Four Last Things

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Four Last Things & Purgatory

Death

One thing that is certain in life, there will be death. -Death is the separation of the soul from the body. -No one knows how or when one will die, some saints have had this revealed to them. (St. Philip Neri) -If our first parents, had not sinned there would not be death. Death entered the world through original sin. -God commanded Adam to avoid only one desirable thing, for if the day that eat of it, you shall die (Gen. 2:17) -By His own death, Jesus transformed death into His own blessing. -The curse of death that came as a consequence of sin is now taken over grace. Rom. 5:21 -When we are baptized, we are baptized into His death. Rom. 6:3-4 We were buried therefore with Him by baptism
into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

R. I. P. Requiescat in pace (May he rest in peace) found on headstones.

-Death is a birth to a new life. -Those who die in the death of the Lord, can also share His Resurrection. -Christian death is therefore a consoling positive reality. -It is the dying and departing from this world, that the Christian becomes fully incorporated into the death of Jesus Christ and reaches out towards the promised final home in heaven. -It is devastating to face death without a deep faith in God and some understanding of the last things. -Death where is your Sting. 1 Cor. 15:54-55 -We should prepare for death by leading a good life, avoiding sin, and doing good. Live each day as our last. -Cemeteries- The word comes from the Greek meaning, sleeping place. There the bodies are kept until judgment day. Bodies are to be buried in consecrated ground. Mausoleums and non-Catholic cemeteries can have the ground or stonewall blessed. -Memorial Day- go to cemeteries to pray for the dead, sprinkling of Holy Water on the ground of the burial places, to relieve sufferings of the poor souls, Holy Water can be used any time for that purpose. -Cremation- Not recommended, but permitted and must believe in the Resurrection. Ashes not be scattered. No funeral Mass if ashes to be scattered. -Apostates not buried in Catholic cemeteries. Not making a judgment on salvation, but only to avoid scandal. -Mortification- When we die to our self daily, which prepares us to die to this life, so when it comes time to go to the next life, we will not be attached to anything and will joyfully go to heaven.

Happy Death

Four Last Things & Purgatory

Indulgence An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain defined conditions through the Churchs help when, as a minister of redemption, she dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions won by Christ and the saints.

CCC 1014 The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the ancient litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray: "From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord"; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us "at the hour of our death" in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death. Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out. Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience. . . . Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death? If you aren't fit to face death today, it's very unlikely you will be tomorrow. . . . Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape. Woe on those who will die in mortal sin! Blessed are they who will be found in your most holy will, for the second death will not harm them. St. Francis of Assisi
Apostolic Pardon- The Apostolic Pardon (or blessing) is an indulgence given in situations of danger of death, usually after the absolution of the sacrament of penance. The focus is on the remission of temporal punishment due to sin. Scapular- Whosoever wears the scapular shall not suffer eternal fire and will go to heaven the Saturday after death. (Sabatine Privilege) Pray for Final Perseverance- Pray for the grace of a Happy Death. Prayer to St. Joseph for a Happy Death O Blessed Joseph, you gave your last breath in the loving embrace of Jesus and Mary. When the seal of death shall close my life, come with Jesus and Mary to aid me. Obtain for me this solace for that hour - to die with their holy arms around me. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I commend my soul, living and dying, into your sacred arms. Amen.

Four Last Things & Purgatory

Death, Personal Judgment, Heaven, and Hell

Personal Judgment- Complete justice will not be done in this life, but in the next. Then everything will be weighed in the balance of God's justice, and punished or rewarded. As soon as each soul leaves the body at death it undergoes the Particular Judgment, at which its eternal destiny is decided. "We must all be manifested at the judgment seat of Christ." "It is appointed unto men to die once, but after this comes the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). "Every one of us will render an account for himself to God" (Rom. 14:12). Jesus Christ is the Judge at the Particular Judgment. Before Him each soul must stand. The soul will stand in the awesome presence of God the Son, to give an account of its whole life: of every thought, word, act, and omission. "Neither does the Father judge any man, but all judgment he has given to the Son (Jn 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! We are not to suppose that the soul will go to heaven before its judgment. God enlightens each soul in such a manner that it fully knows Christ has passed a true judgment on it. The good and the evil that the soul has done will be weighed in the balance of God's justice. Then the sentence will be passed by Jesus Christ alone, without the intervention of witnesses. This sentence is final and will never be reversed. The soul will learn the sentence, the reasons for it, and its absolute justice. Our judgment calls to mind the need of our faith to bear fruit.

Four Last Things & Purgatory

Personal Judgment
He who dies in his baptismal innocence, or after having fully satisfied for all the sins he committed, will be sent at once to heaven. The just will enter into everlasting life (Matt. 25:46). Only those souls enter heaven who are free from all sin, and from the penalty due to sins which have been forgiven. Nothing defiled can enter heaven (Apoc. 21:27). He who dies in the state of grace, but is in venial sin, or has not fully atoned for the temporal punishment due his forgiven sins, will be sent for a time to purgatory. The souls in purgatory are saints, because they are sure of going to heaven. In purgatory they cannot commit any more sin, not even the slightest. They only long for God. He who dies in mortal sin, even if only with one single mortal sin, will be sent at once to hell.
We should never go to sleep without being prepared never to awake on earth again, but in the presence of our judge. Let us examine our conscience every day, make acts of contrition for our sins, confess them, and resolve to avoid them in the future.

Four Last Things & Purgatory

Purgatory
CCC 1030-31 All who die in Gods 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. The Church gives the name purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. State of Purgatory Purgatory is a state of purification whereby the fire of Gods love purifies us from the temporal punishments due to sin. The soul is brought to Christian perfection before entering heaven, because that which is only pure may enter heaven. Its is a tremendous act of Gods mercy & love. Nothing Unclean May Enter Heaven (Rev 21:27) But nothing unclean shall enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination, falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lambs book of life. Temporal Effects of Our Sins In Gen. 3 Punishments by God for original sin also fall upon us. God said that if they would eat from the fruit of the tree, they would die. Although David repented after committing adultery and murder, God still punished him by saying the child shall die. (Dan. 4:24) Didnt Jesus die once and for all sins? Yes. But St. Peter also speaks of those who are in prison. It was in the spirit also that He went to preach to the spirits in prison. 1 Peter 3:19-19 Nov. 2nd All Souls Day

Four Last Things & Purgatory Purgatory

Scripture The word Purgatory is not in the scripture, nor is the word Trinity or Incarnation. However, these doctrines are all in the bible. And whoever says a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this are or the age to come. (Matt. 12:32) If any mans work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire. (1 Corn. 3:10-15) This cant refer to hell, because there no one is saved. Turning in supplication, they prayed that the sinful deed might be blotted out. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin. (2 Maccabees 12:42-45) This passage also indicates the difference between venial and mortal sin. By wearing tokens of foreign gods, they fell asleep in godliness. Tradition Tertullian -We offer sacrifices for the dead on their birthday anniversaries [the date of deathbirth into eternal life]" (The Crown 3:3 [A.D. 211]). St. Augustine- There is an ecclesiastical discipline, as the faithful know, when the names of the martyrs are read aloud in that place at the altar of God, where prayer is not offered for them. Prayer, however, is offered for other dead who are remembered. It is wrong to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ought ourselves be commended" (Sermons 159:1 [A.D. 411]). St. John Chrysostom- "Let us help and commemorate them. If Jobs sons were purified by their fathers sacrifice [Job 1:5], why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them" (Homilies on First Corinthians 41:5 [A.D. 392]).

Four Last Things & Purgatory

Purgatory

About Purgatory They are happy because they know that someday they will be in heaven. They long to be in the presence of God and in heaven. This is their greatest suffering, not to able to be with God. They can pray for us. We can pray for them and help them to get to heaven by offering prayers, sufferings, good works, acts of charity, indulgences and especially offering Masses for them. Council of Trent: "There is a purgatory, and the souls there detained are assisted by the suffrages of the faithful, but especially by the most acceptable, sacrifice of the altar." They no longer are able to merit. We can only merit while on earth. Their state of glory has already been decided after their judgment. Purgatory referred to as a place of suffering by fire, the fire of purification does not burn, yet purifies. Purpose of Purgatory is to free us of imperfections to be permitted to enter heaven. We experience much of this purification while here on earth. St. Augustine- their sufferings are greater than the suffering of martyrs. St. Thomas- their least pain is greater than any pain here on earth. Ways to Avoid Purgatory Daily Prayer. Pray for grace of a happy death. Frequent Confession & Mass & Holy Communion. Regular Penance. Daily Rosary. Offering up your death and all its circumstances entirely to God. Offering up & Accepting Daily Crosses. Anointing. Indulgences. Almsgiving. Fasting. Fulfill Daily Duty.

Requiem Aeternam: "Eternal rest give unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and the souls of all the Faithful Departed through the mercy of God rest in peace."

Four Last Things & Purgatory Hell

CCC 1033 To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell." CCC 1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs. CCC 1037 God predestines no one to go to hell. Our Lord said: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction. (Matt. 7:13-14) He also said, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire! (Matt. 25:41) The Son of Man will throw the evildoers in the furnace of fire. Matt. 13:41-43 Jesus describes it as a place of consuming fire and eternal anguish. (Matt. 13:42, 50, Mk. 9:43, 48; Rev. 21:8) The greatest suffering of Hell is the pain of being eternally separated from God (2 Thes. 1:9) God does not want anyone to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2 Pt. 3:9)

Four Last Things & Purgatory

About Hell
Hell is the dwelling place of Satan, the fallen angels called demons, and those who have rebelled against God. God loves us immeasurably, and wants us to spend everlasting life with Him in heaven, but He does not force anyone to love Him. The choice is ours. We have the chance to turn to Jesus while we are alive, but at the moment of death, our choice is frozen, suspended forever in time. Our Lord is just, but He is also full of mercy and compassion. If we stray away from Him, He waits for us with open arms, calling us gently back. God never ceases offering His mercy. He wants to spend eternal life with us. If we wait until tomorrow, it may have waited too long. The Church has never pronounced judgment on the fate of anyones soul. However, Jesus said of Judas, it would have better if he had never been born. The pains of hell will last for all eternity. The fear of hell should urge us to lead a good life. God will not send us to hell unless we force Him.

Four Last Things & Purgatory Hell

In August of 1917, Our Lady of Fatima appeared to three children and told the children, "pray much and make sacrifices for sinners, for many souls go to hell because there is no one to make sacrifices for them. On another occasion, She showed the three children a vision of hell. Sr. Lucia, one of the children, describes what they saw: "She opened Her hands once more, as She had done the two previous months. The rays [of light] appeared to penetrate the earth, and we saw, as it were, a vast sea of fire. Plunged in this fire, we saw the demons and the souls [of the damned]. The latter were like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, having human forms. They were floating about in that conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames which issued from within themselves, together with great clouds of smoke. Now they fell back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fright (it must have been this sight which caused me to cry out, as people say they heard me). The demons were distinguished [from the souls of the damned] by their terrifying and repellent likeness to frightful and unknown animals, black and transparent like burning coals. That vision only lasted for a moment, thanks to our good Heavenly Mother, Who at the first apparition had promised to take us to Heaven. Without that, I think that we would have died of terror and fear."

Heaven

Last Four Things & Purgatory

CCC 1023 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. (Rev. 21:4) And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore. (Ps. 35: 9) They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house, and thou shall make them drink of the torrent of thy pleasure. (Jn. 14:2-3) In My Fathers house are many mansions. Those are rewarded in heaven who die in the state of grace and have been purified, if needed, from all venial sin and all debt of temporal punishment; they see God face to face, and share forever in His glory and happiness. The greatest joy in heaven is the Beatific Vision. This is the sight of God face to face. It is called beatific because it completely fills the joy of those who posses it. They know and love God to their utmost capacity and are known and loved by God in return. The Beatific Vision will satisfy completely and supremely all our desires. Having God will shall never wish for anything else. We will be reunited with the Virgin Mary and all the angels and saints and we shall love them more intensely. Whatever we desired to know on earth, we will know in heaven. In heaven there is no sin, no fear, no misunderstanding, no confusion, no worry, rather there is unity, oneness, peace, joy and happiness forever.

Heaven

Four Last Things & Purgatory

God created man, so that eventually we could share His very life. CCC 1024 This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed - is called "heaven." Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness. God wants us to share in the deep life of communion that exists between the persons of the Trinity. --Jesus instituted the Church in order to shower us with sanctifying grace through the sacramentsgrace, which would make us holy and make us partakers of divine love and Trinitarian life. --Entrance into heaven will be the experience of entering into perfect love that exists between the persons of the Trinity. CCC 1026 By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has "opened" heaven to us. --Every human being was created to spend eternity in heaven, but not everyone goes there. --Every trial, every suffering, every moment of life provides us with the opportunity to be perfected in love. --If we make our lives sacrificial, Christ-like love, and stay close to the sacraments that give us power to be truly transformed in love, we will be made perfect. We will enter heaven and have our deepest longing satisfied. --Many people today, think that when they die they will go straight to heaven and they forget about the necessity of atoning for the sins in ones life and the struggle to attain holiness by the practice of virtue. --Even if we come to know one of our relatives or friends did not make it to heaven, we will still be happy because we will have understood Gods infinite mercy toward them as well as His justice and their refusal to love God, as they ought. --In order to enter heaven, we must be entirely ready to greet Him. Joy, peace, love, happiness, union with God and the saints and angels. In heaven, we will receive the crown of glory, but we will realize it was all Gods grace in our life.

Second Coming Nine Signs that Precede the General Judgment

The Scriptures mention certain events which are to take place before the final judgment. These predictions were not intended to serve as indications of the exact time of the judgment, for that day and hour are known only to the Father, and will come when least expected. They were meant to foreshadow the last judgment and to keep the end of the world present to the minds of Christians, without, however, exciting useless curiosity and vain fears. Theologians usually enumerate the following nine events as signs of the last judgment: 1. General Preaching of the Christian Religion- Concerning this sign the Savior says: "And this gospel of the kingdom, shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation come" (Matthew 24:14). This sign was understood by Chrysostom and Theophilus as referring to the destruction of Jerusalem, but, according to the majority of interpreters, Christ is here speaking of the end of the world. 2. Conversion of the Jews- According to the interpretation of the Fathers, the conversion of the Jews towards the end of the world is foretold by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Romans (11:25-26): "For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, . . . that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in. And so all Israel should be saved as it is written: There shall come out of Zion, he that shall deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob".

Second Coming
3. Return of Enoch and Elijah- The belief that these two men, who have never tasted death, are reserved for the last times to be precursors of the Second Advent was practically unanimous among the Fathers, which belief they base on several texts of Scripture. (Concerning Elijah see Malachi 4:5-6; Sirach 48:10; Matthew 17:11; concerning Enoch see Sirach 44:16) 4. A Great Apostasy- As to this event St. Paul admonishes the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 2:3) that they must not be terrified, as if the day of the Lord were at hand, for there must first come a revolt (the apostasia).The Fathers and interpreters understand by this revolt a great reduction in the number of the faithful through the abandonment of the Christian religion by many nations. Some commentators cite as confirmatory of this belief the words of Christ: "But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8).

Second Coming
5. Reign of the Anti-Christ CCC 675 Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudomessianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh. In the passage from (2 Thessalonians 2:3) St. Paul indicates as another sign of the day of the Lord, the revelation of the man of sin, the son of perdition. "The man of sin" here described is generally identified with the Antichrist who, says St. John (1 John 2:18), is to come in the last days. Although much obscurity and difference of opinion prevails on this subject, it is generally admitted that before the Second Coming there will arise a powerful adversary of Christ who will seduce the nations by his wonders, and persecute the Church.

Second Coming
6. Extraordinary Perturbations of Nature - The Scriptures clearly indicate that the judgment will be preceded by unwonted and terrifying disturbances of the physical universe (Matthew 24:29; Luke 21:25-26). The wars, pestilences, famines, and earthquakes foretold in Matthew 24:6 are also understood by some writers as among the calamities of the last times. 7. The Universal Conflagration - In Apostolic writings we are told the end of the world will be brought about through a general conflagration, which, however, will not annihilate the present creation, but will change its form and appearance (2 Peter 3:10-13; 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Apocalypse 3:3, & 16:15). Natural science shows the possibility of such a catastrophe being produced in the ordinary course of events, but theologians generally tend to believe that its origin will be entirely miraculous. 8. The Trumpet of the Resurrection - Several texts in the New Testament make mention of a voice or trumpet which will awaken the dead to Resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:15; John 5:28). According to St. Thomas Aquinas, there is reference in these passages either to the voice or to the apparition of Christ, which will cause the resurrection of the dead.

Second Coming
9. "The sign of the Son of Man Appearing in the Heavens" In Matthew 24:30, this is indicated as the sign immediately preceding the appearance of Christ to judge the world. By this sign the Fathers of the Church generally understand the appearance in the sky of the Cross on which the Savior died or else of a wonderful cross of light.

Second Coming
Matthew 24:36 But as for that day and hour, nobody knows it, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, no one but the Father alone. Matthew 24:29-31 - "Immediately after the tribulation ... they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds ... he will send out his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect

How are We to Prepare for the Second Coming?

It should not be one of fear, but rather positive joyful expectation. Instead of dread and worry, we should prepare ourselves to meet the Savior by endeavoring to live a holy life and doing our part to spread the Kingdom. We should live a life with the Sacraments receiving the Eucharist as often as possible, regular confession, daily prayer & doing good deeds.

Second Coming Resurrection of the Dead

All the dead will rise, "those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Last Judgment
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Matt 25:31 The Last Judgment will be the day of Gods justice and mercy when good will finally triumph over evil. Jesus will return as judge and He will judge the living and the dead. We will receive our eternal reward or punishment according to our works and acceptance of Gods grace. The heart of each person, who ever lived, will be revealed. All will know each others sins, so that we will be able to fully see Gods mercy and justice in each person.

Second Coming The Rapture

False View of the Rapture (Non-Catholic) A common misconception about the end times is the "secret Rapture" theory, popularized by the 1909 Schofield Study Bible and the more recent Left Behind books. According to this theory, Jesus will return secretly and invisibly to snatch away ("rapture") all true Christians from the earth into heaven. This will allow them to escape a vicious 7-year persecution, known as the Tribulation, when the Devil will take control of the world through his human puppet, the Antichrist. After the Tribulation, Jesus will visibly return again to destroy Satan's kingdom and reign on earth for 1000 years (the Millennium). Catholic View of the Rapture However, the Church has rejected this notion of a literal 1000year earthly reign of Christ (See CCC 676). The 1000-year reign mentioned in Revelation 20:1-10 is usually interpreted as referring to the long period between Christ's first and second comings, when Jesus reigns imperfectly through his kingdom on earth, the Church. The Catholic and scriptural view is quite different from the "secret rapture": there will be a Tribulation and the rise of the Antichrist. However, true Christians will not escape this persecution. Jesus will return once and visibly, gloriously triumphing over evil and bringing an end to history. At Christ's Second Coming, living Christians will be raptured (caught up to join in Christ's triumphant procession), the dead will be resurrected, and all shall be judged at the final judgment.
1 Thessalonians 4:17 - "Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Thus we shall always be with the Lord."