H
haroldcrews
Guest
This morning while praying the Morning Office the second Psalm (Isaiah 33) had an interesting section. It reads:
*On Zion sinners are in dread,
trembling grips the impious;
“Who of us can live with the consuming fire?
Who of us can live with the everlasting flames?”
He who practices virtue and speaks honestly,
who spurns what is gained by oppression,
brushing his hands
free of contact with a bribe,
stopping his ears lest he hear of bloodshed,
closing his eyes lest he look on evil.*
It associates Zion with consuming fire and everlasting flames. Normally it is Hell that has such associations. But there is an alternate line of thought as to the afterlife. That to be in the afterlife is to be bathed in the burning flames of God’s love. Those in Heaven and Purgatory having died in God’s Grace can bear the flames. The purgatorial souls are growing in that Grace as the flames burn away remaining impurity. Those in Hell attempt to flee God’s love as they have done in life but are unable. God can not cease loving us and He is omnipresent.
*On Zion sinners are in dread,
trembling grips the impious;
“Who of us can live with the consuming fire?
Who of us can live with the everlasting flames?”
He who practices virtue and speaks honestly,
who spurns what is gained by oppression,
brushing his hands
free of contact with a bribe,
stopping his ears lest he hear of bloodshed,
closing his eyes lest he look on evil.*
It associates Zion with consuming fire and everlasting flames. Normally it is Hell that has such associations. But there is an alternate line of thought as to the afterlife. That to be in the afterlife is to be bathed in the burning flames of God’s love. Those in Heaven and Purgatory having died in God’s Grace can bear the flames. The purgatorial souls are growing in that Grace as the flames burn away remaining impurity. Those in Hell attempt to flee God’s love as they have done in life but are unable. God can not cease loving us and He is omnipresent.