In Principio

‘Of the third reproof which is made on the Day of Judgment…’ ~ 'The Dialogue' of Saint Catherine of Siena; 1907; A TREATISE OF DISCRETION; pp. 107-109

[Saint Catherine of Siena /Caterina di Benincasa/; XIV-XV Century AD; Siena, Republic of Siena/Rome, Papal States; aged 33; Spiritual Writer; Mystic; Virgin; Doctor of the Church]

Of the third reproof which is made on the Day of Judgment.

" Now it remains to tell of the third reproof which is on the Last Day of Judgment. Already I have told thee of two, and now, so that thou mayest see how greatly man deceives himself, I will tell thee of the third—of the General Judgment, when the pain of the miserable soul is renewed and increased by the union that the soul will make with the body, with an intolerable reproof, which will generate in it confusion and shame. Know that, in the Last Day of Judgment, when will come the Word—My Son, with My Divine Majesty to reprove the world with Divine Power, He will not come like a poor one, as when He was born, coming in the womb of the Virgin, and being born in a stable amongst the animals, and then dying between two thieves. Then I concealed My power in Him, letting Him suffer pain and torment like man, not that My divine nature was therefore separated from human nature, but II let Him suffer like man to satisfy for your guilt. He will not come thus in that last moment, but He will come, with power, to reprove in His Own Person, and will render to every one his due, and there will be no one in that Day who will not tremble. To the miserable ones who are damned, His aspect will cause such torment and terror that the tongue cannot describe it. To the just it will cause the fear of reverence with great joy ; not that His face changes, because He is unchangeable, being one thing with Me according to the divine nature, and, according to the human nature, His face was unchangeable, after it took the glory of the Resurrection. But, to the eye of the damned, it will appear such, on account of their terrible and darkened vision, that, as the sun which is so bright, appears all darkness to the infirm eye, but to the healthy eye light (and it is not the defect of the light that makes it appear other to the blind than to the illuminated one, but the defect of the eye which is infirm), so will the condemned ones see His countenance in darkness, in confusion, and in hatred, not through defect of My Divine Majesty, with which He will come to judge the world, but through their own defect."

How the damned cannot desire any good.

" And their hatred is so great that they cannot will or desire any good, but they continually blaspheme Me. And dost thou know why they cannot desire good ? Because the life of man ended, free-will is bound. Wherefore they cannot merit, having lost, as they have, the time to do so. If they finish their life, dying in hatred with the guilt of mortal sin, their souls, by divine justice, remain for ever bound J with the bonds of hatred, and for ever obstinate in that evil, in which, therefore, being gnawed by themselves, their pains always increase, especially the pains of those who have been the cause of damnation to others, as that rich man, who was damned, demonstrated to you when he begged the favour that Lazarus might go to his brothers, who were in the world, to tell them of his pains.

This, certainly, he did not do out of love or compassion for his brothers, for he was deprived of love and could not desire good, either for My honour or their salvation, because, as I have already told thee, the damned souls cannot do any good to their neighbour, and they blaspheme Me, because their life ended in hatred of Me and of virtue. But why then did he do it ? He did it because he was the eldest, and had nourished them up in the same miseries in which he had lived, so that he was the cause of their damnation, and he saw pain increased to himself, on account of their damnation when they should arrive in torment together with him, to be gnawed for ever by hatred, because in hatred they finished their lives."

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In Principio shares this

"He will come, with power, to reprove in His Own Person, and will render to every one his due, and there will be no one in that Day who will not tremble. To the miserable ones who are damned, His aspect will cause such torment and terror that the tongue cannot describe it. To the just it will cause the fear of reverence with great joy ; not that His face changes, because He is unchangeable, being one thing with Me according to the divine nature, and, according to the human nature, His face was unchangeable, after it took the glory of the Resurrection. But, to the eye of the damned, it will appear such, on account of their terrible and darkened vision, that, as the sun which is so bright, appears all darkness to the infirm eye, but to the healthy eye light (and it is not the defect of the light that makes it appear other to the blind than to the illuminated one, but the defect of the eye which is infirm), so will the condemned ones see His countenance in darkness, in confusion, and in hatred, not through defect of My Divine Majesty, with which He will come to judge the world, but through their own defect."

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In Principio

"And their hatred is so great that they cannot will or desire any good, but they continually blaspheme Me. And dost thou know why they cannot desire good ? Because the life of man ended, free-will is bound. Wherefore they cannot merit, having lost, as they have, the time to do so. If they finish their life, dying in hatred with the guilt of mortal sin, their souls, by divine justice, remain for ever bound J with the bonds of hatred, and for ever obstinate in that evil, in which, therefore, being gnawed by themselves, their pains always increase, especially the pains of those who have been the cause of damnation to others, as that rich man, who was damned, demonstrated to you when he begged the favour that Lazarus might go to his brothers, who were in the world, to tell them of his pains."

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