"...for the brief course of this life will soon be ended"

Finally, my beloved child, I intreat you by all that is sacred in heaven and in earth, by your own Baptism, by the breast which Jesus sucked, by the tender Heart with which He loves you, and by the bowels of compassion in which you hope—be stedfast and persevere in this most blessed undertaking to live a devout life. Our days pass away, death is at hand. “The trumpet sounds a recall,” says S. Gregory Nazianzen, “in order that every one may make ready, for Judgment is near.” When S. Symphorian was led to his martyrdom, his mother cried out to him, “My son, my son, remember life eternal, look to Heaven, behold Him Who reigns there; for the brief course of this life will soon be ended.” Even so would I say to you: Look to Heaven, and do not lose it for earth; look at Hell, and do not plunge therein for the sake of this passing life; look at Jesus Christ, and do not deny Him for the world’s sake; even if the devout life sometimes seems hard and dull, join in Saint Francis’ song,

“So vast the joys that I await,
No earthly travail seemeth great.”

Glory be to Jesus, to Whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, now and ever, and to all Eternity. Amen.

St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life (Part 5, Chapter 18)

Saint Francis of Assisi's warning to rulers

Image: Frater Franciscus, anonymous fresco, before 1228

We have from Francis one other letter written in 1220, an appeal to the very rulers to whom his friars were to preach repentance and devotion to the Eucharist. Addressed “to the podestas, consuls, and other rulers” of cities, the letter is short and stern, a reminder of death and judgement:

Reflect and see that the day of death is approaching. With all possible respect, therefore, I beg you not to forget the Lord because of the world’s cares and preoccupations and not to turn away from his commandments, for those who leave him in oblivion and turn away from his commandments are cursed and will be left in oblivion by him. When the day of death does come, everything they have will be taken from them. The wiser and more powerful they were in the world, the greater will be the punishment they will endure in Hell.

He then turned to his favorite topic in this period, the Eucharist, writing that “therefore” they should receive communion with fervor and foster honor to the Lord among those they rule. “If you do not do this, know that, on the day of judgement, you must render an account before the Lord your God, Jesus Christ.”

Augustine Thompson, Francis of Assisi: A New Biography (pp. 84-5)

America goes over the precipice of destruction

I have learned not to worry or to be overly concerned about national and political conditions, or of the encroachment of religious error, or of worldly lusts that threaten to engulf the society of today. The message of Revelation has taught me the lesson of faith in God and dependence upon the Christ, the King and Judge, to handle the situation. Our part is to pray, trust, and do the very best we can to remedy the situation; beyond that all is in His hand… I have learned that Revelation echoes and emphasizes the message of the prophets—the nation that leaves God out of its thinking, rejects Him, or fights against Him, is doomed to destruction by the judgement of Christ… This nation [America] faces a choice: [1] repent of its ungodly wickedness and recognize that God is on the throne in the person of His Son, acknowledge Him as God and Creator... that He rules in national affairs, and continue to exist as a nation; or [2] continue on the road it is traveling and go over the precipice of destruction by a judgement from heaven. In this view, I pray for a change of our national heart; but if there is no change, I pray that the faith of our brethren will sustain them in the inevitable judgement that lies ahead.

Homer Hailey, The Book of Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary (p. 437)

God pours out the bowls of wrath upon America

“And the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea; and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living soul died, even the things that were in the sea” (Revelation 16:3).

Moses wrote that “the life of the flesh is in the blood” (Lev. 17:11). Consequently, when the life is gone, decay and rottenness set in until one returns to the dust from whence he came. This is the irrevocable judgement of God from the very beginning (Gen. 3:19). Likewise, when the spiritual quality of a society decays, like a sea of coagulated blood from dead men, it putrefies and rots, issuing a foul and obnoxious odor. Eventually it returns to the unseen (Sheol, Ps. 9:17); this, too, is by the judgement of God. Consider Sodom, the Canaanites, Israel, Judah, and all the rest of ancient nations; when, due to spiritual decay, they were no longer fit to continue, God removed them. A society abandoned to idolatry and its consequent morals, as was the Roman Empire of John’s day, is spiritually dead. In such a society, morals decline to the lowest level; the family collapses, schools breed anarchy and rebellion, business ethics are forgotten, entertainment becomes base and sordid, and printing presses exude smut and filth, until the whole is strangled in its own death blood and suffocated by its own stench. Our society too must listen to the trumpet warnings before God pours out the bowls of wrath.

Homer Hailey, The Book of Revelation: An Introduction and Commentary (p. 328)