Daily Bread - Day 80

Life is yours (writes Saint Paul to the Christians of Corinth), death also is yours; a great addition to be placed among the all is yours. There is a great fullness of truth in these words. Observe this at present, that to a true and earnest Christian, death brings deliverance from sin. While we are in the body, what Saint Paul writes is found the sad confession of most. The good which I will, I do not, but the evil which I will not, that I do. Or as Solomon says: There is no just man upon earth that doeth good, and sinneth not. Are not evil thoughts continually rising in our minds? Is not sin ever seeking a lodging in our hearts? indisposing us to do good, so that to accomplish that which is good, I find not. Is is not ever irritating to evil? The flesh lusteth against the spirit, so that you do not the things that you would. It was a beautiful remark of Saint Anselm, on seeing a boy letting a bird fly up, and then pulling it down again by a string: "It is so with me, when I would fly up to Heaven by meditation, I find a string tied to my legs; I am overpowered by corruption." Now death pulls off this weight of sin, and delivers the soul of the Christian into a free service of God. Are any of you ready often to say, conflicting with sin and temptation to it, who can deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord, both can and will break down its power, so that it shall no longer rule; but death will do more for you when Divine grace makes you a combatant against sin, death makes you. a conqueror over it. These are beautiful lines over one fallen asleep in Jesus.

"Brother, thou art gone before us, and thy saintly soul is flown
Where tears are wiped from every eye, and sorrow is unknown;
From the burden of the flesh, and from care and fear released,
Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."

- text taken from Daily Bread - Bring a Few Morning Meditations for the Use of Catholic Christians by Father Richard Waldo Sibthorp