h is caused by the separation of the soul from
the body. The body and soul together make a man, and neither one alone
can be called a man. A dead body is only part of a man. At the
resurrection every soul will come from Heaven, Purgatory, or Hell, to
seek its own body; they will then be united again as they were in life,
never to be separated--to be happy together in Heaven if they have been
good upon earth, or miserable together in Hell if they have been bad
upon earth.

"Life everlasting"--either, as we have said, in Heaven or Hell. There
was a time when we did not exist but it can never be said of us again we
do not exist. When once we have been created, we shall live as long as
God Himself, i.e., forever. When we have lived a thousand years for
every drop of water in the ocean; a thousand years for every grain of
sand on the seashore; a thousand years for every blade of grass and
every leaf on the earth, we shall still be existing. How short a time,
therefore, is a hundred years even if we live so long--and few
do--compared with all these millions of years! And yet it depends upon
the time we live here whether all these millions of years in the next
world will be for us years of happiness or of misery. The whole life of
a man extends through the two worlds, viz., from the moment of his
creation through all eternity; and surely the little while he stays upon
earth must seem very short when, after spending a million of years in
the next world, he looks back to his earthly life. There is a good
example to illustrate this. If you stand on a railroad, and look away
down the track for about a mile, it will seem to you that the rails come
nearer and nearer, till at last they touch. It seems so on account of
the distance, for where they seem to touch they are just as far apart as
where you are standing. So, also, when you look back from eternity, the
day of your birth and the day of your death will seem to coincide, and
your life on earth appear nothing. Then, if you are among the lost souls
you will think, What a fool I was to make myself suffer all this long
eternity for that silly bit of earthly pleasure, which is of no benefit
to me now! And this thought will serve only to make you more miserable.
But, on the other hand, if you look back from a happy eternity, you will
wonder at God's goodness in giving you so much happiness for so short a
service upon earth.

THE CONFITEOR

I confess to Almighty God, to blessed Ma