On the Brink

On the Brink

1989 3 March 15 On the Brink (391) Death constantly hovering over us, we should make haste to become worthy of entering the gates of paradise. Otherwise we shall find ourselves teetering on the brink of the yawning abyss of hell.

Imagine a man standing on the outskirts of a village built on the slopes of a volcano. He looks towards the summit, where he sees large puffs of smoke emerging and he feels the earth trembling beneath his feet. Clearly the volcano is about to erupt, but the villagers seem to be unaware of the danger. They go about their daily tasks in the fields and in their homes. They are totally preoccupied by their crops, their animals, their houses, their families. What should this man who is standing at the edge of the village do? Run away from both volcano and village? Run into the village and start discussing crop rotation, the sale of wool from lambs, the latest irrigation techniques? It is quite obvious that neither course would satisfy the moral imperatives of the situation: for what normal human being would not run into the village to warn the inhabitants of the impending catastrophe? It would only be a totally selfish, or mentally deranged person who would fail to see this as a clear-cut duty.

Now imagine a man standing between this world and the next. On the one side he can see our present world and on the other the gardens of paradise and the fires of hell. What ought he to do? Keep quiet about the delights of paradise and the tortures of hell, while he discusses all kinds of trivialities? Should he make no mention of what the afterlife holds in store while he dwells upon all kinds of mundane issues? Clearly, he has the same kind of urgent duty to perform as the man standing on the slopes of the volcano. He must take prompt action, waste no time on irrelevancies, impress upon people their nearness to calamity, and should not leave off his entreaties to face the truth until he is satisfied that his message has genuinely made its mark. And what should that message be? That with death constantly hovering over us, we should make haste to become worthy of entering the gates of paradise. Otherwise we shall find ourselves teetering on the brink of the yawning abyss of hell.