‘THE ART OF DYING WELL’ by CARDINAL Saint BELLARMINE - ‘CHAPTER IV ~ …THREE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS.…
[St. Robert Bellarmine – XVI-XVII Century A.D.; Montepulciano, Grand Duchy of Tuscany/Rome, Papal States; (Aged 78); Cardinal; Rector; Professor; Doctor of the Church; Role in Giordano Bruno & Galileo cases]
“CHAPTER IV. THE FOURTH PRECEPT, CONTAINING THREE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS.
ALTHOUGH what we have said on faith, hope, and charity, may seem sufficient to enable us to live well and die well; yet, in order to effect these two objects more perfectly and more easily, our Lord Himself has deigned to give us three counsels in the Holy Scriptures: thus He speaks in St. Luke:
"Let your loins be girt, and lamps burning in your hands. And you yourselves like to men who wait for their lord, when he shall return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching." (chap. xii. 35, 36.)
This parable may be understood in two ways: of preparation for the coming of our Lord at the last …More
"Now, to have our "loins girt," signifies two things: First, the virtue of chastity; Secondly, a readiness to meet our Lord coming to judgment, whether it be the particular or the general judgment. The holy fathers, St. Basil, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory, give the first explanation. And truly, the concupiscence of the flesh, beyond all other passions, doth greatly hinder us from being ready to meet Christ; whilst, on the other hand, nothing makes us more fit to follow our Lord, than virginal chastity. We read in the Apocalypse how virgins follow the Lamb “whithersoever he goeth.”
"We will, therefore, briefly explain this parable, understanding by it that reparation for death, which above all things is so absolutely necessary for us. Our Lord commands us all to observe three things: First, that we have "our loins girt;" Secondly, that we have "lamps burning in our hands;" Thirdly, that we "watch " in expectation of the coming of our Judge, being no less ignorant when He will come, than we are of the coming of thieves."