Dante on Sin

Louis Markos

In our mortal lives, we can often hide the desiccated state of our souls from others; in the afterlife, we can no longer hide from others what we truly are inside. Let go of your rebelliousness and disobedience, my friends, before it is too late, before you find yourself circling the path of futility.

Author’s Introduction: Imagine if Homer, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, and the other great poets of ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle Ages had been given the gift, not only to peer into the twenty-first century, but to correspond with us who live in that most confusing and rudderless of centuries. Had it been in their power to do both of those things, what might they say to us? How would they advise us to live our lives? What wisdom from their experience and from their timeless poems might they choose to pass down to us?

Dante: On Sin

I warned you in an earlier letter that I would be writing to you about the woeful manner in which sin twists and disorders the human soul. It’s not a pleasant topic, sin, but it must be acknowledged and faced by every culture and by every generation.

In many ways, your age is more tolerant and merciful than my own, but you have lost something that the men of my day, even those who rejected the teachings of the Church, knew and felt in their bones. What you’ve lost is a clear sense of the nature and extent of human depravity, of that deep-set spiritual sickness that attends us from birth.

Sin is not simply another name for bad choices or erroneous judgments. It is also not the result of our personality type, which follows us from birth, or of our upbringing, which helps to shape our given character traits. Nor again is it a product of culture or environment or institutions.

Sin is a state of mind that stands in opposition to our Creator and his design and purpose for our lives and our world. Once it gets a foothold in our rebellious nature, it spreads like a cancer, killing all within us that is healthy, innocent, and spontaneous. Left untreated, sin distorts us into a parody of ourselves, a mockery of the noble creatures God intended us to be.

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Oh, my friends of the future, I saw it again and again as I made my way through the levels of the inferno. If it weren’t so sad, so tragic, it would almost be funny. Though the damned seemed blissfully unaware of it, the horrible things that sin has done to them were all too evident for anyone who gazed upon them.

Take the fortune tellers, those who had tried, through unnatural and unlawful means, to peer into the future. Their punishment was a perfect reflection of the nature of their sin. Though they seemed whole and unharmed from the neck down, their heads had been violently wrenched in the other direction, so that when they looked down upon themselves, they saw not their feet but their buttocks.

The sight was so pathetic, so mournful that it caused me to weep. Immediately, my master rebuked me for my tears, for it was, he explained, a most arrogant thing to feel sorrow for those whom God had justly judged. Virgil was right, of course, to rebuke me, and yet, my friends, you too would have wept and sighed had you seen those sinners circling endlessly along the path of their prison.

And then there were the schismatics, the sowers of discord, who had set one religion against another, citizens against their leaders, factions against rival factions. In the same way they had caused the body politic to be torn asunder, they themselves were split apart by a mighty devil wielding a merciless sword. With one swish of his scimitar, the angel lopped off their arm or leg or split them down the middle.

So torn into fragments, they made their way around a circular path. As they did so, hobbling and groaning in pain, their wounds healed and their body reassembled itself into its former unity. But their joy at the healing was short lived, for as they passed the devil, he once again ripped them open with his sword.

There in that gruesome ditch, I saw a thing whose horror remains with me still. A man whose body ended at his neck holding his severed head by the hair and swinging it before him like a lantern. He had been one who had set a father against his son, and he bore the nature of his terrible crime in the grisly state of his mangled body.

Some of you, no doubt, will try to dismiss what I have shared with you as nothing more than juvenile examples of punishment to fit the crime. But they are far more than that. The punishments I witnessed in my journey were, in reality, external embodiments of what sin does to the human soul. In our mortal lives, we can often hide the desiccated state of our souls from others; in the afterlife, we can no longer hide from others what we truly are inside.

Such was the case with the sodomites. As their sin resulted in utter barrenness, so they were forced to march naked along a desert of burning sand. As they made their way along the circular path, they were forbidden to pause even for a moment. If they did, they were made to lay prostrate on the fiery sand beside the blasphemers, whose rage against God led to an even greater barrenness of spirit.

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I do hope you noticed that in all three of the above examples, the sinners whose eternal states I witnessed were made to move perpetually in a circular motion. Such was the case for almost half the denizens of hell.

I trust that the significance of this will not be too hard to discern. Hell is not only a place of torment; it is a place of futility as well. The sinners I met learned nothing whatsoever from their punishments. They had become so set in their sinful ways that they had, quite literally, become their sins. There was, ultimately, no sinner there at all, just the sin going on and on forever.

Your age has done great and mighty things, but you have accepted too quickly and uncritically the belief that rebelliousness is by its very nature a positive, liberating act that sets us free to be more truly ourselves. Alas, as I learned first hand, the rebels in hell are all imprisoned in their own self-delusions. They think they have grown into fuller, richer versions of their former selves, when, in fact, they have lost their former selves and become living embodiments of the sin which they chose to honor and serve over God.

If you are not careful, citizens of the twenty-first century, that insidious process will begin even now while you live and breathe upon the earth. Even if you haven’t noticed it in your own face, you’ve all seen it in the face of a self-righteous, self-absorbed man or woman in his fifties or sixties. Slowly, incrementally, almost imperceptibly, the pride or greed or selfishness starts to engrave itself upon the color of the eye or the curve of the lip or the wrinkle in the brow.

Let go of your rebelliousness and disobedience, my friends, before it is too late, before you too find yourself circling the path of futility. There is still time to change, but it will not last forever.

—Dante

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An Exorcist Describes Death, Judgement, and Our Everlasting Life Fr. Gabriele Amorth

An Exorcist Describes Death, Judgement, and Our Everlasting Life

Fr. Gabriele Amorth

Heaven, the Kingdom of Love

I wish to include some basic notions of Christian eschatology, which, because of the Resurrection of Christ give a reason for great hope to everyone — in particular, to those who suffer from evil spells. Our life, our earthly pilgrimage, and our suffering are not the fruit of a blind randomness; rather, they are ordered for our greater good and definitive friendship with God.

Let us begin, then, precisely from paradise, the final goal and the reason for which we have been created. “Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they ‘see him as he is,’ face to face,” (CCC 1023).

Our Faith guarantees that in paradise we shall enjoy the vision of God; that is, we shall become participants in that same happiness that the divine Persons enjoy among themselves:

“The life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly glorification those who have believed in him and remained faithful to his will. Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ” (CCC, no. 1026).

A question arises spontaneously: What need did the Trinity have for creatures, for men and angels, when It was already perfect and absolutely sufficient in Itself? The Trinity did it solely out of love, gratuitous and unconditional love for us. The advantage is solely ours: love, joy, and happiness, for all, in paradise.

There are degrees of participation in the joy and love of God. This degree of rank is given according to the level of sanctity each person has reached during his lifetime: the joy of St. Francis of Assisi, for example, will be different from that of the good thief. There is a difference between men on earth, and there will be a difference in paradise.

It is similar to what happens with the stars in heaven: there are those that shine brighter and those that shine a little less. So also it will be with men in the glorious resurrection: all of us shall be resplendent, but each one with a different proportion. Each one will have that maximum of splendor and happiness that he is personally capable of, based on how he has lived his life. Some will have a greater capacity and others less, but without envy or jealousy toward each other.

Indeed, each one will know complete joy. A verse from Dante’s Divine Comedy comes to mind: “In his will is our peace.” In paradise there is no jealousy; each one is in the will of God, and in His will there is peace. Eternal peace is definitive, where each tear, each sorrow, and all envy will be wiped away.

The Souls in Purgatory

Purgatory is the place, or, better, the state to which come the souls that have need of a purification and therefore have not been immediately admitted to contemplate the face of God. This purification is necessary in order to arrive at sanctity, the condition that heaven requires. The Catechism speaks of the souls in purgatory: “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven” (no. 1030).

This article is from a chapter in An Exorcist Explains the Demonic.

We can understand that there are gradations or diverse states in purgatory; each one accommodates the situation of the soul that arrives there. There are the lower strata, more terrible because they are closer to hell, and the more elevated that are less terrible because they are much closer to the happiness of paradise. The level of purification is linked to this state.

The souls in purgatory are in a state of great suffering. We know, in fact, that they can pray for us and that they can obtain many graces for us, but they can no longer merit anything for themselves. The time for meriting graces finishes with death.

Purged souls can, however, receive our help in order to abbreviate their period of purification. This occurs in a powerful way through our prayers, with the offering of our sufferings, paying attention at Mass, specifically at funerals or at Gregorian Masses, celebrated for thirty consecutive days.

This last practice was introduced by St. Gregory the Great in the sixth century, inspired by a vision he had of a confrere who died without confessing himself and, having gone to purgatory, appeared to him, asking him to celebrate some Masses in his favor. The pope celebrated them for thirty days. At that point, the deceased appeared to him again, happy for having been admitted to paradise. One must take care: this does not mean that it will always work this way: that would be a magical attitude, unacceptable and erroneous toward a sacrament. In fact, it is solely God who decides these matters when He wills it through His divine mercy.

On the subject of Masses, it is necessary to say that they can be applied to a particular deceased, but, at the last moment, it is God who destines them to those who have a real need. For example, I often celebrate Masses for my parents, whom I believe in my conscience are already in paradise. Only God in His mercy will destine the benefits of my Masses to those who have more need, each one according to the criteria of justice and goodness reached during his life.

Regarding all that I have said, I wish warmly to advise that it is better to expiate suffering in this life and become a saint than, in a minimalist way, to aspire to purgatory, where the pains are long-lasting and heavy.

The Pains of Hell

The book of Revelation says that “the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world — he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev. 12:9).

Why were they hurled down to the earth? Because the punishment they were given is that of persecuting men, trying to lead them to eternal hell, rendering them their unfortunate companions for an eternity of suffering and torment.

How can this drama, which involves everyone, enter into the plans of God? As we have said, the next reason is the liberty granted by God to His creatures. Certainly we know that the mission of Satan and his acolytes is to ruin man, to seduce him, to lead him toward sin, and to distance him from the full participation in divine life, to which we have all been called, which is paradise.

Then there is hell, the state in which the demons and the condemned are distanced from the Creator, the angels, and the saints in a permanent and eternal condition of damnation. Hell, after all, is self-exclusion from communion with God. As the Catechism states: “We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves” (no. 1033). The one who dies in mortal sin without repenting goes to hell; in an impenitent way, he has not loved. It is not God who predestines a soul to hell; the soul chooses it with the way [the person] has lived his life.

We have some stories about hell that, because they are taken from private revelations or experiences, do not bind the faithful, but, nevertheless, have a notable value. I have spoken on more occasions in my books and in my interviews of the experience of St. Faustina Kowalska, who in her diary writes of her spiritual journey to hell.

It is shocking.

Stories and visions like these have to make us reflect. For this reason Our Lady of Fatima said to the seers: “Pray and offer sacrifices; too many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and offer sacrifices for them.”

Being in the kingdom of hate, damned souls are subjected to the torment of the demons and to the sufferings they reciprocally inflict on one another. In the course of my exorcisms I have understood that there is a hierarchy of demons, just as there is with angels. More than once I have found myself involved with demons who were possessing a person and who demonstrated a terror toward their leaders.

One day, after having done many exorcisms on a poor woman, I asked the minor demon who was possessing her: “Why don’t you go away?” And he replied: “Because if I go away from here, my leader, Satan, will punish me.” There exists in hell a subjugation dictated by terror and hatred. This is the abysmal contrast with paradise, the place where everyone loves one another and where, if a soul sees someone holier, that soul is immensely happy because of the benefit it receives from the happiness of another.

Some say that hell is empty. The response to this affirmation is found in chapter 25 of Matthew’s Gospel, where it speaks of the Last Judgment: the upright will go to eternal life and the others, the cursed, will go to the eternal fire. We can certainly hope that hell is empty, because God does not wish the death of a sinner but that he convert and live (see Ezek. 33:11). For this He offers His mercy and saving grace to each one. In the Gospel of John Jesus says: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23); thus He insists on our continuous conversion supported by the grace of the sacraments, in particular the sacrament of Penance.

Returning to the question of hell, whether it is empty or not: unfortunately, I fear that many souls go there, all those who per­severe in their choice of distancing themselves from God to the end. Let us meditate often on this. Pascal said it well: “Meditation on hell has filled paradise with saints.”

The Judgment on Life

The Catechism speaks of the particular judgment: “The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith” (no. 1021).

And further on it adds: “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven — through a purification or immediately — or immediate and everlasting damnation” (no. 1022). Then it adds the criterion with which this judgment will occur, taken from the writings of St. John of the Cross: “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.”

The first thing that I would emphasize is precisely this last: the final criterion of our judgment will be the love that we have had toward God and toward our brothers and sisters. How, then, will this particular judgment occur?

At times, I run into persons who are convinced that immediately after death they will meet Jesus in person and that He will give them a piece of His mind for some of their dolorous affairs. Frankly, I do not think that it will happen like this. Rather, I believe that, immediately after death, each of us will appear before Jesus, but it will not be the Lord who will review our lives and examine the good and the bad each of us has done. We ourselves shall do it, in truth and honesty.

Each one will have before himself the complete vision of his life, and he will immediately see the real spiritual state of his soul and will go where his situation will bring him. It will be a solemn moment of self-truth, a tremendous and definitive moment, as definitive as the place where we shall be sent. Let us consider the case of the person who goes to purgatory.

It will involve the sorrow of not immediately going to paradise that will make him understand that his purification on earth was not complete, and he will feel the immediate need of purifying himself. His desire of acceding to the vision of God will be strong, and the desire for liberation from the weight of the pains accumulated during his earthly life will be compelling.

The Last Judgment: It Will Be Love That Will Judge Us

Let us end with the universal judgment:

The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he de­termines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. (CCC, no. 1040)

This is one of the most difficult realities to understand. The Last Judgment coincides with the return of Christ; however we do not know the precise time it will occur. We know that it will be preceded immediately by the resurrection of the dead. In that precise moment, the history of the world will definitively and globally end. The Catechism again specifies: “In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare [cf. John 12:49]” (no. 1039).

The essential question is: What is the concrete rapport that each man has with God? As I have mentioned, the solemn response is found in the Gospel of Mathew. The saved and the damned will be chosen on the basis of their recognition or rejection of Christ in the infirm, in the hungry, and in the poor (Matt. 25:31–46). Two essential elements emerge from this. The first is a division, a schism, between those going to paradise and those going to hell, between the saved and the condemned. The second regards the manner in which this judgment will be accomplished — with love. God’s Commandments and every other precept are summarized solely in one commandment: “[L]ove one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).

We can easily understand that this command is addressed to each human conscience in every age, including those who lived before Christ and those, who today, as in centuries past, never heard anyone speak of the Son of Man. Therefore, the finale of this stupendous passage is the beautiful passage from Mathew: “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Matt. 25:40).

If each man — apart from his religion, his culture, his epoch, and any other circumstance — has loved his neighbor, he has also loved the Lord Jesus in person. Any rapport with our brothers and sisters in any locality, any age, or any situation is, all in all, a rapport with Jesus Christ in person. Each human creature who achieves fulfillment in his human relationships is, at the same time, relating to God. For this reason, the love of neighbor is the fundamental precept of life. John the Evangelist helps us to understand that we cannot say that we love God, whom we cannot see, if we do not love our brother, whom we can see (cf. 1 John 4:20).

The love that will judge us will be the same love that we have (or have not) practiced toward others, the same love that Jesus lived in His earthly experience and taught us in the Gospels, the same love to which we are entitled through the sacraments, through prayer, and through a life of faith. The ability to love comes from grace, and it is much reduced in those who do not know Christ; and even more so in those who know Him but do not follow Him, a choice that assumes a serious sin. Indeed, Jesus said: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16).

On the other hand, in announcing the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis reminds us that the other fundamental aspect of the question is that the love with which we shall be judged will be the Love of mercy. “Mercy is the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us.” This mercy, he says, “is the bridge that connects God and man and opens our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.”

God’s compassionate glance and His desire to live in total communion with us opens our hearts to the hope that each sin and each failure inflicted on man by his great enemy, Satan, will be looked upon with the eyes of a loving and accepting Father. Therefore, let us live full of hope, because we know that, even in the difficulties of our life’s journey, God will wipe away all the tears from our eyes. On that day “death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

Editor’s note: This article is adapted from a chapter in Fr. Amorth’s An Exorcist Explains the Demonic: The Antics of Satan and His Army of Fallen Angels, which is available from Sophia Institute Press.

Find more of Fr. Amorth’s work on Catholic Exchange by clicking here.

https://catholicexchange.com/exorcist-describes-death-judgement-everlasting-life

Hell

Hell
The hell with hell! says the modern mind. Of all Christianity's teachings, hell is certainly the least popular. Non-Christians ignore it, weak Christians excuse it, and anti-Christians attack it.
Some, like Bertrand Russell in his famous essay "Why I Am Not a Christian", argue that because Jesus clearly taught it, he was not a good moral teacher. (Russell's essay, by the way, makes fine devotional reading for a Christian. My college roommate was about to lose his faith until he read it; he said to me, "If those are the arguments against Christianity, I'd better be a Christian.")

Why do we believe there's a hell? Not because we're vindictive. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." Why, then? Simply because we've been told, by Christ himself. There's a popular fallacy that Jesus spoke only comforting words and that the fear of hell began with Saint Paul. The textual truth is the opposite: Jesus uttered many "hell fire and damnation" sermons, while nearly all the passages that offer any hope to the universalist (who believe all men will be saved in the end) are from Paul.

Fear of hell is not a base motive. As George MacDonald says, "As long as there are wild beasts about, it is better to be afraid than secure. "God's graciousness accepts even the "low" motive of fear of hell for salvation if that's the best we can muster. His arms are open to all prodigals. He is not high-minded, like some of his detractors. All's fair in love and war. And life is both.

Hell follows from two other doctrines: heaven and free will. If there is a heaven, there can be a not-heaven. And if there is free will, we can act on it and abuse it. Those who deny hell must also deny either heaven (as does Western secularism) or free will (as does Eastern pantheism).

Hell and heaven make life serious. Heaven without hell removes the bite from life's drama. C. S. Lewis once said that he never met a single person who had a lively faith in heaven without a similar belief in hell. The height of the mountain is measured by the depth of the valley, the greatness of salvation by the awfulness of the thing we're saved from.

What is hell? The popular image of demons gleefully poking pitchforks into unrepentant posteriors misses the point of the biblical image of fire. Fire destroys. Gehenna, the word Jesus used for hell, was the valley outside Jerusalem that the Jews used for the perpetual burning of garbage because it had been desecrated by heathen tribes who used it for human sacrifice. In hell you make an eternal ash of yourself. Hell is not eternal life with torture but something far worse: eternal dying. What goes to hell, said C. S. Lewis, is "not a man, but remains".

The images for hell in Scripture are horrible, but they're only symbols. The thing symbolized is not less horrible than the symbols, but more. Spiritual fire is worse than material fire; spiritual death is worse than physical death. The pain of loss – the loss of God, who is the source of all joy – is infinitely more horrible than any torture could ever be. All who know God and his joy understand that. Saints do not need to be threatened with fire, only with loss. "All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it – or else that it was within your grasp and you have lost it forever" (C. S. Lewis).

Jesus does not tell us much detail about hell. He tells us that it exists, that it's horrible, that any man can go there. Judas seems to be one, for Jesus says of him, "It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." If no one goes to hell, it would seem to be inexcusable for Jesus to give us so many fearful warnings about it. But he does not give us population statistics. To his disciples' question "Are many saved?" he does not answer with estimates but with a forceful appeal to the will: "Strive to enter in."

Jesus says the way to hell is broad and many find it and that the way to heaven is narrow and few find it. And he means it: you don't get to heaven simply by being born, by being nice, or by oozing into an eternal growth experience. But "few" here does not mean that less than half of mankind will be saved. For God speaks as our Father, not our statistician. Even one child lost is too many, and the rest saved are too few. The good shepherd who left his ninety-nine sheep safe at home to rescue his one lost sheep found even 99 percent salvation too "few".

The most important question about hell, as about heaven, is the practical one: What roads lead there?

The most important question about hell, as about heaven, is the practical one: What roads lead there? They are interior, of course. In fact, heaven and hell may be the very same objective place – namely God's love, experienced oppositely by opposite souls, just as the same opera or rock concert can be heavenly for you and hellish for the reluctant guest at your side. The fires of hell maybe made of the very love of God, experienced as torture by those who hate him: the very light of God's truth, hated and fled from in vain by those who love darkness.

Imagine a man in hell – no, a ghost – endlessly chasing his own shadow, as the light of God shines endlessly behind him. If he would only turn and face the light, he would be saved. But he refuses to – forever. Just as we can attain heaven by implicit as well as explicit faith ("Saint Socrates, pray for us," says Erasmus), so hell too can be reached without explicit rebellion. This is the terrible – and terribly needed – truth taught by C. S. Lewis in The Great Divorce and Charles Williams in Descent into Hell. We can drift, slide, even snooze comfortably into hell. All God's messengers, the prophets, say so.

We desperately need to hear this truth about hell again, simply out of honesty, because it is there. And also out of compassion. For when an abyss looms ahead, the least compassionate thing to tell the traveler is "peace, peace, when there is no peace". Out of love for god and man, let us tell the truth about hell!

Sure, we'll be mocked as vindictive, manipulative, or fundamentalist. Let it be so. Sometimes it seems that we're more afraid of sharing our Lord's holy unrespectability than of hell itself. It's a small price to pay for the salvation of a single infinitely precious soul. And that is the business we're supposed to be in.

AUGUST 1, The Sunday Homily - by Fr. James Farfaglia

 STEPPING STONES TOWARD ETERNITY --

The summer following the tragic events of September 11, I took the time to visit New York City and “ground-zero” during my home visit to Binghamton, NY. My visit to Manhattan gave me the opportunity to reconnect with a high-school friend whom I had not seen since 1979. He worked in an office building located three blocks from “ground-zero”. We met at his apartment on the north side of Manhattan. The 45-minute subway ride took us to the spot where the World Trade Center once proudly stood. Although my friend was one of the many who could walk away from lower Manhattan through the billowing cloud of smoke and dust, he graciously allowed me to visit something that I had to see. I needed to stand on hallowed ground and pray for the dead.
As we got off of the subway and walked towards “ground-zero”, I quickly began to perceive the horrific suffering of the innocent and the heroic. Hundreds of people lined up along the fences to look, to pray, to remember and to cry.
As I gazed upon the craters where the towers once rested, the infamous iron cross, the American flag proudly flying in the gentle breeze and the countless memorials erected along the surrounding sidewalks, I reflected upon the fundamental questions of human existence. Who am I? What is the purpose of life? What happens when this life comes to an end?

In light of these questions, is the salvation of your soul worth more than the home that you live in, the school that your children attend, the size of your portfolio or the car that you drive?
Let us recall words from this Sunday’s Old Testament reading: “Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1: 2).

The World Trade Center, symbol of economic power and prosperity, was snuffed out in a short span of time. All of the fallen faced their creator without their home, their education, their investments or their car.

For the fallen, this life had ended and eternity began. But for the millions that remain, it seems that for the majority, life goes on unchanged by the apocalyptic events of September 11. The fundamental questions are never asked and no desire for transcendence occurs.

Atheism causes disbelief in God. Nevertheless, the atheist is usually passionate about an ideological cause. Secularism is different. It suffocates the soul and kills it. The secularist is only interested in the here and now. The desire for eternal life is converted into passion for money, sports, entertainment, pleasure, and fame.

As we read this Sunday’s second reading from Saint Paul, we are reminded how to find meaning in life, establish a hierarchy of values and place priorities in the things of eternity. “If you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Think of what is above, not of what is on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3: 1-3).

As I contemplated the large empty craters that once gave support to the Twin Towers, I recalled the familiar words of Ash Wednesday. “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return”. These words tie in perfectly to the words that we pray in this weekend’s responsorial psalm: “You turn man back to dust, saying, ‘Return, O children of men’. For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday, now that it is past, or as a watch of the night” (Psalm 90: 3-5).

As a Catholic priest I have often seen death close at hand. For almost twenty years, I have prayed at the side of little babies, children, teen-agers, adults in their prime, and adults in the twilight of their lives as they died. Death comes at any age.

No matter how many advances science may bring to our contemporary world, no one will ever be able to keep people from dying. Dying is a part of life. It is part of our earthly existence.

When we were little children we learned the simple, yet profound truth from our catechism lessons about our existence. Why did God make me? God made me to know him, to love him, to serve him in this world and to be happy with him in everlasting life. Here lies the plain truth about our life on earth. We will not be here forever.

Life is like a bus ride. We move forward with our bags packed, hoping that when the bus stops and the door opens, we will be at the right location. We must remember the fundamental truth of Revelation: eternity consists of three states: heaven, purgatory and hell. To deny the existence of purgatory and hell is to deny Christianity. To tell people that everyone is going to heaven is to deprive them of the truth. It is a lie to tell people that everyone is saved. Moreover, when people accept this lie, the very lie may even endanger their eternal salvation because they will no longer be using the necessary means of salvation in order to gain eternal life.

“Put to death, then, the parts of you that are earthly: immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Stop lying to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed, for knowledge, in the image of its creator” (Colossians 3: 5-10).

One day each of us will stand before God for judgment. We will stand before God without a lawyer, without family and friends to support us. We will stand alone before Almighty God. Each day could be our last day on earth. We should each ask ourselves today, if I were to die today, how would God judge me? Is there any particular sin, attachment, or attitude that might be an obstacle to my eternal salvation? Rather than becoming sad when we consider our own death, the reality of leaving this life and facing God for judgment should lead us to continual conversion.

Let us remember the words from this Sunday’s gospel passage: "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions” (Luke 12: 15).

A very dear friend of mine has spent most of his adult life in the lay apostolic work of the Catholic Church. Now, as he has entered his mature years and enjoys the fruits of his many labors, he sets his eyes on eternity.

In order to help him prepare for eternity, a number of years ago, he commissioned a friend to make him a simple coffin made of pine. The coffin sits in his basement, waiting for the day when his mortal remains will rest. To some, this idea may seem strange, even morbid. However, a visible reminder of death is an excellent aid to meditate on the reality of death and prepare for eternal life. Our reflection on death must fill us with hope in the reward of eternal life, however, our thoughts should also remind us that we need to be well prepared and ready for that mysterious day when the Lord call us to himself.

This Sunday’s liturgy is not inviting us to live unconcerned for the things of this world. We cannot live reckless lives, waiting for pennies to fall from heaven. Christian stewardship means that we take our time, talent and financial resources, and do all that we can to make this world a better place for everyone. There is nothing wrong about enjoying God’s creation. Christians need to dress properly, enjoy their homes and properly enjoy all that God provides us. However, we are called to live detached from the things of this earth and remember that creatures are only stepping stones on our journey towards eternity.

One man who has correctly understood Christian stewardship is Tom Monaghan. Tom Monaghan’s early childhood was a true test of endurance. His father died on Christmas Eve when he was only four years old. Tom’s mother could not support his brother Jim and himself on her salary of only $27.50 a week so she decided to put the two brothers into a foster home.

After many years of hard work, in 1960, Tom and his brother Jim borrowed $900 to buy a pizzeria named Dominick’s in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Tom’s success certainly did not happen overnight. In his first 13 years in the business, he worked 100 hour work weeks, seven days a week. He only had one vacation, and that was for six days when he got married to his wife Margie.

By the late 1970’s, Domino’s was up to over 200 locations. The 1980’s proved to have phenomenal growth. In 1985, sales topped $1 billion and just three years later, sales hit over $2 billion. The number one pizza delivery company in the world closed out the decade with over 5,000 locations.

Tom Monaghan hit the headlines in December 1998 when he sold his company, the international pizza giant Domino's, and raised over a billion dollars from the sale. His motivation: to give his money away to Catholic and pro-life charities. "I feel it's God's money and I want to use it for the highest possible purpose - to help as many people as possible get to heaven."

Aside from founding Legatus, a Catholic association of businessmen, Monaghan is best known for his founding and developing Ave Maria University in Naples, Florida.

You can help Father James and his apostolic work by making a donation to Saint Helena of the True Cross of Jesus Catholic Church in Corpus Christi, Texas.
The audio podcast of this Sunday homily will be posted some time Sunday afternoon.
http://donotbediscouraged.blogspot.com/2010/07/sunday-homily-stepping-stones-toward.html

HELL EXISTS

The Reality of Hell
One of the great dangers of this century, and thus one of the great triumphs of Satan, has been the growing disbelief in the existence of Hell. For many, Hell has become a fable, a myth, an outdated holdover from "the Old Testament God of fire, brimstone and judgment." Urged on by false doctrines and a want to believe that there can be no such thing as eternal punishment for serious wrongs "when Jesus is a God of love and kindness," many have thrown Hell out the window – along with concern for sin. After all, if there is no Hell, then why need there be concern for sin? Unfortunately, they forget that "I am the Lord and I change not" (Malachi 3:6). Hell has not suddenly evaporated because we would prefer it so. How subtle Satan is in these times. He increasingly tricks people into his web by disguising its very existence. He wants you to let your guard down. Please do not be deceived. Hell, eternal punishment for serious sins, exists. Scripture, the Church and reports of modern-day visionaries all confirm that Hell is a reality – never-ending reality for those souls who must reside there with Satan and all the other damned forever, because by their own free will and choice they rejected God while on earth and excluded themselves from communion with Him.

Boy Raised from the Dead by St. John Bosco
A fifteen year old boy in Turin was about to die. He called for Don Bosco, but the saint was not able to make it in time. Another priest heard the boy's confession and the boy died. When Don Bosco returned to Turin, he set out at once to see the boy. When told that the boy was dead, he insisted that it was "just a misunderstanding." After a moment of prayer in the room of the dead child, Don Bosco suddenly cried out: "Charles! Rise!" To the utter amazement of all present, the boy stirred, opened his eyes, and sat up. Seeing Don Bosco, his eyes lit up.

"Father, I should now be in Hell!" gasped the boy. "Two weeks ago I was with a bad companion who led me into sin and at my last confession, I was afraid to tell everything . . . Oh, I've just come out of a horrible dream! I dreamt I was standing on the edge of a huge furnace surrounded by a horde of devils. They were about to throw me into the flames when a beautiful Lady appeared and stopped them. 'There's still hope for you, Charles,' she told me. 'You have not yet been judged!' At that moment I heard you calling me. Oh, Don Bosco! What a joy to see you again! Will you please hear my confession?"

After hearing the boy's confession, Don Bosco said to the boy, "Charles, now that the gates of Heaven lie wide open for you, would you rather go there or stay here with us?" The boy looked away for a moment and his eyes grew moist with tears. An expectant hush fell over the room. "Don Bosco", he said at last, "I'd rather go to Heaven." The mourners watched in amazement as Charles leaned back on the pillows, closed his eyes, and settled once more into the stillness of death.