The fate of the soul
Death is a metaphysical reality;
"meta" means "what goes beyond the physical"
in greek.
Man consists of a body and a soul, a substantial union to form
one being, one substance, who exists by one existence.
Death breaks this substantial essential union, the existential
union between the two is broken, the body and the soul separates.
Death is a surprising event, it shocks us and we have often
difficulties in coming to terms with it.
The separation can be compared with the chemical
separation between two atoms: hydrogen and oxygen,
which combined together makes water;
an everyday product which everybody knows, and this most
common product can also be separated and divided in two.
The soul of man is made to be in a physical body, to exercise
with and in the physical body and the physical world, to achieve
spiritual quality and refinement, but the soul itself is
immortal, spiritual, eternal, indestructible.
According to our Christian faith, God did not want for
man to die, it was the fall of man; the sin of Man,
which created death.
We should always live in readiness to die.
Because;
"Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner
of the house will come back- whether in the evening or at midnight,
or when the rooster crows, or at dawn; If he come suddenly, do not
let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone:
"Watch"
Mark 13:35
We do not belong to ourselves, we belong to God, who made us
in His own image, He is the owner of the house.
Jesus spoke a lot about death, He knew very well that we are all going
to die, and be confronted with Him; He who is the judge of the living
and the dead.
Death it is mentioned throughout the Bible, and a man who never thinks
about his death is a man without intelligence.
Nevertheless we are indeed created to live; both here and eternally,
but the moment of our death is the big appointment with God and our
eternal fate that we must not miss, we must be ready.
But humans do not want to think about it, they want to forget it,
so they distract themselves with other things that helps them
forget.
Immediately after the separation of the soul from the body
follows the particular judgement.
We are judged individually, according to our
personal merits and personal sins.
Immediately after death there is an illumination of conscience;
we are confronted with the truth, the holiness of God, the light of God.
Those who love God will be attracted to the Light, they will go
towards the Light, and those who do not love God, will not be able to
tolerate the Light, and it is them themselves who flee from God.
It is Jesus Christ Himself who communicates this Light, He is
the judge of the living and the dead.
A person who lives in mortal sin; who has refused God in
his life, who has mocked God,
who has neglected God, who has offended God, and never
asked pardon from God, goes down to Hell.
Jesus spoke about the existence of Hell 45 times in the Gospels.
Very few people wants to talk about Hell today, and many "Catholics"
say that they do not "believe" in it, and that simply means that they
are not Catholics, if they contradict the word of Jesus.
In the Scriptures it is written that in Hell there is an eternal fire.
Humans understand the pain of fire.
We can think of the two criminals who was crucified on each
side of Jesus.
One asked Jesus forgiveness for his sins, he was forgiven,
and Jesus took him with Him. The other was lost to Hell.
If we die in a state of grace, we either go to Heaven or to
Purgatory.
We might live and be in a state of grace, but as long as we have
committed venial sins, we need to purge the penalties, pay our debt;
we need to suffer the consequences of our sins, to become pure for Heaven.
Purgatory is where the righteous will go to be purified.
Purgatory implies suffering, but not torment.
We need to distinguish between the two.
In suffering there is a usefulness, we could say "a profit", there
is a redeeming quality in suffering, suffering is something that
for a christian can be, and ought to be, seized and used, for the
Glory of God, during his earthly life as well.
The suffering in Purgatory is charged with Hope, it is salutary.
Those who think that there is no Hell and not even Purgatory, and
who seems to think that everybody is at the level of holiness to go
directly to Heaven, express a ridiculous level of presumptuousness.
It is heretical to deny the existence of Purgatory and of Hell.
The souls in Purgatory constitutes the Suffering Church.
Those who has turned away from God, who has declined walking
God's path, has turned away from Him, has replaced Him
with idolatry of one sort or another. They have invested themselves
in human beings, they have put their trust in humans, and they worship
the works of human's hands instead.
However in Hell, as opposed to Purgatory, there is no hope,
there is torments; no usefulness in suffering. It is vindictive.
The souls are damned, for-ever separated from God, tormented
by the fire of Hell.
It is curious too, that in all the pagan civilisations and old mythologies,
they all believed in the existence of hell, a place for the souls without
hope, likewise described by fire. Very interesting.
They too understood that a man cannot escape the consequences of his
actions and the refusal of truth; and for us the inescapable truth of
Galatians 6:7-8:
" Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sows,
that shall he also reap.
For he that sows to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he
that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."
Eternal suffering ; "eternity" means "outside time".
We live in time now, but afterwards with God, there is no time.
Heaven is difficult to define, eternal happiness to be able to see
God, to live in His presence.
Heaven ; where God wants us to come.
The search for God is engraved in our heart, it is the great thirst
and the great hunger that motivates the human intelligence to
be able to see God.
We continue seeking until we find, because nothing else,
not even all the good and legitimate things of this world, can satisfy.
To seek Him, letting go of all concepts and intellectual representations,
to be in the special disposition to find Him, to live in His presence,
here on earth, and afterwards, when we pass over, for eternity.
Heaven is the direct vision of God's essence.
When we die, we are no longer in time.
In regard to the end of the world itself, as long as the world has not
finished, time continues, so there is a chronology.
The end of the world:
1. The Parousia; Jesus comes back.
Jesus came into the world 2026 years ago to save humanity,
the second time, He comes to judge.
2. The resurrection of all bodies from their graves, they will all
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they will come out from
their graves, to resurrection to life those who have done good,
and to resurrection to death those who have done bad.
3. The general judgement. It is Our Saviour Jesus Christ who
is Judge, He is judging as Man.
He will put the sheep to the right, and the goat to the left;
the good will be separated from the bad.
Those who are good will go to eternal life, those who are bad will go
to eternal fire.
4. A new heaven and a new world
5. A public hearing to punish offenders and recompense the victims of
their sins.
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