Saturday, February 26, 2011

Greatly to be Feared

It has finally dawned upon me, clear as the rising sun, why people on their very deathbeds sometimes find repentance impossible.  You'd think a person staring death in the face would hasten to repent as thoroughly as he could, but some, astonishingly, don't.  "It's too late," they say, and you want to tell them no, it's never too late until your last breath; hurry up and be reconciled with God! 

But you know what?  They're right.  It is too late for them, because it's no good asking God for forgiveness when you know in your heart you lived the way you wanted to and, given the chance, would make the same choices all over again.  Such people know what they did was wrong, but they cannot feel sorry; they tell themselves, by heaven, I am still glad I did it, because look how miserable (or perhaps just how dull) my life would otherwise have been!  Look at the pleasures I would have missed.

So they die still enslaved to the god Pleasure, who now, in their hour of need, not only cannot help them, but to their bitter resentment has already abandoned them - permanently.

Kyrie, eleison!  Have mercy upon us and deliver us from such a fate.

8 comments:

Marsha said...

Wow! I often fear I will be like that. Like, sometimes there are things I should repent of, but I know I want to keep doing them, so I just confess that I don't really want to stop doing them. Kwim? God help me, a sinner.

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

Oh, yes. Unfortunately, I know exactly what you mean. God help us both - or perhaps all.

Michelle M. said...

What a terrible place to be! I pray that I can always seek repentance, honest repentance, every day without putting my own wants and desires above what the Gospel teaches us. Lord have mercy!

James the Thickheaded said...

And I hope these thoughts - good reflections - aren't being driven by recent experience (as so many are for us!), but merely randomly coming to mind maybe from a book or movie where it is a fiction rather than the life of someone who's touched you closely. The reality of these things when they are real is hard... especially when it is family.

I simply pray in these cases that the truth may differ from the spoken word, and may remain known only to God. Nice if He'd share a bit sometimes? Yes, but that might be asking a bit much.

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

James, thank you for your kind concern. No, nobody among my friends or family has passed away recently.

Steve Robinson said...

Indeed, when you see what people hang on to in this life in spite of every contrary consequence, it is conceivable that the fruit of such a life to hang on to it even facing death.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Marsha...God help me the chief among sinners!

GretchenJoanna said...

I haven't thought about this before, not ever having had direct exposure to someone unrepentant and dying. But it does sound like the attitude we stubborn and starved souls might have.