Homily #213: "Heaven & Hell"

 

Homily #213: "Heaven & Hell"

by Deacon Dennis Purificacion

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Aug. 7, 2022

12 p.m. & 5 p.m. Masses

I

The philosopher Peter Kreeft wrote a book called “EverythingYou Ever Wanted to Know About Heaven.”  In it, he wrote that the modern world has lost faith in Heaven.  The modern world lost faith in Heaven because today the modern world lost the love of Heaven; the modern world lost being attracted to the glory of Heaven.  He says: If Heaven is the Good News, then the opposite, Hell, is the bad news.

If we watch daily news or scroll through social media news, bad news seems to take front page.  The modern world acts like there is no Good News of Heaven.  But if we truly believed in the glory that we will experience in Heaven, then we should live like they we will one day be in the eternal glory of Heaven.  Peace would then reign on earth where God is the center of our lives instead of evil.

II

I bring this up to offer some thoughts on Heaven, so that our hearts will want to shine in the glory of Heaven someday [and avoid the eternal shame of Hell].  In today’s Gospel from St. Luke, Jesus calls us to get ready for the perpetual happiness and glory of Heaven.  Jesus uses words like being vigilant and “blessed are those servants” and “be ready” and “be prepared.”  He said, “You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”

When Jesus returns at His glorious Second Coming, that will be the end of the world.  Human history will come to an end.  This is the General Judgment.  This is when the dead that are elected for Heaven will Resurrect with a glorified body.  St. Augustine said that those Christians that are alive at the Second Coming will instantly experience death but then instantly Resurrect with a glorified body. 

By the way, the Catholic Church does not believe in the Protestant Fundamentalist understanding of the rapture.  This error is called Millenarianism which says that Christ will return to reign for one thousand years on earth (Catechism 674).  No, the teaching of the Church is that when Christ returns, that’s it!  [No mas, Pagtatapos; wala na.  Finis.]  Every human being that has ever existed will end up either in Heaven or Hell at the Second Coming of Christ.  In the First Reading, it is written from Book of Wisdom, “Your people awaited the salvation of the just and the destruction of their foes” (Ch. 18).  

Before the Second Coming, the Church must pass the final trial that will shake the faith of many believers (cf. Catechism 674) as well as resist the supreme religious deception of Antichrist which is a false-messianism where man glorifies himself in place of God.

III

And while we won’t know exactly when this Second Coming will happen, this General Judgment Day when the sheep will be separated to Jesus’ right while the goats will be separated to Jesus’s left, we do know that all of us someday will come to the end of our particular lives.  This is when God will call us home to Him one at a time at our individual deaths called our Particular Judgment.

True story:  A couple months after ordination, I was waiting in the back for Mass to start.  A little boy was with his parents came up to me and asked, “Is Jesus real?”  I crouched down at eye level and said, “Yes, He is very real.  And you will meet Him one day.”  His eyes pondered this, listening, and then I said, “He is my best friend, and I love Him.  How old are you?”  He then held up 5 fingers.

Yes, Jesus is real, and each of us will stand before His Judgment Seat one day.  Jesus said to be vigilant, be prepared, be ready, and blessed are those servants expecting the Master’s return.  So how can our hearts be prepared?  We should be spiritually prepared to appear before Jesus at the moment of our deaths. 

IV

Those in Heaven are like God forever, for they ‘see Him as He is,’ face to face” (Catechism 1023).  This is the Beatific Vision.  Anybody in Heaven is a saint.  So here are somequotes from the saints on Heaven to help us fall in love with the glory of Heavenand to desire to go to Heaven.

St. Faustina wrote, “Today I was in heaven, in spirit, and I saw its unconceivable beauties and the happiness that awaits us after death. I saw how all creatures give ceaseless praise and glory to God. I saw how great is happiness in God, which spreads to all creatures, making them happy…”

St. Alphonsus Liguori had a vision of a popular king and a lesser-known parishioner after death.  The lesser-known parishioner said: The king and I were as far apart as the earth and sky, but now it has been reversed.  As lowly as I was compared to the king on earth, I now exceed him in glory in heaven. However, we are both happy, and our hearts are completely satisfied.”

St. Bernadette: “My crown in heaven should shine with innocence & its flowers should be radiant as the sun. Sacrifices are the flowers Jesus & Mary chose.”

St. John Vianney taught, “O my dear parishioners, let us endeavor to get to Heaven! There we shall see God. How happy we shall feel! If the parish is converted, we shall go there in procession…  We must get to heaven!”

V

So let our hearts desire Heaven!  Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, so will your hearts be.”  Now, I gave us saint quoteson Heaven; so here are two saint quotes on Hell for those not ready for thecoming of the Son of Man.

Just as Heaven is eternal, Hell is eternal.  St. Cyril once said that in Heaven the Sign of the Cross on your forehead will be for your everlasting glory; however, in Hell, the Sign of the Cross that was imprinted on your forehead will be a mark of everlasting shame.  The demons will mock the Christian in Hell because the Christians aren’t supposed to be there.  They will say that you were supposed to be among those saved.”  The Catechism teaches, “To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from Him forever by our own free choice” (Catechism 1033).

The pains of Hell are unbearable.  St. Faustina wrote in her Diary,

 “Today I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one’s condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it – a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; the fifth torture is continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and, despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies.

“These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of their sufferings. There are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned.  … I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. …

“But I noticed one thing: most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a Hell…Consequently, I pray even more fervently for the conversion of sinners.”

These are just a few mediations and visions of the saints on Heaven and Hell. 

[If time allows, mention comments made to parents/godparents during baptism classes.]

VI

In closing, let our hearts treasure and desire the wonderous glories of Heaven, as Jesus invited us in the Gospel.  Let us pray that others, too, will make Heaven the goal of their lives starting with faith at baptism. As we heard in today’s Second Reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, Abraham is the model of faith, and God led him to the city.  For us, our city will be Heaven.

Let us too continue the journey of faith, so that we will be like the faithful servants who await the master’s return.  Let us be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come again.  Let our hearts excitedly look forward to the marvelous beauty and joys and treasures of Heaven.  

For where your treasure is, there also will be your heart.