Catechism in Pictures, text & image-56
THE FOUR LAST THINGS.
THE DEATH OF THE JUST MAN AND THAT OF THE SINNER.
1. To die a good or holy death is to die in a state of grace. It is the very highest happiness attainable.
2. To die a bad death is to die in a state of mortal sin. It is the most awful calamity that can befall us.
3. We read in Psalms XXXIII, 22 that « the death of the wicked is very evil. »
4. It is very evil because the wicked man, with his sins heavy on him, finds it very hard indeed to quit this world and all its pleasures, for which alone he has lived his life, and because he knows that in a few moments more he will receive in hell the punishment he has so richly merited by such criminal neglect.
5. An awful death was that of Herod as described in the Acts of the Apostles (XII, 19-23). « And when Herod had sought for him (Paul) and found him not, having examined the keepers, he commanded they should be put to death; and going down from Judea to Caesarea, he abode there.…More