6th Sunday - Heaven, Hell, Purgatory

 

Today's readings speak about heaven, hell, and purgatory. The book of Sirach said, “If you keep the commandments, they will save you.” What do the commandments save us from? Hell. “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.” Life refers to eternal life, which is heaven.

The second reading 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.” This refers to heaven. St. Paul is speaking about a place where we cannot comprehend. There is nothing on earth we can see or hear, compared to the place for those who love Him will go, which is heaven. In heaven there is no tears, no pain, but only love, joy, and peace. It's a place where all our desires on earth are fulfilled and not just fulfilled, but even beyond our wildest dreams. We will be rewarded for our merits. We will see and talk to saints, angels, the Virgin Mary and our family and friends and most importantly God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel today, Jesus mentions purgatory. He 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.” To settle with one’s opponent, refers to making amends with those whom we have hurt, by apologizing, and by making restitution to the harm done to them. Jesus makes it clear the offender must pay for his sins. He is referring to a temporary prison (purgatory). The court refers to the person’s judgment at the moment of death. The judge refers to Jesus, who judge's us when we die. If all our sins are not made up in this life, we will be punished in the next life, through the fires of purgatory, because only that which is clean may enter heaven. Those in purgatory have the assurance of eventually going to heaven. Their greatest pain is have to wait to be with God. St. Augustine said, “The pains of purgatory are greater than any kind of suffering we can endure in this life.”

Today's Gospel mentions hell three times. “Whoever says, ‘You fool’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.” The following verse is repeated twice, “It is better if you lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.” Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “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. He said, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!" The punishment of hell is forever, which is horrifying.

The Virgin Mary, showed three children, ages 10, 8, and 7 what hell looked like. Sr. Lucia spoke about the vision. 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...."

Our Lady also 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 fires of Hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy."

Thanks to the Virgin Mary, every time we pray the Rosary, we pray 5 times that Jesus will save us from the fires of hell. The vision of hell didn't cause the children to 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. They never had a vision of heaven, but wanted souls to go there because of love.

Lucia asked the Virgin Mary, "Do you come from heaven...and will I go to heaven?" “Yes, you'll go". "And Jacinta?" "As well" “and Francisco?" "Him too, but he will have to say many rosaries". Our Lady told the children: "Do you wish to offer yourselves to God, to endure all the suffering that He may please to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and to ask for the conversion of sinners?" "Yes, we do." said the children. "You will have to suffer a lot, but the grace of God will be your comfort.”

One day in St. John Vianney little church, a man possessed by a demon approached him, and the demon said: "I hate you, I hate you because you stole from my hand eighty-five thousand souls." He suffered much and did great penances to save souls from the fires of hell.

Today many think God is too merciful to send anyone to hell. Some cease to fear hell and do not try to avoid it. Others believe everyone goes straight to heaven, as though no one goes to purgatory or to hell. Some wrongly believe at the end of time, God will release all the souls and demons from hell. But the Church teaches hell is everlasting. God is not only infinitely merciful, He is also infinitely just.

May we seek the kingdom of heaven and do everything we can to keep it. May we 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, may we immediately ask the Lord to forgive us. There is nothing more important than keeping our soul in the state of grace. And if you find our self in mortal sin, do everything you can to get out of it. Because if we die in the state of mortal sin, we go to hell forever. We don't avoid mortal sin out of 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.

Let us do as Our Lady of Fatima asked, to do penance, offer up sufferings, make sacrifices and pray the rosary daily for the conversion of sinners, so that we help many souls 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.

O Jesus, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy.