Heaven Hell and Purgatory
If we think about the fact that it takes about twelve hours for an air-plane to fly from Africa to America with all its speed, and yet not up to half of the circumference of this planet has been covered, it then becomes easier for us to have some idea of how big and massive this earth is.
Now, let us think about this structure that is One Million, Three Hundred Thousand (1,300,000) times the size of the planet earth, as discovered by astronomers and other scientists. It is like bringing 1,300,000 earths and fusing them together to form one gigantic structure. This is the sun, created by the Almighty God, and kept Ninety-three Million (93,000,000) miles away from us.
This wonderful God who is able to do anything can also create in heaven: pleasure, comfort, joy, sweetness, and happiness millions of times better and sweeter than whatever, joy, sweetness, comfort, happiness and pleasure one can ever experience in this world. Who can afford to miss out of such a wonderful offer which God has reserved in paradise for all who have chosen to do his will here on earth rather than the will of Satan which is full of wickedness and disobedience?
The unfortunate thing is that those who miss out of this great reward from God, will not be left to continue enjoying the comparably little pleasure, comfort and happiness the earth has been offering them, but will rather be thrown into a dungeon of very severe pain, sorrow and torture known as HELL FIRE, and will remain there suffering and regretting over what they have done to themselves; not for millions of year only, but forever. This is why even the richest and happiest people still desire heaven.
- God, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus during her famous apparition to three innocent little children of Fatima, Portugal: (Lucia 11, Francisco 9, Jacinta 7) permitted that these children have a glimpse of this horrible place which everyone must do everything possible to avoid. This was during her apparition in the year 1917, when First WORLD WAR was going on.
- The apparition with the messages given, (witnessed by many journalists) were so credible that it not only attracted the interest and involvement of the Portuguese government, but also later led to the signing of the famous Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT). pioneered by the Presidents of America, Russia and Britain (Kennedy, Krushchev, and Macmillam) on the ‘6th of August 1963, because they saw reason to believe all of what the children said the Blessed Virgin Mary had done and said during the apparitions. Commenting on this, a popular German Newspaper-Neues Europa- in its Monday 15th. October 1963 edtion wrote in part:
“This was in fact the first time in recent history of mankind that when concluding a political agreement of world importance, essential factors arising from religious matters were taken into account. This message is so vital that it deeply impressed the parties concerned in concluding the Moscow Agreement.”
As we work out our Salvation with fear and trembling as St. Paul urges us in the Bible, it is important to note that God also expects us ,not to come to Heaven “empty-handed” but should be able to point out at least one soul in Heaven whom we have helped to make it by our efforts and prayers. This fact is confirmed in Hymn 140 of The Catholic Hymn Book which states as follows in its opening verse;
“Must I go … and empty-handed?
Must I meet my Saviour so?
Not one soul with which to greet Him?
Must I empty-handed go?”
This is the greatest benefit of being a Purgatorian, because by preaching about Purgatory and helping others discover the great benefits of prayer for the souls in Purgatory, thereby helping them to leave Purgatory and enter heaven, they can now lay claim to those souls. This is because it is through our prayers that they were able to pay their debts and obtain their release to enter heaven.
In so doing, one is no longer guilty of coming to heaven empty handed, because we now have souls we have helped to go to heaven from Purgatory. We are also able to show others, one simple way of working their way to heaven. This way is by having the souls that have left purgatory through our efforts to pray continually for us when they get to heaven.
It is a well known fact that when we help souls go to heaven they too, out of charity and gratitude continue to pray to God for us so that we too may join them in heaven.
In addition, their prayers for us do a lot of other good things for us while we are still here on earth. This is because they love us so much for the kindness we have shown to them that they take interest in all our affairs and pray over them.
JESUS SAVES
Although the body of Abraham is still lying here on earth where he was buried, awaiting the day of resurrection, yet his soul has been in Heaven enjoying Paradise with GOD and HIS Angels. This was why the rich man, (Dives) was able to see Lazarus enjoying Heaven in the “bosom of Abraham” – Luke 16:19-31. The same applies to the ‘Good Thief’ to whom JESUS promised, “TODAY you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23: 43). Although his dead body lay there at Golgotha, yet his soul went to Paradise that very day to be with Jesus our God as was promised him.
All we need to qualify for heaven is to die in the state of grace after having believed in Jesus and accepted Him as our LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOUR, which is what we do first at Baptism before the Holy Water is poured over our heads, having rejected Satan and accepted Jesus; and we are said to be born again- John 3:5. Having been baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the spirit takes His place inside our bodies made to be the “TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT” -(1 Cor. 6: 19), and comes again with more gifts when we receive the sacrament of CONFIRMATION .
Some, Christian denominations profess this acceptance of JESUS as ‘Lord and Personal Saviour’ once in life, but Catholics re-affirm this vow every year during Easter, on Holy Saturday at mass. It is a well known fact that the souls of Christians who have repented and accepted Jesus and thus qualify for heaven do not ALL get to heaven on the day of death, like the ‘good thief’ did. Some of these holy souls are detained for some days, months or years in PURGATORY before being admitted into Heaven.
Although they are not yet in Heaven, these souls are called ‘holy’ because they have been saved – having accepted Jesus. For them, Heaven though not automatic, is only a matter of time as they must surely get there some day, since acceptance of Jesus does not always mean direct entry into Paradise.
Read more about How the Assumption of Mary Led Her Body to Heaven
Read a detailed theological breakdown of the afterlife in the Catechism of the Catholic Church on the Last Things.
