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Do you live in an 'ordinary street', in an ordinary town? Whether we come from poor and humble backgrounds, or rich families, from terraced houses or mud huts or palaces, we are all called to be Saints. We can achieve this by loving Jesus Christ and doing His Will. The Church tells us what is His Will; and she gives us all we need to be obedient and faithful.
We are right to want to avoid judging the motives and attitudes of other people; but we are not wrong to judge some of their acts, and to try to steer them away from physical or moral danger - or to rescue them. If we see a man about to leap of a cliff, we do not say, "I must not judge him". We act, to save his life. So we should at times warn people.
Those who have freely turned away from Christ in earthly life, refusing His friendship and ignoring His laws, will suffer the 'loss of God' for all Eternity. They have condemned themselves, and will never look upon His lovely face, or know joy.
We must not become disheartened if we struggle to be dutiful and kind towards our relations or companions. In His own earthly life-time, Christ had to be patient with people whose ideas repelled Him, or whose good hearts He admired but whose lack of understanding was hard to bear.
Jesus once said that, "The measure you give will be the measure you get". If we want Him to act towards us with a merciful and gentle judgement, we must act with mercy and gentleness towards those who displease or annoy us.
Once Christ had become a man, we learned how precious is humanity to God. We are all brothers and sisters to Christ and to one another; and each of us should treat others with respect, as Christ treated people in His earthly life-time.
No-one dies and leaves earthly life at a moment that has occurred by accident. No-one leaves earthly life one second before or after the moment decreed by the Father, Who loves us all and governs our lives, and the whole Universe.
Just as pond creatures which make their way to the surface of a pond are dazzled by the sunlight above, so human beings who rise up from earthly life and enter Heaven are dazzled by Divine glory; so as I paint them in my Last Judgement I should not paint them in much detail, but as if half hidden in dazzling light.
A person who refuses Divine Help, and pursues his selfish desires until death, inevitably experiences the painful separation from God which they chose in earthly life and which continues into Eternity. Without God, all is pain and grief, unending, in the company of the demons and all the damned.
Any politician who wants to help his country should oppose with all His might unjust and immoral new laws. Once such a bad law is passed, it is easier for sinister, related matters to gain approval, and the government becomes like a runaway train which endangers onlookers as well as passengers.
Christ said that in looking at my Last Judgement people will see in an instant what is important about life. Through seeing the three main areas - Heaven, earthly life, and Hell, they will straight away receive His message, which is that only the virtuous go to Heaven - through the grace of Christ - when they die, whereas unrepentant sinners go to Hell.
There are souls in Hell who are being tormented by demons. In earthly life, they refused to listen to God who loves them. They chose to walk on the path to Hell as they cried out, until death. 'I can do whatever I like'.
Christ told me that in His earthly life He spoke frankly about Hell as well as Heaven; yet few of those who teach the Faith, today, tell the truth about Hell. Yet, He said, through their freely-made choices, thousands fall into Hell each day; this is why it is important the people see my 'Last Judgement' picture, and reflect on it.
It is the Lord's dear wish that each child to whom He has given the gift of life will be brought up by it's parents to be worthy to inherit Eternal Life. It is tragic if children are made aware only of earthly life, and are led to believe that the purpose of life is to become rich, or to fill every moment with earthly pleasure.
Through the free gift of Divine grace, all that Christ out God did for us in His earthly life has been given to the Church to dispense. It all stemmed from His being made flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. As man, He preached the truth, suffered and died for our sins, rose up from the tomb, and by rising up to Heaven made a Way in which we can follow, by our union with Him in our Baptism: a union made stronger by prayer, sacraments, and good works.
The Church is like a house, where the faithful are happy. Only if people leave the 'cellars' of sinful behaviour are they free to follow Christ to Heaven when He calls them, at the end of earthly life. His is the only Way. To refuse His invitation is to be lost forever, unable to ascend to where the Saints live, in Eternal Bliss.
Many people live parts of their lives in a cellar, keeping hidden various thoughts or activities or memories which they do not want anyone to bring out into the light. These are precisely what need to be dealt with before a person can lead a carefree life in Christ, as if in the happy home above the cellars.
Every day is a new day, in the life of a Christian, no matter how mundane or routine was the previous day. Each day stretches ahead like an area of countryside to be traversed - with no knowing what might happen. God can intervene in our quiet lives through people: through phone calls received, sermons heard, or through insights and requests offered by the Lord in prayer.
In Lisieux, St.Therese was grateful to God, in every circumstance. We cannot dictate to God about when we will experience His love, and His glory, in earthly life. What is important is that we do His Will; and He who is good always trains His friends - and rewards them. A person like St.Therese who lived much of her life in spiritual darkness had a special vocation to show out naked faith, as well as love.
When we suffer heartache, in earthly life, because our own children are sad or in trouble, we do well to remember Our Lady, and the heartache she suffered: not just at her son's Passion, in Jerusalem, but earlier in Galilee, when she waved to Christ as He left her to set out at last on His adult Ministry.
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