"That day is a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and obscurity" (Soph. i. 15). Consider the day of judgment from the point of view of the sinner, a point which may perhaps be yours. The first horror will be the sinner's sight of himself. He will perceive the hideous deformity which sin has wrought in his soul; he will see himself to be a blot upon creation, and out of harmony with the supreme order of things; he will see that he has no place and no utility in the supernatural sphere in which God and the faithful live. Sin will then appear as it really is, not as a pleasant indulgence, or as an amiable weakness, or as matter for amusement, or as obedience to a pretended law of nature; but as a foulness, a folly, a fatal disappointment, an outrage on God, and the sinner's own destruction. They had expected, or pretended to expect, impunity; they had enjoyed it for a while and would not believe the warnings of God. But it will be said to them: "These things thou hast done, and I was silent. Thou didst think unjustly that I should be like to thee; but I will reprove thee and set it before thy face" (Ps. xlix. 21). The sinner will loathe himself for his sins, and will hate the Most Holy and His saints because of the contrast of their purity and glory with his own condition. There is much in you that is horrible. Ask God to help you to see it, so that you may purify yourself in time by penance and love.
