An average of 625 people die every day in Florida. That’s 228,000 per year. Of the 625 who died in the last 24 hours, where are they now? They are somewhere. Do you ever think about that? We generally don’t think about death unless it’s someone we know, but hundreds of people are dying around us every day. The body dies, but the spirit rises out of the body and goes wherever it goes, hopefully to be with God, or else to be separated from God.
With the age we live in, we have more and more scientific knowledge, which is a wonderful thing. We have greater understanding about our universe and how it evolved. But what often seems to accompany more knowledge, is skepticism, especially about religious, or supernatural things. The Lord knows this is difficult for us, which is why He continually gives us all kinds of signs to help us to believe. It says that when the Apostles began preaching, after Jesus ascended to heaven, their work was accompanied by ‘signs and wonders.’ In other words, there were miracles happening continually and these miracles confirmed what they were preaching, which helped people to believe in their message.
After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the Apostles and others, many times, to convince them of the reality of what had happened. Then He deliberately allowed the Apostles to see him ascend to heaven, to help them to believe in the reality of heaven, but what He said to them before He ascended is also important. “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.” Tell people what? That God is real, that our life has a purpose, that heaven and hell are real, that our actions have eternal consequences, that we can only go to heaven because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. People need to know this, so that they will have an understanding of what their life is about. And He also said this: “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. Whoever does not believe will be condemned.” In other words, there is a choice and we can also lose heaven if we reject God.
In 1917 Our Lady appeared in Fatima, Portugal, to three young children: Lucia (10), Franciso (9) and Jacinta (7). One of the things that Our Lady showed them was a terrifying vision of hell. Visions of heaven and hell have also been shown to many other saints and visionaries. You might wonder why Our Lady would show such young children such a frightening thing. Because it is a reality. You don’t hide dangers from your children. You allow them to see the dangers and you teach them about the dangers, so that they can avoid them.
Today, as you know, many people scoff at the idea of hell and the devil, as if they were some sort of medieval idea which we no longer need to believe; after all, everyone goes to heaven, right? That is not what Jesus taught.
‘Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life and only a few find it’ (Matt 7:13-14).
In Matthew’s gospel (25: 31-46), Jesus uses the parable of the sheep and the goats, who are divided on judgement day. ‘Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me… Whatever you did not do for the least of these brothers of mine, you did not do for me. Then they will go away to eternal punishment and the righteous to eternal life.’ Jesus is telling us that there is a choice and there is a judgement. How we choose to live in this life, has eternal consequences and we must take them seriously.
Our time on earth is not just about trying to find total fulfilment and pleasure, it is a time of love and service to God. If our life is focused only on trying to make ourselves as comfortable and fulfilled as possible, then we will miss the point of our life. When we die, we do not want to come before God with empty hands. By serving and worshipping God, we will find fulfillment, and that is our primary role, not our secondary role.
Heaven and hell are real and we should not be naïve to the idea. Jesus spoke of this multiple times. If this is the case, should we be afraid? I think the answer is both yes and no. Fire is dangerous, so we have a healthy respect for it, but without living in fear of it. Hell is also real and we should have a healthy respect for it.
If heaven is real and we have free will, then it is completely logical that there must be something else, or else we would be forced to go to heaven, which is a contradiction. If heaven is real, hell must be real too. To lose all that God wants to give us, God’s destiny for us, is to be left with the opposite, which is hell. If heaven is total fulfillment in God, light, beauty, happiness, peace, joy, the love of God and being with our loved ones again, then to lose or reject that, would mean to be left with the opposite: the loss of God, darkness, hatred, isolation, pain and the eternal pain of knowing we have rejected the one thing that could bring us happiness.
Since we have never experienced heaven, it is hard for us to grasp that such a place could exist. Images of fire are often used for hell, as this is an image we can easily understand, but the reality is that the eternal loss of God would be far worse, as God is the only thing that can fulfill us. If we have the free will to accept God and all that He offers us, then we must also have the free will to reject it, or otherwise it would not be free will. The vision of hell that Our Lady granted the children at Fatima and so many others, is a reminder to us that hell is real and we should not presume that all of us will go to heaven regardless of how we live. Our actions have consequences and we must take them seriously.
Does that mean that those who do not go to church will go to hell? Not necessarily. People who do not go to church have just as much hope of eternal life as we do, depending on how they live. Many people who do not go to church cannot understand or relate to formal religion. If I grew up in a family that never practiced religion, or where I was constantly told that the Church is corrupt and evil, then I cannot be blamed for not wanting to be part of the Church. What is important is that I do my best to live a life where I continue to choose what is right. God guides us through our conscience, so that even those who have never heard of God still have the chance to live as God calls us to. We have an instinctive understanding of what is good and what is evil, through our conscience.
In the Acts of the Apostles, it says that Peter had a vision (Acts 10:9-16). He saw what looked like a sheet being let down from heaven. On the sheet were all kinds of birds and animals. Then he heard a voice say, ‘Take Peter, kill and eat.’ And he replied, ‘Certainly not Lord, I have never eaten anything unclean.’ The voice then said, ‘What God has called clean, you have no right to call profane.’ Peter understood what God was telling him and later he said it this way, ‘And so I have come to believe that God has no favorites, but that anyone who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to him.’
Just because we do go to church doesn’t mean that we are guaranteed to go to heaven. It depends completely on how we live from day to day. I have two good friends who are in the Poor Clares convent in my hometown. They dedicate their lives to God through prayer. People often say to me that they must be so holy and they probably are, but just because they are in a convent, is no guarantee of them being holy. It depends completely on how they live. It is the same for me. Just because I am a priest is no guarantee of me going to heaven. It depends on how I live from day to day.
So is there any advantage to being a Catholic? Of course there is! We are privileged to have been shown the way that God himself has revealed to us through Jesus. Jesus is the path to heaven and God has made this known to us. He has given us the gift of his Body and Blood in each mass and the Scriptures to guide us. This is a great blessing for us, which helps us to be faithful to the path that leads to God as we have already been shown it. So we are truly blessed, but it doesn’t mean that we have a better chance than anyone else, because it still depends on how we live from day to day. Going to mass each Sunday will not help me if I spend the rest of my week cheating, stealing and exploiting other people. Jesus says, ‘It is not those who say, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven’ (Matt 7:21).
What about those who die and have chosen God, but are still have sin that they have not repented of? This is where purgatory comes in, which is also logical. If Hitler, or someone who lived a life of evil repented at the end of their life before they died, would they go to heaven? God promises his infinite mercy to anyone who asks for it. If they went to heaven right after repenting at their death, it wouldn’t make any sense that they would go straight to heaven. That would make a mockery of God’s justice. God is infinitely merciful, but God is also perfectly just. No sin can exist in God’s presence, so there must be some way for them to atone for what they have done. That is what we call purgatory, a final cleansing or ‘purgation’ of our soul if we are not yet ready to go directly to heaven. Purgatory is a mercy of God, because anyone who has to go through it knows that they will go to heaven when they are ready for it.
Should we be afraid? No, but we should be realistic. We have a healthy respect for fire, because it is dangerous, but we need not be afraid of it if we are wise and listen to what the Lord has taught us. God gives us every possible help we could ask for and assures us of his mercy if we are sincere and repent when we fall into sin. But it would also be a mistake to presume on God’s mercy. ‘Oh, it doesn’t matter. God will forgive everyone in the end.’ That is not Jesus’ teaching. ‘Do not be deceived. God will not be mocked.’ (Gal 6:7)
God has created us all to be with him in heaven. That is what God wants for us and God has done everything to make that possible. That is what will happen unless we consciously and deliberately reject God.
‘It is not those who say, “Lord, Lord,” who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven’ (Matt 7:21).
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