AND THE LIFE EVERLASTING

The last phrase in the creed: ‘and the life everlasting.’  What does it mean?  ‘Everlasting’ means no end.  A life without end; a life after life, is what it means.  As this life will come to an end with our death, the life after that will be ‘everlasting’, without end.  Yep, the life after death will be without end but in what state? With everlasting happiness which we call heaven or the opposite which we call hell!

Many would not believe in the existence of heaven and hell telling that no one has ever seen or experienced that.  And many other would write volumes of books telling the stories of those who had near death experience or death experience, telling that they have seen a bright light, fire, a big dark tunnel then bright light from that in the far and so on.  But still no one knows what it is and how it would be.  On the other hand there are saints, mystics and visionaries who also give us the glimpse of what they have seen.  Even Our Lady of Fathima said to have shown the scene of hell to the children.

Whether we believe it or not we live with the expectation of going to heaven.  The Bible and the teachings of the church affirm that there is heaven and hell.  Those who do good will rise up to live a happy life, and those who do bad will rise up to be condemned. (John 5:29)  This is our faith and hope and that hope motivates us to live a good life.

Here I am going to share with you an account of heavenly vision narrated by one of my friend who is the stigmatist for the past 13 years.  She said that Thrice she had experience visiting heaven and hell and that time she experienced the pain of the soul going out from her own body.  She narrated one such incident in one of the youth retreat so I thought of sharing with you all.  This event occurred on May 1, 2001 on the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker.  At that time her body was lifeless for nearly 8 hours surrounded by her spiritual father and other priests and religious praying together.  She said that St. Joseph took her to heaven and hell.

“I had the pain of my soul departing from my body.  Then I saw St. Joseph, he held my hand and took me with him.  We just flew across the clouds and galaxies.  Each star looked very big, as big as three four house put together.  After crossing many realms we came in front of a marvelous big door which was so high.  As we reached the door opened automatically.  When the door was opened I saw myriads of Angels in groups and in lines with the heavenly silence and with much greater discipline was doing the works which was assigned to them.  The silence was so splendid that even a pin drop could be heard.  No such discipline could never ever found on earth.

As I passed through them with St. Joseph, next I saw the 24 elders praising God as ‘Holy, Holy, Holy’ in a heavenly language.  Though I could not understand that, I was also praising in that language with them, but after that I totally forgot about the language and the word.  Above them I saw the Apostles, who were arguing who was greatest among them were all seated in a single long throne.  Above them were the throne of Mother Mary on the right side and the throne of St. Joseph on the left.  As we reached there St. Joseph left me alone and went and sat on his throne quietly.

As I raised my eyes above these two thrones, I saw the marvelous unexpressive, mighty splendor of Jesus as King and Judge wearing a golden crown embedded with precious stones.  His long robe also designed with precious stones and covered the whole throne as we read in the book of Prophet Isaiah 6.  The place around the throne was all white as snow pierced by the golden beam of light that came from the wounds of Christ.  Even today Jesus shows these wounds to the Father and continues to intercede for us (Heb. 7:25) telling the father, ‘even for them I suffered.’  I have never seen God the Father, but only once I just heard his voice.

When I looked at the sight of Jesus as King and Judge my soul started shivering.  We read and believe that Jesus is so merciful, where sin abounds the grace abounds all the more, and Jesus is rich in mercy and forgiveness, his anger will not last long and so on.  Yes, all these are true, but only as long as we live on this earth.  AS long as we are alive, he is merciful, loving and forgiving, giving us a chance to repent, to turn back to him, even at the last moment – at the hour of our death.  But once we are died, when our soul departed from our body and stand before the throne where I am standing now has to shiver in front of Jesus as just judge.  No one could support us or recommend us, even Mother Mary will just say ‘yes’ to whatever Jesus says. All the intercessions of the saints and Mother Mary are only chances while we live here on earth not after our death.  That’s the reason our mother Church encourages us to pray for the dead especially those who are at the hour of death.  Once we die everything is sealed.

In heaven there was a throne assigned for each one of us, but we will be able to sit in that throne only when the souls given in our care are saved, if not we cannot sit on the throne assigned for us and whenever Jesus sees the empty throne he will cry bitterly it seems.  The souls given in our care could be saved only by our own effort, so we cannot go to heaven alone.

After this St. Joseph took me across the clouds and we came to a very big valley.  He asked me by holding my hand to look down.  As I looked down, I saw mountains of fire melting and running like a river and I could hear the frightening and terrible cry of souls.  Each one is punished according to their deeds.  I also saw a very big and wide road, and many people are walking faster, increasing in number, and St. Joseph explained to me that they are those who fall into the sexual sins of the modern world.”

Actually from hell the heaven will be seen it seems but no one could ever cross and go to heaven.  The fire in hell is the fire of destruction, but the fire in the purgatory is cleansing fire.  Once we go to the purgatory we are sure of going into heaven, but once we enter into hell no hope.  Since after death the souls will not be able to pray they are at the mercy of our prayers.  So let’s pray more for the souls in purgatory especially those who are at their deathbed since that will be their last chance to repent.  Only while we live on this world we are given chances to repent and to turn back to God, so let’s not waste it.

So that was it what she was sharing with the participants of the retreat.  I am sorry that I could not write to you exactly all that she has narrated, with this sharing one thing we can be sure that after this life there is ‘the life everlasting’: heaven.  We have 1000s of chances to repent and to come back to God using his unconditional love and his abounding mercy together with the powerful intercession of Mother Mary and saints.  And also we have to work hard for our own salvation by helping the salvation of the souls entrusted to us.  

LET'S SAVE OUR SOUL 
BY SAVING THE SOULS OF OTHERS.