Passage into Eternity Chapter 29

What is death? We are all made up of body and soul. Death is the separation of body and soul. This leaves the body without any life, and it falls back to dust. The soul, however, does not fall back into nothingness. The soul was made to live forever. Death is an effect of original sin, which we all have because of the sin of Adam and Eve. Original sin may be taken to mean: (1) the sin that Adam committed; (2) a consequence of this first sin, the hereditary stain with which we are born on account of our origin or descent from Adam.

Jesus the Redeemer God gave us His very own Son to take the penalty of death upon Himself to redeem us from sin. Through Jesus we have the hope of living in heaven with God, although we must still undergo bodily death.

Preparing for Death With faith, we see death as it really is. Every prayer we have ever said, every sacrament we have received, every good work we have ever done, and every grace we have been given all help to prepare us for the moment of death. We ought to face death with hopeful joy. “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” –John 11: 25-26

Grace is necessary for salvation. To go to heaven, we must have Jesus’ life of grace in our soul.   Grace is something that we have, or do not have.  If we are in mortal sin, we do not have grace because our sinful actions have killed that grace in our souls. If we have confessed our sins, God restores that grace and we must nurture it. How do we get grace necessary for salvation? Through the Sacraments-- Baptism Penance Anointing of the Sick

Particular Judgment At the moment of death, Jesus will judge our thoughts, words, deeds, and the good we failed to do. This is called the Particular Judgment. With complete clarity, we will be aware of three things: The exact balance of good and bad in our life and what we truly are The perfect justice of our future lot, in heaven or hell The presence of the Divine Judge, Jesus

Jesus speaks about the Particular Judgment Mk 13: 32-37  “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.  It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn,  or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.  And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids Matthew 25:1-13  “Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this. Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.  When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them;  but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.  As the bridegroom was delayed, all of them became drowsy and slept.  But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look! Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’  Then all those bridesmaids got up and trimmed their lamps.  The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’  But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’  And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut.  Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.’  But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I do not know you.’  Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.

Readiness We all need to face the fact that we will eventually die. If we prepare ourselves for death, we will find joy and peace of mind that death cannot destroy. We do not know the time of our death, so we should always be ready by: Developing a spiritual life of prayer and the Sacraments Living according to God’s will and keeping His commandments Knowing and loving God through the study of our faith We can make up for our sins through prayer and penance. Above all, we should serve God generously, not measuring everything with the minimum required by law.

Reflection—What do you imagine heaven will be like? If Jesus is judging us on our thoughts, words, deeds, and omissions, and we have free will, it is we who determine our eternal reward by how we live here on earth. Often we deceive ourselves because we do not want to know the truth.  We think that our sins are not as bad as others, or we can rationalize them (I had to do this because…). When we commit venial sin, it disposes us to commit mortal sins; the change may be so gradual that we might not realize how bad we have become.  Our actions determine our being (a person who steals things is a thief, a person who lies is a liar, a person who commits adultery is an adulterer, a person who sins is a sinner.)