IT IS a sign of just how material-minded our society is that it is in the grip of a relentless, paranoid fear of physical death and phantom contagion while sustaining indifference to spiritual death. The first death happens once. The second, forever.

Some relevant thoughts on Delay of Conversion:

There are many, even among Catholics, who delay their conversion until the hand of the Lord is upon them, and they are stretched upon their dying bed. During life their object seemed to be to defraud their Creator of the love and obedience due Him; and now they would even defraud the devil of what they so assiduously prepared for him. Can aught but a miracle save such a creature? What can be said to one who thus delays his conversion?

Listen, sinner! your cry is: “Tomorrow! tomorrow! yet, for a little while, I will drive the thought of God away! “By this you acknowledge that you intend to change your life at some future time; then, too, you admit that at present you are leading an evil life. A sick person tries to obtain relief without delay. Christian! sinner! is corporal illness to be mentioned in the same breath with that dreadful malady which oppresses your soul? There is but one evil, but it is the origin and source of all evils, and that is: Sin! You believe this, and yet your cry is: “Tomorrow! tomorrow!” O folly! O presumption! You say: “Another time! Then, according to your own confession, sin is no gain. No, it is not. On the contrary, it is loss. And what a loss! It means the loss of God, of heaven, of all that is worth having, if you die in your present state.

— Comments —

Bruce Charlton writes:

You may be interested by an argument I made trying to explain why repentance cannot be deliberately delayed (e.g. until the deathbed). I think this is something we all know to be true, but have difficulty in explaining. This was my attempt.

Laura writes:

Very good.

To delay is to reject. And rejection can’t lead to conversion.

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