Saint Francis de Sales calls the bed of sickness an altar of sacrifice. In his Consoling Thoughts on Sickness and Death, this beloved Doctor of the Church guides the soul to glorify God in their most bitter trials. This excerpt compiles his invaluable counsel on spiritual advancement for the sick and suffering.
Spiritual Advancement In Sickness
You say you can scarcely fix your mind on the fatigues which Our Lord endured for you, so long as your sorrows press upon you. Very well! It is not necessary that you should do so, but only that, as frequently as you can, you should lift up your heart to our Saviour, making some acts like the following:
1. Accepting this sorrow from His hand, as if you saw Him actually laying it upon your head.
2. Offering yourself to suffer still more.
3. Conjuring Him, by the merit of His torments, to accept these little inconveniences which you endure in union with the pains which He suffered on the cross.
4. Declaring that you wish not only to suffer, but to love and caress these evils, being sent from so good and so kind a father.
5. Invoking the martyrs and the many holy men and women who now enjoy Heaven for having been afflicted on earth.
Good courage, I beg of you. You have only suffered the hardship of the way for three years, and you would wish for repose; but remember two things: one, the children of Israel were forty years in the desert before arriving in the land of rest, which had been promised to them, though six weeks would have sufficed for the journey at their ease, and it was not lawful for them to inquire why God obliged them to make so many windings, and to pass through such rough trials, while all those who murmured died on the way; the other, Moses, the greatest friend of God in the whole multitude, died on the frontiers of the promised land, seeing it with his eyes, and being unable to enjoy it.
May God help us to regard little the nature of the way that we tread, but to keep our eyes fixed on Him who leads us, and on the blessed country to which He leads us! What matter, whether we pass through deserts or through fields, provided God is with us, and we go to Heaven.
The Dangers Of Fearing Death
Nature has impressed on all men a horror of death; the Saviour Himself, espousing our flesh and becoming like to His brethren, sin excepted, would not exempt Himself from this infirmity, although He knew that this passage would set Him free from human miseries, and transfer Him to a glory which He possessed already, as far as His soul was concerned.
Against the fears that spring from the apprehension of the divine judgments, we have the buckler of a blessed hope, which makes us cast all our confidence, not on our own virtue, but on the mercy of God alone, assuring us that those who trust in His goodness shall never be confounded in their expectations.
I have committed many faults, it is true; but where is the foolish person who would think it in his power to commit more than God could forgive? And who will dare to measure, by the greatness of his crimes, the immensity of that infinite mercy which casts them all into the depths of the sea of oblivion, when we repent of them with love? It belongs only to madmen, like Cain, to say that their sin is too great to be forgiven.
It is true, indeed, that at the sight of our past sins, we ought always to be in fear and in sorrow; but we should not remain thus, we should pass beyond this resting place, and call faith, hope, and charity to our assistance; then our most bitter sorrow will be changed into peace.
Remedies Against Fear Of Death
Service Of God
The first is perseverance in the service of God. I assure you that if you persevere in the exercise of devotion, as I perceive you do, you will find yourself greatly relieved from this torment; for your soul, keeping itself exempt from evil affections, and uniting itself more and more to God, will find itself less attached to this mortal life, and to all vain complacency in it.
Meditation On Divine Mercy
The second remedy is the frequent remembrance of the great sweetness and mercy with which God, our Saviour, receives souls on their departure, when they have confided themselves to Him during life, and endeavored to serve and love Him, everyone according to his vocation.
Love Of Paradise
The third is love of Paradise; for, in proportion as we esteem and love eternal felicity, we shall have less regret in quitting this mortal life.
Intimacy With The Faith
The fourth is a certain intimacy with the blessed, often invoking and addressing them with words of praise and affection; for, having thus a familiar intercourse with the citizens of the celestial Jerusalem, it will grieve us less to part with those of the terrestrial. These, and the like considerations, carefully meditated on for some time, will greatly diminish an excessive dread of the divine judgments, and lead us to hope confidently that, being children of a Father so rich in goodness as to love us, and to wish to save us, so enlightened as to know the means suitable to this end, so wise as to arrange them, so powerful as to see them carried into effect, He will not wish to condemn us, so long as we do that which we are able in His divine service.
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This article is taken from a chapter in Consoling Thoughts on Sickness and Death by Saint Francis de Sales which is available from TAN Books.
