Man’s Natural Fear of Death: Mission Sermon

Grey River Argus, 13 November 1948, Page 2

Man’s Natural Fear of Death: Mission Sermon

“No, it’s not. death itself but the dread of something after death which makes us fear it, and we all fear death for Judgment awaits us all,” said the Very Rev. Father E. Dwyer, C'.SS.R., preaching at the Redemptorist Mission at St. Patrick’s Church last evening. “It awaits the sinner and the saint, the worldly and the cloistered religious, the ready as well as those unprepared, it awaits us all,” he added. Death, said Father Dwyer was something from which man naturally shrunk, for it was only human to dread the moment when one’s eyes would close on one world and open on another. A sudden darkness came upon men, momentarily, giving place to a sudden glaring in upon them of what was to be their lot for eternity. It was not the separation from this world that gave death its dark and forbidding aspect, nor the physical pains which might accompany death. It was that the moment of death was identical with another moment when a; Judgment took place, sentence was given irrevocably, and executed there and then on the instant. This Judgment was not a. rushed superficial thing, but a detailed and exhaustive presentment of each individual case to the dead- by God, followed by a full admission on the part of conscience of every good and evil item in our lives. This was followed by a final and unprejudiced verdict, and this in turn, by the immediate and irrevocable execution of the sentence of either eternal life or eternal death. It would be unnatural not to fear such a moment. Judgment took place instantly on death, when men would find themselves confronted with a Judge Who knew everything about them, and need not go outside Himself for information. There was no room in His Tribunal for ignorance or deceit. He knew all and could not be deceived. There was no need of witnesses. “I nm the Judge and the W’tness, saith the Lord,” Scripture told them. What a searching oi the heart, what a digging forth of .its innermost secrets, what a laying bare of what the world never saw, said the Missioner. “Happily the trial for us has not yet begun, and the writing of the sentence is in our own hands,” concluded Father Dwyer. “The Eternal Judge is still our Merciful Saviour. Let us then, lose no time in securing for ourselves a favourable verdict.” St. Patrick’s Mission will enter its second week to-morrow, the same hours being observed as last week. The following week 'will see ithe commencement of shorter missions in various other parts ol St. Patrick’s Parish, particulars of which will be advertised.