men, how many nobles, how many monarchs, are now in hell! What now remains to them of their riches and honors but remorse and rage, which prev upon their souls, and will continue to prey upon them for all eternity?

O my God ! enlighten me and assist me. I hope nevermore to he deprived of Thy grace. Have pity on a sinner who desires to love Thee.

How comes it, writes Salvian, that men believe in death, judgment, hell, and eternity, and yet live without fearing them? Hell is believed, and yet how many go down thither! But, 0 God ! while these truths are believed, they are not dwelt upon, and hence are so many souls lost.

Alas! I also have been of the number of those who have been guilty of such folly. Although I knew that by offending Thee I was forfeiting Thy friendship, and writing my own condemnation; yet I was not restrained from committing sin! "Cast me not away from Thy face." I am sensible of the evil I have done in despising Thee, my God, and am grieved for it with my whole soul. Oh, "cast me not away from Thy face."

And then? and then? Oh, what force had these two words with F. P. Francis Zazzera when repeated to him by St. Philip Neri, in order to induce him to renounce the world and give himself wholly to God!* Oh that they would be wise, and would understand, and would provide for their latter end. (Deuteronomy 32:29) Oh! if all persons would but think of death, in which everything must be relinquished; of judgment, in which an account must be given of our whole lives ; of a happy or miserable eternity, which must be the lot of each one : if all did but provide for these last things of their lives, no one would be lost. The present only is thought of, and hence is eternal salvation lost.

I give Thee thanks, O God, for the patience with which Thou hast hitherto borne with me, and for the light which Thou now bestowest upon me. I see that although I forgot Thee, Thou didst not forget me. I am sorry, my sovereign good, for having turned my back upon Thee, and I am now resolved to give myself entirely to Thee. And why should I delay ? That Thou mayest abandon me, and that death may find me as miserable and ungrateful as I have been even until now? No, my God, I will no more offend Thee, but will love Thee. I love Thee, O infinite goodness! Give me perseverance and Thy holy love; I ask for nothing more. Mary, refuge of sinners, intercede for me.

* The circumstance to which St. Alphonsus here refers is thus related by him in his sermon for Septuagesima Sunday: "St. Philip Neri, speaking, one day, to a young man named Francis Zazzera, who expected to make his fortune in the world by his talents, said : 'Be of good heart, my son; you may make a great fortune, you may become an eminent lawyer, you may then be made a prelate, then perhaps a cardinal, and then, who knows, perhaps even Pope. And then? and then?' Go,' continued the Saint, 'and reflect upon these two words.' The young man went his way, and after having meditated on the two words and then? and then? abandoned all his worldly prospects, and gave himself entirely to God. Leaving the world, he entered into the same congregation that St. Philip had founded, and then he died in the odor of sanctity."