Mirror of Sinners on the Contempt of the World

And we grieve that it is thought of as an eternal end, for if there were any end, it might be a solace to us; but all the solaces and joys of the world are nothing. For it is impossible that, if there were some millstone so large that it would touch the circumference of the sky everywhere, and that some little bird of minimal size would come after one hundred thousand years and remove from the aforesaid stone only as much as the tenth part of a grain of millet, and again after one hundred thousand years, as before, the bird would take away one particle of a grain of millet, and thus by individual parts, it would not diminish the quantity of the stone by more than the size of a grain of millet. Even so, alas, we miserable ones would be very grateful and consoled if after a long and full summation of the whole stone, there were an end to our eternal damnation. But, alas, this same consolation is denied to us miserable ones by divine justice. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear and place to his heart these horrible things, amending his life here in time, while he may repent, so that he will not be flagellated in eternal torments, as he who receives the flagellations of the sons here in time. Whence Blessed Gregory says: "Prosperous success of temporal things is the most certain sign of eternal damnation." What, then, is to be done so that we may escape hell? I say that God, who, as the Apostle says, wishes all men to be saved and to come to the recognition of His name, has proposed to us two words in the Gospel, of which He said one while remaining in the flesh, and the other He will say at the extreme judgment. In which, He proposes to us good and evil, life and death, blessing and cursing. Choose, O man, one of those; you must choose one of those two; you must choose one of these two. The first is written in Matthew, chapter 3: "Do penance," and such true penance can be called the religious life virtuously conducted. The second, He will say in the strict judgment on the last day, and it is written in Matthew 25: "Go, you cursed, into eternal fire." If you accept the first, you will do penance and securely evade the second. If, however, you despise the first, without a doubt you fall into the second. Concerning these words joined together, Bernard says: "When we persuade the lovers of the world with penance, they say, as the hardened and blinded ones said: 'This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?' You err, fools! Does it seem hard to you when it is said: 'Do penance, etc.'? You will hear a harder one when you are told: 'Go, you cursed, into eternal fire,' where you will endure eternal torment." Which God avert by inspiring penance! And what if all these horrible and terrible things said above do not induce the lovers of the devil and the world to the conversion of their life and to doing penance? Nothing remains except that they attend to the immensity of the celestial joys. Concerning which the Psalm, Psalm 83, says: "For one day is better there than a thousand days in this life." Whence he says elsewhere: "For a thousand years before your eyes are as yesterday..."