The most important moment of life is the last one. A good beginning avails nothing unless it be followed by a good ending; on the other hand a good death will remedy all the deficiencies and sins of a life-time. Judas began well and ended badly; the penitent thief ended well and retrieved the past. The last moment is the point to which all the threads of life converge, and from which the future life begins and takes its character. The myriad graces and actions of a life-time sum up all their effects in the moment before death, and the net resultant of these forces deter mines our eternal weal or woe. Everything in life becomes to us then either an assistance or a danger. How much we shall stand in need of special strength and guidance! The last moment is the most anxious and thrilling moment of life. A few minutes more, and the impenetrable secret will be unveiled to our eyes, the great problems of life will suddenly be solved, the supreme question of our destiny will be irrevocably determined. We shall be cut adrift from the whole world that we know, from all that we value, friends, possessions, occupations; we shall enter on an existence that we cannot now picture to ourselves, where there is neither time nor space, where all our present senses will cease, where God will be all in all. How important must be the sacrament which is adapted for such a crisis! Thank God for it; and pray unceasingly that you may have the happiness of receiving it at the end.
