J
Jerry-Jet
Guest
Anyone who doesn’t fear BOTH Hell and Purgatory is crazy and the fear of the Lord is not in him!
Because in a death situation, everybody is already at their limit, and browbeating them with frightening theology would be mean?Realistically, nearly everyone must spend some time in purgatory. How many people would die in an absolute state of grace, i.e. not even having the smallest venial sin on their soul?
If you’d just been to confession and assumed you were OK with the almighty, you’d be guilty of the sin of self-righteousness, just before you stepped under the bus.
If you had just been to confession on your death-bed, and you had (in a moment of weakness) one tiny doubt about the existence of God, you’d be guilty of doubting the existence of God. (Actually, this would probably be a mortal sin, requiring you to undergo another confession on your death-bed. You might end up like Luther, going to confession after confession because you doubted the validity of the previous confession).
Admire a woman’s cleavage? Lust or impure thoughts. Back to confession.
Fail to help the poor? Selfishness, and a direct violation of Jesus’s edict (Matt 5.42).
See how hard (almost impossible) it is? There are many more occasions of venial sin that you could list here.
I wonder if anyone has ever died in a state of perfect grace, requiring not even the briefest session in purgatory.
When you go to a funeral, and the leaflet reads “Celebrating the Entry into Eternal Life of (whomever)”, you should really read “Celebrating the Fact that (whomever) is Most Likely Enduring Purgatory, is Hopefully Not in Hell, is Probably Not Yet in Heaven, but is, Nonetheless, Entering an Eternal Life of Some Kind.”
But that would just upset the grieving relatives.
Why can’t people just be honest and recognize the frailty inherent in everyone, instead of presenting sanitized, feel-good nonsense?