Fewness Saved vs Divine Mercy

[BenSinner]

I find some contradictions with all the private revelations and sermons from saints showing that an overwhelming majority of people, including Catholics, are damned. (please don’t post any quotes about these numbers)

And then we have the writings of St. Faustina on Divine Mercy that says every sinner, no matter how hardened of heart, will have one last moment before death where God will reveal himself to them and give them the option of saying “Yes” to his will at the moment of death and be saved.

This seems heart-warming and re-assuring, but it goes against the former. If the Divine Mercy is true, then why is there such a overwhelming majority of people, especially Catholics, who are damned?

It seems to fly in the face of human nature for so many people, especially Catholics, to see God at the moment of death who is offering them forgiveness and say “No thanks. I’d rather go to hell” and damn themselves.

Another element added to Faustina’s testimony is she said many people don’t even realize they were going to hell and were surprised to be there. If they consciously said “No. I don’t want to be saved” at the moment of death before God, there wouldn’t be any surprise to them being in hell.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I struggle with all these concepts and more, especially in this day and age when some of the people like Anne, a Lay Apostle (whose pamphlets have Nihil Obstat and Imprimatur in them) and Susan Tassone are pushing the idea that purgatory is a lovey dovey learning experience while past saints describe it as a place of awful physical torment. I do a lot of trusting in God’s mercy. I am not so concerned for myself as I am for wanting to know where my loved ones are or might end up.

One thing to keep in mind is that all this stuff from St. Faustina, St. Padre Pio, and others is private revelation. We don’t have to believe in it and it could even be incorrect. I choose to believe in a lot of it, but when you hit one of these contradictions you just need to accept that something beyond your understanding is happening and pray and move on.

I have also noticed that saints in past eras seemed to take the position that people were going to hell in droves, and few were saved, whereas now you get even very crusty saints like Padre Pio saying he didn’t believe many people went to Hell because God loves us and gives us that one last chance to repent. Could it be that either mankind’s ability to repent, or our understanding of the Divine Mercy, have improved? Or maybe this whole concept is like us feeling the toe of an elephant while we are blindfolded and we can just get the barest inkling of the whole process into our brains.

 

[upant]

will have one last moment before death where God will reveal himself to them

the question that comes to my mind:

is this last call any different than prior calls? would the person recognize it as a death bed offer? would it be seen as just another twinge of conscience.

 

[Mary_Ellen]

I’ve heard many times that it won’t be a surprise as to where we end up, at least not once we are there. I figure if we choose to live without God in this life we will continue to live without Him in the next (Hell). We reject Him here (sin) we reject Him there (Hell). If we always seek His Will here we will see Him forever there (Heaven).

We don’t have to hang our hopes on the private revelations of past saints, or current “prophets.” The magisterial teachings of the Church and her Sacraments are enough for me.