Dangers to Eternal Salvation
“And when he entered into the boat, his disciples followed him; and, behold, a great tempest arose in the sea.”—Matthew 8:23–24
On the greatness of the dangers to which our eternal salvation is exposed, and on the manner in which we ought to guard against them
1. In this day’s Gospel we read that, when Jesus Christ had entered the boat with his disciples, a great tempest arose, so that the boat was tossed by the waves and was on the point of being lost. During this storm the Savior was asleep; but the disciples, terrified, ran to wake him, saying: “Lord, save us: we perish” (Matt. 8:25). Jesus gave them courage, saying: “Why are ye fearful, ye of little faith? Then rising up, he commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm.” Let us consider what is meant by the boat in the midst of the sea, and by the tempest that tossed it.
2. The boat upon the sea represents man in this world. As a vessel at sea is exposed to a thousand dangers—to pirates, to quicksands, to hidden rocks, and to tempests—so man in this life is surrounded by dangers: by the temptations of Hell, by the occasions of sin, by the scandals and bad counsels of men, by human respect, and, above all, by the disordered passions of our corrupt nature, represented by the winds that stir up the tempest and put the vessel in great danger of being lost.
3. And so, as St. Leo says, our life is full of dangers, of snares, and of enemies: Plena omnia periculis, plena laqueis: incitant cupiditates, insidiantur illecebrae; blandiuntur lucra—“All things are full of dangers, full of snares: desires incite us, enticements lie in wait for us, gains flatter us” (St. Leo, Sermon v on Lent). The first enemy that every Christian has is his own corruption: “But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured” (Jas. 1:14). And besides the corrupt appetites that live within us and drag us to evil, we have many enemies from without who fight against us.
We have the devils, with whom the war is very great, because they are stronger than we are. Bellum grave—“A grave war,” writes Cassiodorus, quia cum fortiore—“for it is against a stronger one” (Ps. 5). Hence, since we have to contend with enemies so powerful, St. Paul exhorts us to arm ourselves with the divine aid: “Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the Devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:11–12). The Devil, St. Peter adds, is a lion who is forever going about, roaring through the rage and hunger that drive him to devour our souls: “Your adversary, the Devil, like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). St. Cyprian writes that the enemy is always prowling about each of us, to make us his slaves: Circuit demon nos singulos, et tanquam hostis clausos obsidens muros explorat et tentat num sit pars aliqua minus stabilis, cujus aditu ad interiora penetretur—“The demon goes around each one of us, and like an enemy besieging closed walls, explores and tests whether there is any part less firm, through whose opening he may penetrate to the interior” (St. Cyprian, On Jealousy and Envy).
4. The men with whom we must deal endanger our salvation as well. They persecute us, or betray us, or deceive us with their flattery and bad counsels. St. Augustine says that among the faithful, in every profession, there are hollow and deceitful men: Omnis professio in ecclesia habet fictos—“Every profession in the church has its false ones” (Ps. 99). Now if a fortress were full of rebels within and surrounded by enemies without, who would not mourn it as already lost? Such is the condition of each of us as long as we live in this world. Who can deliver us from so many and such powerful enemies? God alone: “Unless the Lord keep the city, he watcheth in vain that keepeth it” (Ps. 126:2).
5. What, then, is the means by which we can save our souls in the midst of so many dangers? It is the one those holy disciples found: to have recourse to our Master and say to him, “Save us; we perish.” Save us, Lord; if you do not, we are lost. When the tempest is great, the pilot never takes his eyes from the star that guides him to port. In the same way we should keep our eyes always turned to God, who alone can deliver us from the many dangers to which we are exposed. So David did when he found himself assailed by the dangers of sin: “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me” (Ps. 121:1).
To teach us to commend ourselves continually to him who alone can save us by his grace, the Lord has ordained that, as long as we remain on this earth, we should live in a continual tempest and be surrounded by enemies. The temptations of the Devil, the persecutions of men, and all the adversities we suffer in this world are not evils for us; on the contrary, they are good, if we know how to use them as God wishes, who sends or permits them for our welfare. They detach our affections from the goods of this earth and make us loathe this world, by letting us taste bitterness and thorns even in its honors, its riches, its delights, and its amusements. The Lord does all this so that we may withdraw our affections from fading goods, in which we meet so many dangers of perdition, and may seek to unite ourselves with God, who alone can make us content.
6. Our error and delusion is this: when we find ourselves harassed by infirmities, by poverty, by persecutions, and by like tribulations, instead of having recourse to God, we turn to men and place our confidence in their help; and by doing so we draw down upon ourselves the malediction of God, who says, “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man” (Jer. 17:5). The Lord does not forbid us, in our afflictions and dangers, to have recourse to human means; but he curses those who place their whole confidence in them. He wishes us to have recourse to himself before all others, and to place our hope in him alone, that in him we may also place all our love.
7. As long as we live on this earth, we must, according to St. Paul, work out our salvation with fear and trembling, in the midst of the many dangers that beset us: Cum metu et tremore vestram salutem operamini—“With fear and trembling work out your salvation” (Phil. 2:12). Once, when a certain vessel was in the open sea, so great a tempest arose that the captain trembled. At that very time, in the hold of the vessel, there was an animal eating as quietly as though the sea were perfectly calm. When the captain was asked why he was so afraid on that occasion, he replied: If I had a soul like the soul of that brute, I too would be at peace and without fear; but because I have a soul that is rational and immortal, I fear death, after which I must appear before the judgment of God, and therefore I am so afraid.
Let us also tremble, my beloved brethren. Our soul is at stake; eternity is at stake. He who does not tremble, as St. Paul says, is in great danger of being lost; for he who does not tremble commends himself but little to God, and attends but little to the means of salvation, and so is easily lost. Let us be watchful, St. Cyprian warns us: we are still in the battle, and still we fight for eternal salvation. Adhuc in acie constituti de vita nostra dimicamus—“Still drawn up in the battle line, we fight for our life” (St. Cyprian, Bk. 1, ch. i).
8. The first means of salvation, then, is to commend ourselves continually to God, that he may keep his hands over us and preserve us from offending him. The next is to cleanse the soul of all past sins by making a general confession. A general confession is a powerful remedy for working a true change of life. When the tempest is great, the crew labor to lighten the vessel, and each person on board throws his goods into the sea to save his life. Oh, the folly of sinners, who, living in this world amid such great dangers of being damned for eternity, instead of lightening the vessel—that is, instead of unburdening the soul of her sins—load her with a greater weight! Instead of fleeing the dangers of sin, they are not afraid to go on putting themselves voluntarily into dangerous occasions; and instead of having recourse to God’s mercy for the pardon of their offenses, they offend him still more and force him to abandon them.
9. Another means is to labor with all care not to let ourselves be ruled by disordered passions: “Give me not over to a shameless and foolish mind” (Ecclus. 23:6). Do not, Lord, prayed the sacred writer, deliver me up to a soul blinded by some passion. He who is blind no longer sees what he is doing, and so is capable of every crime. Thus many are lost by letting themselves be ruled by their passions. Some let themselves be ruled by the passion for riches. A certain person, now passed into the other world, used to say: Alas, I see that the love of money is beginning to rule over me! So said the unhappy man; but he applied no remedy. He did not resist the passion at the outset; rather, he fostered it until death, and so, dying, left but little hope of his salvation.
Others let themselves be ruled by the passion for sensual pleasures; and because they are not content with pleasures that are merely lawful, they pass on to indulge in those that are forbidden. Others let themselves be ruled by the passion of anger; and because they do not attend to quenching the fire at the outset, while it is small, the fire then advances and grows into a spirit of revenge.
10. Hi hostes cavendi, says St. Ambrose, hi graviores tyranni. Multi in persecutione publica coronati, occulta hac persecutione ceciderunt—“These are the enemies to be guarded against; these are the more grievous tyrants. Many who were crowned in public persecution have fallen in this hidden persecution” (In Psalm 118, serm. 20). Disorderly affections, if they are not beaten down at the outset, become our most terrible tyrants. Many, says St. Ambrose, after having overcome the persecutions of the enemies of the faith, were afterward miserably lost because they did not resist some earthly passion at its first assault.
A wretched example of this was poor Origen, who, after an exemplary life and after fighting for the faith, ready to give his life in its defense, was afterward led by a passion of human respect to deny it (Natalis Alexander, Ecclesiastical History, tom. 7, dis. xv, q. 2, a. 1). A still more wretched example was Solomon, who, after being filled by God with so many gifts—even to becoming the very pen of the Holy Ghost—was afterward led, by letting himself be ruled by his love for certain pagan women, to the misery of offering incense to idols. Those wretched men who let themselves be ruled by their wicked passions are figured by the oxen that, after toiling all their lives, go at last to the slaughter; so it is with worldlings, who toil and struggle all their lives, groaning under the weight of their sins, and at the end go to their ruin in Hell.
11. Let us conclude. When the winds are too strong and violent, the pilot lowers the sails and casts the anchor into the sea. So we, when we find ourselves beset by some evil passion, should first of all lower the sails—that is, flee all the occasions that may increase it—and then lay hold of the anchor, which is our God, begging him to give us strength to resist, that we may not offend him.
12. But someone will say: What am I to do, living in the midst of the world, where these passions assail me continually against my will? To him Origen answers: Donec quis in tenebris saecularibus manet et in negotiorum obscuritate versatur, non potest servire Domino. Exeundum est ergo de Egypto, relinquendus est mundus, non loco sed animo—“As long as anyone remains in the darkness of the world and is taken up with the obscurity of business, he cannot serve the Lord. He must therefore go out from Egypt; the world must be left behind, not in place but in spirit” (Hom. 3 in Exod.).
Origen says that he who lives in the darkness of the world and amid worldly business can with difficulty be faithful to God. Whoever, then, would make his eternal salvation secure, let him go out from the world and take refuge in one of those observant religious communities, which are the safe harbors in the sea of this world. And whoever cannot leave the world in body, let him leave it at least in affection, detaching himself as far as he can from worldly attachments and from his own evil inclinations, as the Holy Ghost teaches us: “Go not after thy lusts, but turn away from thy own will” (Ecclus. 18:30). Follow not your own inclinations; and when you see that your will is driving you to evil, you must resist it and not indulge it.
13. “The time is short: it remaineth that they also who have wives be as if they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as if they possessed not; and they that use this world, as if they used it not; for the fashion of this world passeth away” (1 Cor. 7:29, etc.). In a word, the time of life is short; we must prepare for death, which is already drawing near; and to prepare for death, let us bear in mind that everything in this world comes to an end. Hence the Apostle tells those who suffer on this earth to be as if they suffered not, because all the miseries of this life must one day end, and they who save their souls shall be happy for eternity; and he exhorts those who enjoy the goods of this earth to be as if they enjoyed them not, because all must one day be left behind, and they who are damned shall be miserable for eternity.
Points for Reflection
1. “The first means of salvation, then, is to commend ourselves continually to God, that he may keep his hands over us and preserve us from offending him” (§8)
2. “When we find ourselves beset by some evil passion, we should first of all lower the sails—that is, flee all the occasions that may increase it—and then lay hold of the anchor, which is our God” (§11)
3. “The time of life is short; we must prepare for death, which is already drawing near; and to prepare for death, let us bear in mind that everything in this world comes to an end” (§13)