Sudden death...

This Sunday we will hear the gospel of the 5 wise and 5 foolish virgins. It seems appropriate as the Church ends its year that we meditate on our own death-especially as we remember in November, first those who have received their reward in Heaven when we celebrate All Saints Day, and those for whom we especially pray for as they are still waiting in the cleansing of Purgatory.

I was browsing again through the writings of my favorite lay saint, Thomas More. Here is a humorous story he recounts in his "Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation" which warns us of the folly of being unprepared for the Bridegroom:

"They tell of one that was wont always to say, that all the while he lived he would do what he list (wished), for three words, when he died, should make all safe enough. But then so happed it, that long ere he were old, his horse once stumbled upon a broken bridge, and as he laboured to recover him, when he saw it would not be, but down into the flood headlong needs he should; in a sudden flight he cried out in the falling, “Have all to the devil!” (or “Well, I’ll be damned!”) And there he was drowned with his three words ere he died, whereon his hope hung all his wretched life. And, therefore, let no man sin in hope of grace: for grace cometh but at God’s will… "

The version of "Dialogue" I quote from was published around 1909 and is very faithful to a version of the orginal work published in 1573. Of course Scepter Publishers has a modern translation of a "Dialogue" in which this story retains all its charm.