Bring on the Chastisement!

[Cara_Serrano]

I see your point although I’m not sure I agree with it. When I was in high school a friend of mine caught her dad committing adultery. She was so angry she told her mom, her brothers and sisters, her dad’s family, and everyone at her dad’s work. I think this was her was of chastising him publicly. Although it did hurt her dad, she herself suffered because her dad left town with the new girlfriend and she and her family were left to face the public humiliation alone.

As much as you might like to see some people get what they deserve, it can backfire on you and cause a lot of pain in your life even if you didn’t commit the sin. If you are close enough to someone to be aware of their sins, then you’re close enough to suffer when God chastises them. Be careful!

 

[Jennifer_G]

I think this thread’s been done before. “Bring it on!” isn’t the best thing to say… Saint Peter enthusiastically said he would never deny Christ, but he did three times. What’s to say that you won’t deny Christ the moment before the Chastisement hits?

Even still, that’s like wishing death on all of your worst enemies. And as if that weren’t enough, for the survivors, according to some writings of the Saints, it “would be as if they’re the only ones left on the face of the earth”. There’s still going to be famine and starvation afterwards until society pulls itself back together and starts rebuilding. Just hope those Monsanto seeds (seeds that when matured, don’t bear future seeds), haven’t taken over 100% of the farms by then, thus leaving food harder to come by.

 

[Wisci]

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting so bear with me.

First of all I would just like to say that while I do pray for the conversion of sinners (myself included) and that the world return to God, I would still rather not see the “chastisement” happen. I mean I realize that there is a lot of evil in the world, but it seems to me that most of what people talk about with regards to chastisement is a complete and total world break down. Essentially that life as we know it is over. And I guess that is what scares me about it. I’m 23 years old and in college right now,and the notion that civilization is about to fall apart kind of ruins any hope for a decent future. Now I realize that we are to focus on heaven and not on this world, but in the mean time we do have to live here. My question is, if this is what we hope for, how do we carry on in the mean time? It kind of makes school and a job and plans of 10 years from now seem pretty hopeless. I know that I may never live to finish these things anyway, heck the world might end before then, who knows? But it is not the fact that these things may never happen that bothers me. Its the idea that I am just killing time until things fall apart. I would like to know that there is at least hope for a decent future, and that the lives we live in the meantime are not for nothing. I don’t know. Am I way off base for thinking this way?

I am sorry if i got a little off topic here, but when I read about this whole chastisement thing these are the thoughts that come to mind. And I am interested to see what any of you have to say, or see if any of you have thought these things before.

God Bless-

 

[Cara_Serrano]

Somewhere in the OT (Ezekiel?) it says that “Gods wills not the death of a sinner, but rather that he be converted and live”. That says to me that God would rather not chastise the sinner, but give him a chance to repent and reform his life.

 

[LilyM]

Why? That is, if we are praying for a warning from God that may save many from Hell and IF we remember that we are not ourselves sinless. That we too will come before judgement. Then why would it be absolutely wrong to pray that God’s judgement comes?

For example, when I read about the baby born alive who was thrown into the rubbish to die, I prayed for God’s judgement on those who do that sort of thing. Sure I also pray for their repentance but I pray that if they don’t stop then God’s judgement will come.

No - like I said, in her every apparition, Our Lady speaks of the importance of AVERTING chastisement, and offering prayers and penances to AVOID or LESSEN chastisement. Not ONCE does she EVER say it’s OK to pray FOR people to be punished - not in ANY circumstances. ONLY to pray that punishment be averted.

Then we have scripture - the rich man sent to hell prayed exactly for what you want - that his relatives be warned so that they could turn from their sins. He was refused - essentially because it is a useless thing to pray for.
‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they listen if one should come back from the dead’. And, we can add, ‘neither will they listen if God strike them down with a chastisement’. So it’s a fruitless thing to pray for.

 

[NeedImprovement]

Hello everyone, this is my first time posting so bear with me.

First of all I would just like to say that while I do pray for the conversion of sinners (myself included) and that the world return to God, I would still rather not see the “chastisement” happen. I mean I realize that there is a lot of evil in the world, but it seems to me that most of what people talk about with regards to chastisement is a complete and total world break down. Essentially that life as we know it is over. And I guess that is what scares me about it. I’m 23 years old and in college right now,and the notion that civilization is about to fall apart kind of ruins any hope for a decent future. Now I realize that we are to focus on heaven and not on this world, but in the mean time we do have to live here. My question is, if this is what we hope for, how do we carry on in the mean time? It kind of makes school and a job and plans of 10 years from now seem pretty hopeless. I know that I may never live to finish these things anyway, heck the world might end before then, who knows? But it is not the fact that these things may never happen that bothers me. Its the idea that I am just killing time until things fall apart. I would like to know that there is at least hope for a decent future, and that the lives we live in the meantime are not for nothing. I don’t know. Am I way off base for thinking this way?

I am sorry if i got a little off topic here, but when I read about this whole chastisement thing these are the thoughts that come to mind. And I am interested to see what any of you have to say, or see if any of you have thought these things before.

God Bless-

Sounds like you’re right on target IMO Wisci. You hit the nail on the head - Hope. St. Paul says these three abide: faith , hope, and charity. We are meant to be a people of hope, who live by faith in fraternal charity.

Abraham - our father in faith, is said to have hoped against hope itself.

Here’s a snippet from the third paragraph of a short article on (the late) Cardinal Gagnon which can be viewed (pph 3 is the pertinent one) at the following link:kofc.org/un/eb/en/news/releases/detail/printer_friendly/456878.html

"Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical for the third millennium admonishes us and tells us we must not be prophets of doom but prophets of hope."

Here’s the passage from Ezekiel previously mentioned by a fellow member:

Ezekiel 33:11 [NAB]

"Say to them, As I live!’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die, O house of Israel?’

We are all born into this world to live - that is our mission. The only one ever born whose mission it was to die, is our beloved Lord Jesus Christ.

God Bless all.

 

[marywel]

Can’t help but wonder if some of the folks praying for the chastisement are actually just anxious to see the Lord return to make all things right and the chastisement is merely part of that?
Hard for me to believe that folks would actually pray for others to be punished. But I have to admit that although I pray for the Will of God to be done on earth as it is in Heaven, I’m one of the folks that also find myself saying the words at the end of Revelation: “Come, Lord Jesus!”

 

[Cara_Serrano]

Yes, I think lots of people who have been hurt by others want Jesus to come back with a vengeance. However, until He returns, it is our job to forgive trespassers as we would be forgiven and let Jesus balance the books when He gets here.

 

[marywel]

Yes, I think lots of people who have been hurt by others want Jesus to come back with a vengeance. However, until He returns, it is our job to forgive trespassers as we would be forgiven and let Jesus balance the books when He gets here.

Absolutely
By making things right, I was thinking more along the lines of the after effects … where you could not have to worry about folks lying or cheating etc. anymore and being able to show affection to even a lion or bear … Not so much folks being punished at all. If punishment is all we want to see that equates to vengeance so there would be no reason to pray for conversions, yanno?