DEATH AND RESURRECTION – Part II
7. Is anyone in Hell?
Jesus speaks unequivocally that hell exists and that man can really go there, for our freedom is true, and God takes our decisions seriously and respects our decisions. We know that there are fallen angels in hell who have ceased to love and who we call evil spirits. But I do not know if there are any people there. So, we can hope for salvation for all the people of this earth. While man is able to reject God's gift of salvation, the Church has never stated and will never say that any of the people is among the condemned. We do not know what happens to a person in the process of dying. We also do not know the degree of consciousness and freedom of those who sometimes even drastically harmed themselves and other people in mortality. We can be sure, however, that if a man is in Hell, God still loves him and suffers with him. Each of us who converts and begins to love not only saves himself/herself, but also protects God from suffering.
When it comes to purgatory, we do not have enough information to go beyond assumptions or guesses. All we know with certainty is that those who end up in Purgatory have already attained the assurance of salvation. I am reluctant to talk about purgatory because immature people console themselves with the idea that if they love little on earth, they will have another chance to atone "there" for it. Meanwhile, God dreams of us going straight to heaven, like Mary and like many other saints before us. But it certainly makes sense to pray for the dead. The Bible directly assures us of this. Such prayer helps us to stay connected with God and with those who are already on the eternal side of existence.
8. Death is Birth
People usually count the years of life not from the beginning of their existence, that is, from conception, but from the date of birth. This is probably mainly because it is simply easier to determine the day of our birth than the day of our conception from which our life began. Birth is the transition from the womb of the mother to the womb of the world. This is the first experience of death. In the process of transitioning to the womb, the newborn experiences a powerful pain, thermal shock (a feeling of severe cold) and shortness of breath, because he must suddenly learn to breathe in with his lungs. The end of mortality is the transition from the womb of this world to a world that is incomparably larger and so extraordinary that life in it will fascinate and surprise us throughout eternity. Death is largely analogous to birth in that a dying person also usually feels pain, is cold, and has difficulty breathing.
Birth and dying are therefore two aspects of the same process, namely the transition from living in a smaller world to living in a larger world. For the first few months of existence, we only need the space provided by our mother in her own interior. To extend our life after birth by about a hundred times (nine to nine hundred months on average), we need a world billions of times bigger than our mother's insides. In this situation, from the perspective of mortality, we are not able to imagine how many more billions of times the space of our lives will have to be enlarged in order that it will last for us forever. Especially since this time our world will be enlarge more deeply into love than in length or wide! It is worth realizing that each person changes the world in which he/she lives three times, not just twice! First, we live inside our mother, then we go to life in this great visible world and finally we have to go "to the third side of existence", that is, enter a world that will fascinate us for all eternity.
9. When is the end of the world?
It does not really matter to me when this temporal world ends its existence. The eternal fate of each of us depends on the way we live here and now, not on reflecting on the future. Therefore, Jesus cut so firmly all talk about the end of the world, the number of the saved, or the way of life in heaven. He came to earth to teach us the art of mortality and to reassure us that the only way to heaven is earth! The only way to a good future is through the holy present. Whoever looks deep into the present can understand and significantly predict the effects of our current behaviors that affect our future. Many people wonder if they will see the end of the world. Meanwhile, it is certain that each of us will see the end of our world on this earth, that is, the end of our own earthly life. It is also certain that before we experience our own death, we will face the painful experience of the passing away of those we love and without whom it is difficult for us to imagine our continued existence.
10. Who decides when to die?
God cares for our fate at every stage of our existence. God dreams of each of us living in mortality long and happily and dying in the presence of those who sincerely love him and who care with tenderness for his mortality and eternal fate. In his fantasy of love, God does His best to make each of us experience the birth to eternity after a long and holy life, at peace with Him, with others and with ourselves, surrounded by the people who love us the most and whom we love the most. On the other hand, God seriously respects our freedom and our decisions. Unfortunately, there are people who cross God's good plans. That is why it happens that someone dies at the most unfavorable moment, for example, in the course of committing a crime, or takes his own life. Only when we listen to God in all things, we can hope that our transition to eternity will be serene and that we will experience our parting from mortality in the presence of those who love us.
We rightly call God the Lord of life and death because our existence originates from Him and remains His forever. No human has the right to take life either his own or of other people. This does not mean, however, that in the case of every human being it is God who directly decided on the method and time of departing to eternity. The Creator asks us to follow the principles of the Decalogue precisely so that our earthly life may be happy and that our transition to eternity may be serene. But whoever turns away from God, who disregards God's love and truth, God's dreams and commandments, risks that his life and his dying will turn out to be a tragedy and that his death will occur in dramatic circumstances.
We will continue tomorrow.
fr. george