163 part i: sunday meditations for the entire year Therefore, be eager and take care that your labors may please the Lord, and your wage may not be unpleasant, but salutary for you. 2. “Because no one has hired us” (Mt 20:7). On the great Day of Judgment many among the pagans may have an excuse for their lack of faith on the grounds that they had never heard anything about Christ, the Life of the world and the Savior [f.25r] of men; or that, at least, the pagans will surely suffer lighter punishments than Christians, according to the explanation given by the soul of a pagan priest that appeared to St. Macarius.51 On the other hand, who among Christians will find an excuse for his evil deeds when his failure to observe God’s commandments, Church laws, evangelical counsels, and Christ’s teaching brings upon him the most dreadful verdict of condemnation? What you should fear most of all is falling into the hands of the Judge to whom you will be able to give no excuse for your failings, instances of negligence, evil deeds committed, and good deeds omitted. Laypeople will probably have to give an account before God the Judge only of the divine and ecclesiastical commandments. You, however, will be demanded to account for your vocation, the inspirations you received, the means for acquiring virtues that you ignored, your lack of observance of the Constitutions, your misuse of the extraordinary help granted to you by God so that you might always strive toward a higher perfection. Finally, do you not think that your attendance to the Most Holy Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist will be especially subject to a strict examination? Settlement for them, by means of their fruits, will be demanded from your soul. Where are their fruits and the fruits of today’s Communion? 51 Cf. De abbate Macario Ægyptio, Palladius — Appendix I: Apophthegmata Patrum, in: Patrologiæ cursus completus, Series Græca I-CLXI, Ed. J.-P. Migne, vol. 65, Ateliers catholiques du Petit-Montrouge, Paris 1864, p. 279 (Saying n. 38): “Narravit abbas Macarius: Iter agens … subtus nos sunt.” [Hereafter Patrologiæ cursus completus, Series Græca I-CLXI will be abbreviated as PG.]
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==