Once, when I was teaching catechism to a student, I asked the question: "What is your most precious possession?" Of course the student did not know what to reply as there could be thousands of different answers to that question. But I said I wanted only one specific answer.
So I said that maybe I should word the question differently: "What is it that will last forever?" Now the answer became very obvious. Of course, your soul!
Today very few people fully understand the importance of their soul. They live just for the passing pleasures of the moment and all that the world has to offer. But little do they think about eternal life; about the life that will never end. Some cling so to this life that, if they could remain here for ever, they would not care at all for the Kingdom of God. They take pride in building up their worldly wealth which will be of no value for them when they die. They live just for the moment, indulging in every pleasure imaginable. How foolish they are. When they die, they will have the bitter realization of the uselessness and nothingness of what they loved.
No one can deny that someday they must die. But then what?
The Church has always taught that, at the moment of death, the soul will leave the body and, accompanied with its guardian angel, will go before the judgement seat of God to be judged. Then it will be decided if the soul will go to the eternal bliss of heaven, the purifying fires of purgatory, or to the eternal torments of hell.
Purgatory, as we know it, is only a temporary place of purification – be it for one week, 40 years, or even for centuries, depending on the state of the soul when the person dies. But the destination of heaven and hell are eternal. Let's meditate on these two eternal destinations.
On July 13, 1917, at Fatima in Portugal, the Holy Virgin Mary showed hell to the three little shepherd children. Lucy, one of the seers, later wrote:
"Our Lady opened her hands once more, as she had done two previous months. The rays of light seemed to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight nor equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear…"
Saint Frances of Rome, who lived between1384 and 1440, had several visions of hell that she described in her writings. Here are some excerpts:
"The souls of the lazy ones are set on a furnace. The flames cover them completely. They hold their heads bowed down in their hands, with arms that are crossed. The seat they are sitting on is a square stone that is sculptured and dug with cracks like a grooved column so that the lines are full of live coals, and the stone itself is on fire… The coals that are filling the cracks burns them. The hooks that are manipulated by the butcher tears them and rips them into pieces.
"The hateful and the envious are sitting in the middle of the flames in the inferior part of the abyss. The demons tear them with combs of enflamed iron.
"The usurers are on a table of fire on which they are nailed with their hands laid down at their sides. They are not disposed in the form of a cross. On their heads is placed a crown of fire. The demons have stoves that contain boiling gold and silver. They pour the frightfully hot metals in the mouths of the damned and they anxiously pierce a hole in the chest over the heart. In that hole, they pour the liquefied gold and silver, saying to their victims: "O miserable souls! Remember your past life!"
"The general punishment of the proud is the following: In their prison stands a gigantic lion made of enflamed iron. In its throat are planted sharpened razors that are fiery red. In its sides are moving snakes and frogs, demons seen under the aspects of filthy animals.
"At the posterior part of that lion are disposed, like in the front, burning razors.
"The devils that are assigned for that function throw the proud in the air. In this way they fall in the mouth of the iron monster on the razors. The wretches are cut and divided to the point that they look dead. After that, they pass in the stomach of the lion and find themselves plunged in the accumulation of disgusting and ugly animals who are dirty and venomous. So they seemed to be annihilated, but they do not take much time to revive, to take back new forces, because the unfortunate cannot die…
"The unfortunate that let themselves do these crimes, and who caused Sodom and Gomorrah, live in the deepest and most terrifying area of the eternal abyss. They endure terrifying punishments.
"Here the demons are armed with long enflamed sticks that they impale and run through them. They pierce through the body until you see the point of their instruments of fire come out at the mouth.
"Their butchers also hold in their hands hooks of red iron, and they tear them from head to foot. Sometimes, to make them suffer even more, they will take the extremity that comes out of their throat, and will completely pull it out, and they will start back again to pass it through their guts. The souls that live through these terrifying tortures never see them stopped nor diminished for one single moment."
Oh, happy are we if we suffer with patience on earth the troubles of this present life. Distress of circumstances, fears, bodily infirmities, persecutions, and crosses of every kind will some day come to an end; and if we are saved, they will become for us subjects of joy and glory in paradise.
Throughout the centuries, many spiritual writers have, let's say, dreamed about what the Kingdom of Heaven must be like. In the writings of St. Alphonse de Liguori, in his book entitled The Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, he writes the following about his idea of Heaven on pages 459 to 461:
Beauties like the beauties of paradise, eye hath never seen; harmonies like unto the harmonies of paradise, ear hath never heard, nor hath ever human heart gained the comprehension of the joys which God hath prepared for those who love Him. Beautiful is the sight of the landscape adorned with hills, plains, woods, and views of the sea. Beautiful is the sight of a garden abounding in fruit, flowers, and fountains. Oh, how beautiful is paradise!
"To understand how great the joys of paradise are, it is enough to know that in that blessed realm resides a God omnipotent, whose care is to render happy his beloved souls. St. Bernard has stated that paradise is a place where "there is nothing that thou wouldst not, and everything that thou wouldst."
"In paradise there will be no more persecutions, no jealousies are there, for there do all in sincerity love one another, and each rejoices in each other's good, as if it were his own. No more bodily infirmities, no pains are there, for the body is no longer subject to suffering; no poverty is there, for every one is rich to the full, not having anything more to desire. No more fears are there, for the soul, being confirmed in grace, can sin no more, nor lose that supreme good which it possesses.
"There the sight is satisfied in beholding that city so beautiful, and its citizens all clothed in royal apparel, for they are all kings of the everlasting kingdom... The smell will be satisfied with the perfumes of paradise. The hearing will be satisfied with the harmonies of heaven and the canticles of the blessed, who will all, with ravishing sweetness, sing the divine praises for all eternity."
It will be good for one to meditate on eternity, knowing that we all must die, sooner or later. But how many really give eternity must thought.
Many saints have stated that there is nothing more important than your eternal salvation; salvation is our only affair. Everything on earth comes and goes, even our bodies must die some day, but eternity will never end.
Now the ultimate question arises: "How will You spend Your'forever', knowing that you will not be given a second chance?"
Melvin Sickler is a remarkable apostle. He does the door-to-door Rosary Crusade all over Canada and the United States to solicit subscriptions to Michael, and hold meetings.
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