08/27/2026
The Waters Are Coming
A Meditation on Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell, and Eternity
Imagine the people running as the flood approaches... As happened in Nepal today...
Only moments earlier, life appeared ordinary. People were talking, working, making plans, thinking about money, relationships, possessions, pleasures, and tomorrow.
Then someone cried out that the waters were coming.
Suddenly, everything changed.
Money was abandoned. Possessions were left behind. Plans for the future disappeared. No one cared about popularity, appearance, success, or the opinion of the world.
At that moment, only life mattered.
Now imagine—not presuming to judge any actual victim, because God alone knows every soul—that you were among them while conscious of unconfessed mortal sin.
You had postponed Confession.
You knew that your life was not right before God, but you continued telling yourself that there would be time to change later. You planned to enjoy the present and prepare your soul sometime in the future.
But now the waters are approaching.
You are running to save your body, while your conscience reminds you of your soul.
Where are the pleasures for which you offended God?
Where are the people whose approval once seemed so important?
What value do your possessions have now?
What would you give for one more day, one priest, one sincere Confession, and one opportunity to repair your life?
Death exposes the vanity of everything the world promises. The world offers pleasure, praise, and security, but at the hour of death, it abandons us. Nothing follows the soul into eternity except its works and the condition in which it stands before God.
Perhaps the frightened sinner cries out:
God, forgive me. I do not want to go to Hell.
But is this true contrition, or only terror at the punishment that has suddenly become near?
This is the terrible danger of postponing conversion.
True repentance at the moment of death is possible, but it is not something we can presume will happen easily. Perfect contrition is a grace from God. It means sorrow for sin because sin has offended God, who is infinitely good and worthy of all our love. It is not merely regret because punishment is approaching.
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori asks how a person who has loved forbidden pleasures throughout life will suddenly hate them at the hour of death. A soul does not ordinarily abandon in one moment what it has chosen, defended, and loved for many years.
St. Vincent Ferrer warned that it would be a greater miracle for habitual sinners who persisted in living badly to make a good end than to raise the dead to life.
The obstacle is not a lack of mercy in God. His mercy is infinite. The obstacle is the hardened human heart.
Every mortal sin freely committed weakens the soul. Every rejected grace makes the next rejection easier. Every postponed Confession strengthens the habit of postponing. A person who repeatedly tells God no cannot safely assume that, at the final moment, saying yes will suddenly become easy.
God can touch a soul in its last instant. The Good Thief turned to Christ and received the promise of Paradise. We must never despair of the salvation of another person.
But we must never use the Good Thief as an excuse to delay our own conversion.
The Good Thief repented at the end of his life, but we are not told that he deliberately postponed repentance until the end. One person received that extraordinary grace so that no sinner would despair; only one is presented to us so that no sinner would presume.
The waters continue to rise.
Behind you is the world you are leaving.
Before you is eternity.
If you die in the grace and friendship of God, death opens the door to eternal life. Heaven is the possession of God Himself. There the soul sees Him face to face, loves Him perfectly, and can never lose Him. Every suffering ends. Every wound is healed. Every holy desire is fulfilled.
But if a person dies in mortal sin, finally refusing God’s mercy, that choice becomes eternal. Hell is the everlasting separation from God—the loss of the only Good capable of satisfying the human soul.
In this life, pain eventually ends. Pleasure eventually passes. Time changes everything.
Eternity does not pass.
After a thousand years, eternity will have only begun. After a million centuries, the soul will be no closer to its end, because eternity has no end.
St. Alphonsus invites us to look upon the dead and consider what they would do if they could return to life. What sins would they confess? What occasions of sin would they avoid? Whom would they forgive? How fervently would they pray? How precious would one additional hour appear to them?
We possess that hour now.
Death does not always announce itself with approaching waters. It may come through illness, an accident, violence, old age, or quietly during sleep. The manner is uncertain, but death itself is certain.
Ask yourself seriously:
If I knew that I would die tonight, what sin would I immediately want to confess?
What relationship or occasion of sin would I abandon?
Whom would I forgive?
What harm would I repair?
Why am I not doing these things now?
Do not wait until death is near to begin learning how to love God. Do not wait until fear is your only prayer. Do not treat God’s mercy as permission to remain in sin.
Go to Confession while you still have time. Abandon mortal sin. Leave the occasion that repeatedly leads you away from God. Forgive those who have offended you. Restore what you have taken. Return to prayer and the Holy Mass. Receive Jesus Christ worthily in the Eucharist.
The purpose of meditating on death is not despair. It is conversion.
God is calling you now, while you can still answer freely, calmly, and sincerely.
You who are reading this and are still alive—you still have time.
But you do not know how much.
