Blogger Priest

Today we face not one heresy but a revamped modernism of all heresies. What is our posture toward God and judgment? Here are some important points:

First, one of the gifts given to terrestrial man is that we live in time and not in eternity like the angels.  When the angels rebelled, that was the end of their story.  That moment of decision was forever. As creatures that live within time, God has given us the opportunity to reconsider and to repent so as to believe.  However, this gratuity of being temporal creatures can and will be exhausted.  Starting with our conception in the womb, our days are numbered and no one knows exactly how much time will be given. That is why our Lord preached urgency in embracing and spreading the Gospel. Now is always the appointed time. Some waste the time given them or suppose that they can wait for tomorrow to repent and believe. But tomorrow often never comes. The wicked regularly discover to their dismay that they waited too long and find themselves cast by God into hell.   

Second, we should neither be presumptuous of our own salvation nor think that Divine Justice is harsh or cruel for others. Unlike human courts, God’s judgment is always true— no mistakes. The damned deserve hell.  They have earned this state for themselves. It is along these lines that we often hear silly questions and arguments. A false sentimentality is wasted on the wicked who consort with demons. They get what they want and deserve. One question that regularly comes up is whether pets like cats and dogs will join us in heaven. In truth I do not know, and often urge questioners to focus upon what “they” must do to get there. Our preoccupation in heaven will not be Spot or Kitty but in honoring and giving glory to almighty God. If it gives some consolation, nothing is lost in God. Those creatures lacking immortal souls will certainly exist as substantial forms or paradigms in the divine mind. Annihilation is against the divine economy. What God has created, he will not uncreate. God sustains his creation from moment to moment.  If he were to forget us, even for an instant, we would cease to be— indeed, we would be entirely subtracted from our time-line. But God never forgets, sustaining saints, angels, the damned and devils.

Third, the deceased are not asleep— some know God’s bounty and others know the curse of hell. The souls of all the dead separate from their corpses and await reconstitution (body and soul). There is some question as to whether this is realized immediately after death or at the consummation and final judgment. Most would argue the latter. The saints of heaven know joy and see God. They dance in the fire of divine love. The souls in purgation are being perfected by this very same flame. The damned are alienated from God and burn from the spark of God’s love that keeps them in existence. It both distracts them from their terrible loss and brings pain to the senses. The dead are aware. They suffer no amnesia. The saints pray for the living and the Church. The damned remain self-preoccupied. The punishment of hell is real. Everything is now fixed with death.  While we might imagine the worst of dictators, murderers and sex fiends in hell, I suspect there are also many average people in hell who were indifferent to the needs of neighbors, neglected divine worship and rejected friendship with Christ.   

Fourth, just as we have living saints among us, we also have the walking dead or those who abide in mortal sin. The prospective damned must struggle against divine grace or help. This is the start of divine wrath or suffering for sin. They have made themselves into nests for demons. They carry hell around with them everywhere they go. They stand convicted by God. They sap the life out of those around them. They use and abuse others, even those who would be friends and family. They might yet be saved through repentance and conversion, but it becomes increasingly unlikely. They make themselves ill-disposed to grace and they reject the Good News. I recall one such abusive man who flippantly said that religion (meaning prayer and Mass attendance) was merely for women and children. There was always a heaviness to being in his presence. One could almost feel the weight of perdition around him. His wife later confirmed it with tales of abuse and how he left her for another woman.   

Fifth, as difficult as the world is, it could be far worse. God restrains the wicked and prevents the full intrusion of hell on earth. Spiritual obsession and possession are real and God permits Satan to exploit his landfall. However, he has given his priests the authority to combat him in the sacraments and in the rites of the Church (like exorcism). If this world shares a “taste” of hell, it is all so that men and women will take the prospect of hell seriously.   

Sixth, proximate happiness and particular pleasures here on earth should not lure us into a false sense of safety or security from damnation. Everything is passing. Universalism is a lie and not everyone will be saved. Failure to keep the commandments and precepts of the Church will have a terrible cost. By contrast, remembering the poor and the oppressed will have the most important positive consequences. Many personal failings will be forgiven those who care and love much.   

Seventh, there is no safe haven for sin and evil.  Hell is not a place where the devil reigns but where evil is segregated from good and imprisoned. Despite their consternation and protest in hell, the one king is not the false light of Lucifer but the Christ who sits at the right hand of the Father. The devil truly has lost everything. The one who regarded himself as the lord of the world could not even retain his dominion over hell.  All are subject to Christ— the saints of heaven in love and the damned of hell in fear and trembling. While on earth, many of the “people of the lie” seem to place little concern in their approaching death? Why is this? Evil itself acts as a narcotic, numbing the wicked to the truth. How can one be anxious about death when one is already spiritually dead in mortal sin? Of course, a few still seem to awaken from their moral slumber and repent before their deaths. The miracle in this is entirely in the mysterious movement of providence and grace. God chases down and snatches certain souls from the grips of the evil one. They might even become great saints. Others languish in the squalor of their iniquity and find themselves forever counted among the unrighteous. God saves whom he wills.  

Eighth, there are some who laugh and joke about their spiritual condition. Many of us have been guilty of this and admittedly it betrays an element of anxiety. What are some of the things said? “Only the good die young so I guess I will be here for a long time to come.” “Why did I not die? Well, heaven did not want me and the devil did not want competition.” We live in the hope of our salvation, but for the grace of God any of us might be lost. None deserve to be saved. It is not something we can merit on our own. It may be that we take solace from having religious or holy friends who think well of us. We hope that their intercession will bring leniency upon us when judgment comes.  While there is value in this, we must still be in a state of grace. We cannot expect the merit of another to make up for our own poverty in grace.  We are a holy nation and ours is a corporate faith; nevertheless, each soul will still be judged on the merit of its faith, obedience and charity. None should think they are utterly safe from the wrath or severe judgment of God.    

Ninth, nothing we do, no matter how courageous and good, will save us if we reject Jesus Christ.  We must be re-made into his likeness. The Father must see his Son in us if we expect a share in his reward. Our merit means nothing apart from Christ and his mystical body, the Church. However, everything is to be gained by allowing the Lord to work and to be seen in us.

This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world. You belong to God, children, and you have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They belong to the world; accordingly, their teaching belongs to the world, and the world listens to them. We belong to God, and anyone who knows God listens to us, while anyone who does not belong to God refuses to hear us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of deceit (1 John 4:2-6).

Tenth, wrath or divine justice does not mean, as some of the Calvinists believe, that almighty God “hates” sinners. God hates sin but he loves even those children who disobey him and fail to return his love. The fact of this love seems to further embitter the damned against God. This is witnessed again and again in how the ire of the wicked targets the prophets of God, notably Christians who minister in charity and promote peace.

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