URGENT

For days now the priest at masses I joined focused his homilies on death. First, is on the inevitability of death and the second is that we will be all held accountable with all the things that we do here on earth.

He stressed further that we like to postpone things as if we have all the time in the world to do them later. Doing good today can be done tomorrow right? Extending help to a beggar even giving him / her few coins can be the done the next day too since we are always in a hurry. Seeing a member of the family this weekend can be postponed to the next weekend... and a lot more reasons we can create in our mind just to forgo the good we can do now.

This same priest also mentioned that Satan's role is to make us feel that hell does not exist and so we continue with life doing things as if ... he does not exist

The other day, one of the employees mentioned series of incidents of deaths. One joined a marathon race. He did not finish it since in the process, he just dropped dead. Cardiac arrest was the sited cause.

The other one was a jeepney accident that caused death to 4 people. These people were probably daily travelers that may not have any clue of the nearing end of their lives.

I would like to quote Pope John Paul VI:

"Somebody should have told us right at the start of our lives that we are dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of everyday. Do it I say! Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many tomorrows."

Let me push further by sharing my conversations with Mike earlier. From it, we were able to derive the following :

1. Our life here on earth is always a choice between life or death. Life by doing the right thing and death by committing sin.

2. Sin is a deliberate choice to turn away from God

3. When we die, we face God that is pure light and perfect

4. As His light pierces us, we are able to realize the stains we have and thus, the deliberate choices to commit sin are in effect our own judgement in the face of a perfect and pure Being in front of us

5. In shame we depart from Him heading to where we are supposed to be

6. But (i would say), in His mercy, He has the last say to giving chances to people.... to the souls. He is the ultimate judge as to our final destination.

I remember meeting someone in the monastery who discussed with me a lot of those books that he read about purgatory which we Catholics believe in. To enumerate his findings about the subject :

1. When we die there is an initial judgement. Some would immediately go to heaven, others to hell and others to purgatory.

2. Those who go to hell deliberately made their decision to turn away from God in varied forms reflected in their choices

3. Those that go to heaven definitely lived ordinary lives in an extra ordinary way such as those saints declared by the Church ( but there are those undeclared ones living silently and faithfully living life as they should pure and obedient to God).

4. Those that do not qualify heaven (hahahha feeling expert to discuss about this...please... I am a neophyte just trying to discuss the best i could hoping I would be able to give justice to the topic) and are not totally for hell are given chances to be purified and so they go to purgatory. They undergo purgation or the purification process

5. Purgatory is like hell. There is fire and all painful things that the souls undergo for the purification process. One day in it is like hundreds and thousands of days of pain on earth.

6. Thus, anyone of us here on earth should opt to choose purification (enduring the pains and sufferings and offer them to God for the purpose of cleansing and purification) while alive than having them multiple at death.

If those things shared by my friend are true...there is that urgent call then for conversion of hearts. An urgent and deliberate decision to do what's right and proper and seriously prepare for the next life.

A homily shared by another priest mentions that it is not enough to live the good life by ourselves. There is a need to reach out and involve ourselves in the lives of others. Salvation is communal. We seem to think that this life we have is all that we have forgetting beyond.

Going back to a friend that I met in the monastery, he stressed further (which I thought was a joke) that in the book on the accounts of the souls in purgatory, there are souls unexpectedly placed in there including priest and nuns. And not only that, a lot of them go to hell too. In fact, there is such great expectations from them from God Himself that called them toward Himself to function on His behalf.

St. Faustina ( the strong advocate of the Divine Mercy), in her diary, stated how in one of her visions, she was given the chance to visit hell. And she described an oh so frightening experience that agonized her. This same experience led her to take great effort (I should say) to dedicate the Divine Mercy devotion for the sufferings of men and the souls in purgatory.

Again, Satan has his way of making us feel that hell does not exist (and so we just have fun and enjoy while we are still alive). If we don't make such deliberate and revolutionary choice to live our lives pleasing to God, then in the end our action shall be our own judge before Him.

I hope this one merits our URGENT response. It has to be NOW...:-)

__________________________________

PS. : I just realized that I am meant to post this exactly today - September 11, 2011...I started writing this days ago...just can't finish it until this date - the 1oth year of the bombing of the Twin Towers at New York, New York.

Perhaps a lot of those that died in that tragic event may not have really foreseen that they would die in that manner. My heart goes to them...Please join me in prayer...

Eternal Rest grant unto them oh Lord....And let perpetual light shine upon them... May their souls rest in peace ...Amen