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The one who, after death, rejects God, 'falls' like a stone into the infinite abyss.
God the Father is calling everyone to turn to Him; yet the gloomy interiors of sinful souls resemble a dark room in a catacomb: people who refuse to repent, who refuse to confess their sins, and who do no penance. Their souls are dead, even in this life; and if they die in their sins they will never see God. We should try to share the truth about spiritual danger, and the life of grace held out to us.
Those who refuse to repent of serious sin, and die, cannot enter heaven; but the Holy Souls, who are open to Christ's mercy, enter heaven once they have been purified.
Those who refuse to repent of serious sin, and die, cannot enter heaven; but the Holy Souls, who are open to Christ's mercy, enter heaven once they have been purified.
Those who refuse to repent of serious sin, and die, cannot enter heaven; but the Holy Souls, who are open to Christ's mercy, enter heaven once they have been purified.
Once, a departed soul was clinging to the top of a fiery pit; only the prayers of devout persons (like spears flung beneath him) saved him from falling into Hell.
The one who lovingly "stretches out a hand", in prayer for the dying, can rescue someone even from the brink of Hell.
What end awaits a human life which is sinful, lacking Divine Life, existing far from God? It falls, like a husk, a fruitless thing.
By the briefest prayer or the smallest act of charity, a soul may be saved from Hell, as if held up by the tip of a finger.
By the briefest prayer or the smallest act of charity, a soul may be saved from Hell, as if held up by the tip of a finger.
By a mere thread of charity, and a tiny prayer, we can save one who might have fallen to the depths.
We have a choice: to climb the mountain of holiness before we die, and go through the 'curtain' at death straight to Heaven, by God's grace; or to make great efforts, or half-hearted efforts, then finish the ascent in Purgatory; or we can choose to give up the climb, and to fall away, and to abandon the hope of reaching Heaven after death.
A screaming child, incoherent with anger, needs to be left to realise his need of help, and to admit his foolishness. Our wise God gives rebellious adults opportunities for reflection. He does not force us to do His Will. He even allows us, if we insist, to separate ourselves from Him eternally.
At his death, a man was delivered to the demons, whose suggestions he had followed in earthly life - instead of following God's laws. They began to inflict on him those torments which he had inflicted upon his victims without mercy.
Those who refuse to follow the safe way into Heaven will eventually languish, far from Heaven's light, in the depths of the dark Abyss - by their own free, tragic choice.
Someone who refuses to forgive, and who hates and despises someone else, is as if piling up furniture against the inside of the door of her soul. God and His Light cannot shine in. She freely chooses to make a tomb of her own soul, and will find herself in Hell, if she perseveres in sin.
As people move towards death, and the Abyss, some cannot see the bridge to the other side. Others know where to find Christ, the bridge, and walk steadily towards Him. Some people have heard about the bridge but have allowed themselves to be swept away, in serious sin, towards disaster.
Some people do not believe in the 'bridge to Heaven', which is Christ; or they allow themselves to be carried away by the crowd to follow another, Godless way of life. At death, suddenly arriving at the Abyss, and nowhere near the 'bridge', they plunge to their doom. Nothing can stop them from falling. They have nothing to hold onto.
What does the 'eternity' of hell or heaven mean? It means 'captured unchangeably', whether in selfishness or a state of grace; either being held eternally without God, by the free choices of an individual soul, or being held forever in friendship with God, to the degree to which the soul enjoyed at the moment of death. As a fly, suddenly imprisoned by a drop of amber, is held 'forever' in the state it was in when the liquid fell upon it, so the soul retains forever its state at the moment of death - even though those held in God's friendship can undergo some purification.
It is a tragedy that some parents or spouses, through neglect or cynicism, do little to encourage faith in those close to them. How terrible to be unable to enter Heaven together, with family members among the damned.
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