Your Life
by Perpetua, age 10
Christ died on the cross for us
Follow and bestow gifts upon Him
Do good and confess;
Follow the ladder to heaven.
The Last Judgement has come.
Satan will attack you
But you will attack Satan with truth.
Your life will be weighed
So be prepared.
Christ wants you to be in heaven;
Satan wants you to be in hades.
With the bold title of “Your Life,” this poem from the beginning performs the very action it describes: attacking Satan with truth. For Satan, in collaboration with the world and the flesh, the other enemies of mankind, seeks to lull us to sleep; to cause us to live in blissful ignorance of the truth of reality, the economy of salvation. The poet confronts the reader with the truth that dispels this fog of forgetfulness and delusion: Whether you like it or not, this is your life. This is what will happen; indeed, it is already happening, for what good does it do us to tell ourselves, “The judgment will come,” when our days are as the spans of a hand and our being is as nothing before Him? (Psalm 38:6) Is it not more beneficial to tell ourselves, “The Last Judgment has come”?
While this poem is sobering, it is by no means hopeless; in fact, it lays out the very steps we must take to be prepared for the dread day of Christ’s Second Coming: remember that Christ died for us and follow Him to the Cross; bestow upon Him the gifts of prayer, asceticism, and repentance; do good to the best of our ability and confess when we fall short of the mark; follow the ladder to heaven that is laid out for us by the Church; prepare for Satan’s attacks with the knowledge that he is a liar, and attack him in return with truth; live each day knowing our lives will be weighed; and lastly, have faith and hope in Christ, knowing that it is His will that we be with Him in heaven.
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