There are three possible destinations to which you can go, immediately after your life on earth: Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory. These three possibilities can motivate where you go:
1. Fear of eternal punishment in the fires of Hell, as Our Lady warned at Fatima;
2. Fear of extended punishment in the fires of Purgatory; and
3. A yearning for eternal happiness with the Beatific Vision.
Keep the above incentives in mind every day of your life to ensure a glorious and happy salvation.
Let’s review:
He who dies in mortal sin, even if only with a single mortal sin, will be sent at once to hell.
For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and a smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a guest of one day that passeth by ….
Book of Wisdom, 5:15.
By mortal sin a man cuts himself off from God. It is really he himself that sends himself to hell. God’s desire would be to bring him to heaven if he would have maintained his baptismal innocents and not polluted his soul with sin.[1]
What is purgatory? Purgatory is a place of temporary punishment for those who have died in the state of grace, but have not fully satisfied God’s justice for all punishment due their sins.
Purgatory is a middle state where souls destined for heaven are detained and purified. Souls in purgatory cannot help themselves, for their time for meriting is past. But they can be helped by the faithful on earth, by prayers, and other good works.[2] …
The greatness and the duration of a soul’s sufferings in Purgatory vary according to the gravity of the sins committed. One who has lived a long life of sin, but is saved from hell only by a deathbed repentance, will stay in the purging fires of Purgatory longer, and suffer there more intensely than a child, who has committed only the venial sins of an ordinary child.[3]
Now it is time to discuss your final arrangements in preparation for death. Surely you see that you must live your life making ready for your all-important Particular Judgment.
Jesus Christ is the Judge at the Particular Judgment. Before Him each soul must stand. The soul will stand in the awful presence of God the Son, to give an account of its whole life: of every thought, word, act, and omission.
Our Lord warns us:
Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment.
St. Matthew’s Gospel, 12:36.
Neither does the Father judge any man, but all judgment He has given to the Son.
St. John’s Gospel, 5:22.
A man’s whole life will be spread before him like a great picture. He will remember everything, although he might have forgotten much at the moment of death. How he will wish then that he had done only good.[4]
Another important matter to consider at this time is an old subject that has regretfully gained new acceptance in today’s pagan world: cremation. Because cremation indicates that a person doesn’t believe an article of faith (i.e., the resurrection of the body), it is incumbent on you to specify in no uncertain terms that you do not want to be cremated for any reason (although the government may call for cremation during an epidemic, for example.)
Our Lord often foretold the resurrection of the body, and emphasized its importance:
For the hour is coming is which all who are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the Son of God. And they who have done good shall come forth unto resurrection of life; but they who have done evil unto resurrection of judgment
St. John’s Gospel, 5:28-29.
Of course, it is most important to arrange for traditional prayers, as well as a Requiem High Mass, if possible, and for a grave in a Catholic cemetery.[5]
Everyone’s goal is eternal happiness with the Beatific Vision, so let’s discuss what this means and how it can inspire us to strive to achieve It. This will help us to avoid mortal – and even venial – sin.
The only means, then, of arriving at a knowledge of the Divine Essence [viz., in the Beatific Vision] is that God unite Himself in some sort to us, and after an incomprehensible manner elevate our minds to a higher degree of perfection, and thus render us capable of contemplating the beauty of His Nature. This the light of His glory will accomplish. Illumined by its splendor we shall see God, the true light, in His own light.
For the blessed always see God present and by this greatest most exalted of gifts, being made partakers of the divine nature, they enjoy true and solid happiness.[6]
Yes, everyone must die, but if you love God and avoid evil, He has prepared for you eternal happiness with the Beatific Vision. It is not that hard to live in such a way that you always keep in mind the possibilities and incentives to reach your final glorious salvation.
[1] My Catholic Faith, Bishop Louis Morrow, My Mission House, Kenosha Wisconsin, ©1949, Ch. 77, p.155.
[2] My Catholic Faith, Bishop Louis Morrow, My Mission House, Kenosha Wisconsin, ©1949, Ch. 77, p.156.
[3] My Catholic Faith, Bishop Louis Morrow, My Mission House, Kenosha Wisconsin, ©1949, Ch. 77, p.158.
[4] My Catholic Faith, Bishop Louis Morrow, My Mission House, Kenosha Wisconsin, ©1949, Ch. 77, p.154-155.
[5] We realize that Catholic graveyards are, in general, owned and operated by Catholic dioceses, and that these same dioceses are now controlled by the modernist hierarchy pushing all the evils and nonsense of the past 60 years since Vatican II. Yet, one can be buried in diocesan cemeteries which are older, and which were blessed by certainly-valid bishops before Vatican II. Thus, if the bishop was valid, the blessing was valid, and thus the cemetery ground is sacred – even though the dioceses themselves are rotten during the current great apostasy around us.