The Hour of Death

There is a connection between the Agony in the Garden and the Agony on the Cross.  One is to be help to all so that they might die well, the other is specific help at the last moment, even the last breath.




“My daughter, in a special way I wanted to suffer the agony in the Garden, in order to help all of the dying to die well. Look well at how my agony is combined with the agony of Christians: tediums, sadnesses, anguishes, the sweat of blood – I felt the death of all and of each one, as if I were really dying for each one in particular; so I felt the tediums, the sadnesses, the anguishes of each one within Me, and with my own I offered help, comfort and hope to all, so that, as I felt their deaths in Me, they all might receive the grace to die in Me, as though in one single breath - with my breath, and to be beatified immediately by my Divinity.

“If the agony in the Garden was in a special way for the dying, the agony on the Cross was for help at the last moment, at the very last breath. They are both agonies, but one is different from the other: the agony in the Garden, full of sadnesses, of fears, of anxieties, of frights; the agony on the Cross, full of peace, of imperturbable calm. And if I cried out‘I thirst!’, it was the insatiable thirst that all might breathe their last in my last breath; and in seeing that many would go out of my last breath, out of grief I cried out ‘Sitio!’ [‘I thirst!’], and this ‘sitio’ still continues to cry out to all and to each one like a bell at the door of each heart: ‘I thirst for you, oh soul! O please, never go out of Me, but enter into Me and breathe your last in Me!’

“So, six are the hours of my Passion which I gave to men in order to die well: the three in the Garden were for help in the agony; the three on the Cross for help at the very last sigh before death. After this, who could not look at death with a smile? More so for one who loves Me, for one who tries to sacrifice himself on my very cross. Do you see how beautiful death is, and how things are changed? In life I was despised; the very miracles did not produce the effects of my death; even up to the Cross there were insults. But as soon as I breathed my last, death had the power to change things: all beat their breasts, confessing Me the true Son of God; my very disciples plucked up courage, and even those who were hidden became brave and asked for my body, giving Me honorable burial. Heaven and earth, in full voice, confessed Me the Son of God. Death is something great, something sublime; and this happens also for my own children: in life they are despised, oppressed; those very virtues which, like light, should make those who are around them start, remain half-veiled; their heroisms in suffering, their abnegations, their zeal for souls, cast lights and doubts in those who surround them; and I Myself permit these veils, so as to preserve with more safety the virtue of my dear children. But as soon as they die, I withdraw these veils since they are no longer necessary, and the doubts become certainties, the light becomes clear, and this light makes others appreciate their heroism - they pay esteem to everything, even to the smallest things. Therefore, what cannot be done in life, is made up for by death. This, as for what happens down here. That which happens up there, then, is truly surprising and enviable to all mortals.”

Vol. 9, July 4, 1910




"..and in seeing that many would go out of my last breath..."

I've always been amazed in the type of death that God chose for his Son, Jesus, in the crucifixion.  The details of the physical agony are mind numbing in their horror and all combined could not have been endured by one who was only human in nature.  There are a couple of links below that go into detail on his physical sufferings if you haven't already read into it.  Jesus says that each aspect of his suffering is full of divine wisdom and one part that that has particularly hit me is that with crucifixion, unlike other deaths, the last breath is an inhalation.  Jesus even in his last breath sought to draw all souls into him to save them.

Adequate exhalation required lifting the body by pushing up on the feet and by flexing the elbows and adducting the shoulders (Fig 6) ² However, this maneuver would place the entire weight of the body on the tarsals and would produce searing pain.⁷ Furthermore, flexion of the elbows would cause rotation of the wrists about the iron nails and cause fiery pain along the damaged median nerves.⁷ Lifting of the body would also painfully scrape the scourged back against the rough wooden stipes. ², ⁷ Muscle cramps and paresthesias of the outstretched and uplifted arms would add to the discomfort. ⁷ As a result, each respiratory effort would become agonizing and tiring and lead eventually to asphyxia. ²,³, ⁷, ¹⁰, ¹¹

^{http://www.frugalsites.net/jesus/crucifixion.htm}

Another excellent site to reflect on the physical extremes Jesus suffered can be found below, A Physician Analyzes the Crucifixion.
http://www.frugalsites.net/jesus/physician.html


Jesus states that at this last point of death of the creature is when he will pull out all the stops, so to speak in order to save the creature.

             “Our goodness, our love is so much, that we try all routes, we use all means in order to tear her from sin, in order to put her in safety, and if we don’t succeed there in life, we make the ultimate surprise of love at the point of death.  Now, you must know that at that point it is the ultimate spying of love that we do to the creature, and we furnish her with graces, with light, with goodness; there we put such tenderness of love, as to soften and to overcome the hardest hearts.  And when the creature finds herself between life and death, between the time that finishes and the eternity about to begin, almost in the act that the soul is about to go forth from the body, I, your Jesus, make myself seen with an amiability that enraptures, with a sweetness that captivates and softens the bitterness of life, specifically at that extreme point; then, my look..., I look at her, but with so much love as to tear an act of sorrow from her, an act of love, an adherence to my Will.

                “Now, in that point of disillusionment, in seeing, in touching with (one’s) hand how much we have loved and love them, they feel such sorrow that they repent for not having loved us, and they recognize our Will as beginning and completion of their life, and as satisfaction they accept death in order to complete an act of our Will.  Because you must know that if the creature doesn’t do not even one act of the Will of God, the doors of heaven are not opened, nor is she recognized as heir of the celestial fatherland, nor can the angels and saints admit her among them, nor would she like to enter there, because she would know that it doesn’t belong to her.  Therefore without our Will there is neither true sanctity, nor salvation.  And how many become saved in virtue of this spying of ours all of love, except the most perverse and obstinate, although it will be necessary for her to make the long stopover of purgatory.  Therefore the point of death is our daily catch, the recovery of lost man.”

                Afterwards he added:

                “My daughter, the point of death is the hour of disillusionment, and all things are presented in that point the one after the other, in order to say:  ‘Good-bye, the earth for you is finished, eternity for you begins.’  It happens for the creature as when she finds herself closed in a room, and it comes to be said to her:  ‘Beyond this room there is another room, in which there is God, paradise, purgatory, hell, in short eternity’; but she sees nothing, if she listens to it asserted by others, and since those that say it it has not yet come to them, they say it in a way almost as not believing, not giving a great importance as to make one believe reality, certainty, (of) that which they say in words.

                “Now, one beautiful day the walls fall, and she sees with (her) eyes that which they said before; she sees her Father God, who with so much love has loved her; the benefits that he has done for her one by one, and all the injured rights of love that she owed him; how her life was of God not hers.  Everything (brings) itself before her: eternity, paradise, purgatory, hell; the earth escapes her, pleasures turn (their) shoulders/(backs), everything disappears, and only that which is present to her is in that room in which the walls have fallen, that is eternity.  What change happens for the poor creature!

                “My goodness is so much, that I want everyone safe, that I allow that these walls fall when creatures find themselves between life and death, between the soul going forth from the body in order to enter into eternity, so that at least they make an act of sorrow and of love for me, and they recognize my adorable Will upon them, I can say (that) I give (them) an hour of truth, in order to put them in safety.  Oh, if everyone might know my industries of love that I do at the last point of life, so that they don’t escape from my more than fatherly hands, they would not wait for that point, but they would love me for all (of their) life.”

Fiat!!!

Vol. 35, March 22, 1938


It's necessary for the creature to do at least one act of the Will of God.  One, and they are saved.