6th Sunday - Heaven, Hell, Purgatory

Today’s readings speak of heaven, hell and purgatory.

The book of Sirach, mentions both heaven and hell. It said, “If you keep the commandments, they will save you.” For what are the commandments saving you? Hell. The reading goes on to say, “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.” Life refers to eternal life, which is heaven. Death refers to eternal death, which is hell. Whatever he chooses, will be given him.

In the second reading, Paul mentions heaven, he said, “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” There is nothing on earth that we see or hear compared to heaven. We can’t imagine the joy, the love, the peace, the beauty, the wonder and awe of heaven. I gave a homily on heaven about three months ago.

In the Gospel today, Jesus mentions, heaven, purgatory and hell. With regard to heaven, Our Lord speaks about those who obey and teach the commandments, will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven and one must be more righteous than the Pharisees to enter the kingdom of heaven.

In speaking of purgatory, Our Lord said, “Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you paid the last penny.” Jesus makes it clear the offender must pay for his sins. He is referring to a temporary prison (purgatory) and will then be released once he paid the price for what he has done. The court refers to our personal judgment at death. The judge refers to Jesus, who is our eternal judge. We should daily pray for the poor souls in purgatory to relieve them of their suffering and help their soul to be purified for heaven. I preached on purgatory in the past.

This weekend, I thought I would focus on hell. I have actually rarely preaching on it during a Sunday Mass. The Gospel mentions hell three times.“Whoever says, ‘You fool’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.” During the time of Jesus, if a person would call someone a fool, it would be the same as if they would disown the person and would never have anything to do with them. Because to call someone a fool back then was a very serious offense, that’s why Jesus said the person would be liable to Gehenna. Today, when we call someone a fool, it takes on a different meaning, and more likely mean to be imprudent.

Jesus also said twice, “It is better if you lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.” The Catechism states, “Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” or “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he “will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,” and that he will pronounce the condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!” CCC #1034

Some may think it would be cruel to speak about hell in the presence of children, yet the Virgin Mary, showed hell to the three children of Fatima, ages 10, 8, and 7. Lucia describes their vision of hell. She said, "(Mary) opened Her hands once more, as She had done the two previous months. The rays [of light] appeared to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother, Who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear." Our Lady told the children, "Each time you say the Rosary, My children, say after each decade, 'O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of Hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy." Because of that vision, every time we pray the Rosary, we pray 5 times Jesus will save souls from the fires of hell.

Our Lady of Mount Carmel, promises, those who wear the scapular and live out their Christian faith, will not suffer eternal fire.

St. Jean Marie Vianney used to preach the greatest act of charity towards our neighbor is to save their soul from Hell. He said, the second act of charity is to deliver souls from Purgatory.

The souls in hell hear curses, complaints, accusations, weeping and gnashing of teeth. No kind or friendly word will ever fall on their ear, nothing but groans and shrieks to which they add to their own lamentations and unavailing regrets. There is no love in hell. There is only hate and despair. Since, hell is everlasting, that it means it lasts forever and ever. Torture, pain and suffering forever.

Today many think God is too merciful to send anyone to hell. Some say there is no hell or that its empty. Others believe everyone goes straight to heaven, as though no one goes to purgatory or to hell. But all of this contradicts the words of Jesus who said hell is everlasting. God is not only infinitely merciful, He is also infinitely just. But His greatest attribute, is His mercy.

The Church teaches that every sin has punishment due to it, and that is why we are supposed to do penance for our sins. If justice is expected in this life through civil laws wouldn’t God expect justice in the life to come? Whether its purgatory or hell.

How does someone go to hell? By committing one mortal sin, and then dying without being repentant of it. Mother Angelica told the story, that a priest told her. The priest went to visit a dying man in the hospital and the man was very angry. He ordered the priest to leave his room. But the priest took out a crucifix and handed it to the man and said, “See how much Jesus loves you. He died for you, that your sins be forgiven. Please tell Jesus you’re sorry for your sins.” But the man took the crucifix and threw it against the wall causing it to get broken into pieces and said, “I don’t want to go to heaven. I want to go to hell.” And at that moment, sadly to say, the man died. How terrible!

The vision of hell caused the children of Fatima, to not be afraid of God, but rather, it caused their hearts to expand with great love for sinners. This is why the children offered their sacrifices and did penance for the conversion of sinners. This is why the children of Fatima wore a rope around their waist as a penance and why they fasted often and gave away their food to other poor children, why they themselves went hungry. Although they never had a vision of heaven, they wanted all souls to go there because of love.

To see the Virgin Mary in a way that was so full of splendor caused them to want to go to heaven to be with God, with Mary and the angels and saints.

The Baltimore Catechism states committing a mortal sin is like renewing the passion of Jesus. Its like crucifying Jesus. Some will say, I love Jesus, but yet they commit a mortal sin. If we love Jesus, we would do everything we can to not hurt Him. Every sin wounds Jesus, but mortal sin, cuts off our relationship with God and wounds our soul mortally.

We shouldn’t only avoid mortal sin out of the fear of hell, but, especially out fear of offending and hurting the good God, whom we love because He loves us so much He died for us, that we may be with Him forever in heaven.

Today, let us seek the kingdom of heaven and do everything we can to keep it. May come to Jesus, the merciful shepherd in confession often, especially if we committed a mortal sin, to come quickly to Him to receive His infinite mercy. As soon as we commit any sin, we should immediately ask the Lord to forgive us.

Finally, let us do penance, offer up our sufferings, make sacrifices and pray the rosary daily for the conversion of sinners, so that as we help many souls to go to heaven, by the grace of God, we will save our own soul and go to our eternal home where there is no pain, no suffering and no tears, where there is nothing but love, peace and joy in heaven forever and ever and ever.

May the Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, and refuge of sinners, help to trust Jesus and believe that no matter how many or how big sins we commit, God will always forgive us, if we humbly ask pardon for them.