Loss of Salvation

[MotoCatholic]

Here I go again…I’m not sure why this is making me so uneasy. Yesterday at Mass - Divine Mercy Sunday - our Priest gave a wonderful homily about Mercy, what it is and what it isnt, and ultimately what an enourmous blessing it is. For the first time in my life, I prayed the Divine mercy novena and chaplet. All week long I’m praying these beauitiful prayers about…mercy. I just can’t get around or away from the incredibly negative impact that comment on EWTN has had on me. It seems that this week’s Novena, Mass and homily are simply irreconcilable with both the spirit of the novena and Sunday’s Mass? I guess I know why it isn’t - as a truly recommitted Catholic who’s trying to understand his faith. But anyone watching that program, especially non-Catholics, underinformed Catholics, or anyone with a little doubt in their heart, would have seen and heard that comment and ran as fast as they could away from Catholicism and probably Christianity. I think I’m really objecting to the carelessness and alomost calousness of the comment. How could he not mention, even as a little caveat, Divine mercy??

On an interesting side note - I watched this program last night, I think it’s called “I Survived…Beyond and Back,” where people tell their stories of what are essentially near-death experiences. One woman described first seeing “the light,” in which appeared her deceased mother and brother, calling to her to join them. Suddenly, she was somewhere else, somewhere negative and sorrowful, filled with souls walking on what she described as “the road leading to hell,” with faceless-entities keeping everyone in order…on their way to somewhere very bad. But then she heard a voice, that she described with certainty as the voice of God, saying “this is not your time.” She was then immediately back in her body in the hospital bed. She commented that it was shocking because “I am a Christian and I thought I was saved.” I wish they would have elaborated on that. Quite often people on this program descibe experiences that seem very consistent with what we, as Catholics, would call purgatory. The experiences are surprisingly consistent and similar. Others experience what could be considered hell itself. Very, very scary experiences! What is the Church’s position on these near-death experiences? Is it possible to be given a glimpse of purgatory, or even hell, and then be summoned back to your earthly body?? Thanks

 

[Godfollower]

Here I go again…I’m not sure why this is making me so uneasy. Yesterday at Mass - Divine Mercy Sunday - our Priest gave a wonderful homily about Mercy, what it is and what it isnt, and ultimately what an enourmous blessing it is. For the first time in my life, I prayed the Divine mercy novena and chaplet. All week long I’m praying these beauitiful prayers about…mercy. I just can’t get around or away from the incredibly negative impact that comment on EWTN has had on me. It seems that this week’s Novena, Mass and homily are simply irreconcilable with both the spirit of the novena and Sunday’s Mass? I guess I know why it isn’t - as a truly recommitted Catholic who’s trying to understand his faith. But anyone watching that program, especially non-Catholics, underinformed Catholics, or anyone with a little doubt in their heart, would have seen and heard that comment and ran as fast as they could away from Catholicism and probably Christianity. I think I’m really objecting to the carelessness and alomost calousness of the comment. How could he not mention, even as a little caveat, Divine mercy??

On an interesting side note - I watched this program last night, I think it’s called “I Survived…Beyond and Back,” where people tell their stories of what are essentially near-death experiences. One woman described first seeing “the light,” in which appeared her deceased mother and brother, calling to her to join them. Suddenly, she was somewhere else, somewhere negative and sorrowful, filled with souls walking on what she described as “the road leading to hell,” with faceless-entities keeping everyone in order…on their way to somewhere very bad. But then she heard a voice, that she described with certainty as the voice of God, saying “this is not your time.” She was then immediately back in her body in the hospital bed. She commented that it was shocking because “I am a Christian and I thought I was saved.” I wish they would have elaborated on that. Quite often people on this program descibe experiences that seem very consistent with what we, as Catholics, would call purgatory. The experiences are surprisingly consistent and similar. Others experience what could be considered hell itself. Very, very scary experiences! What is the Church’s position on these near-death experiences? Is it possible to be given a glimpse of purgatory, or even hell, and then be summoned back to your earthly body?? Thanks

I think Saint Catherine of Genoa saw such visions of Purgatory. Other saints have also reported seeing visions of Heaven and Hell. So, yes; it is possible.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that some person you saw on tv really had such visions; but it is possible to see them.

 

[thistle]

Here I go again…I’m not sure why this is making me so uneasy. Yesterday at Mass - Divine Mercy Sunday - our Priest gave a wonderful homily about Mercy, what it is and what it isnt, and ultimately what an enourmous blessing it is. For the first time in my life, I prayed the Divine mercy novena and chaplet. All week long I’m praying these beauitiful prayers about…mercy. I just can’t get around or away from the incredibly negative impact that comment on EWTN has had on me. It seems that this week’s Novena, Mass and homily are simply irreconcilable with both the spirit of the novena and Sunday’s Mass? I guess I know why it isn’t - as a truly recommitted Catholic who’s trying to understand his faith. But anyone watching that program, especially non-Catholics, underinformed Catholics, or anyone with a little doubt in their heart, would have seen and heard that comment and ran as fast as they could away from Catholicism and probably Christianity. I think I’m really objecting to the carelessness and alomost calousness of the comment. How could he not mention, even as a little caveat, Divine mercy??

On an interesting side note - I watched this program last night, I think it’s called “I Survived…Beyond and Back,” where people tell their stories of what are essentially near-death experiences. One woman described first seeing “the light,” in which appeared her deceased mother and brother, calling to her to join them. Suddenly, she was somewhere else, somewhere negative and sorrowful, filled with souls walking on what she described as “the road leading to hell,” with faceless-entities keeping everyone in order…on their way to somewhere very bad. But then she heard a voice, that she described with certainty as the voice of God, saying “this is not your time.” She was then immediately back in her body in the hospital bed. She commented that it was shocking because “I am a Christian and I thought I was saved.” I wish they would have elaborated on that. Quite often people on this program descibe experiences that seem very consistent with what we, as Catholics, would call purgatory. The experiences are surprisingly consistent and similar. Others experience what could be considered hell itself. Very, very scary experiences! What is the Church’s position on these near-death experiences? Is it possible to be given a glimpse of purgatory, or even hell, and then be summoned back to your earthly body?? Thanks

The Church does not have a position on so-called near death experiences. Personally I don’t believe in them.

 

[dcana]

God is not out to get us, just waiting to send us to hell.

In a way God is “out to get us” - to save us! Jesus came to save us, not to condemn us. The Father is waiting for us to repent with open arms and runs out to meet us as soon as we turn to Him! In my opinion, if anyone’s ideas regarding sin, forgiveness, mercy, God’s just judgement, etc. are not congruent with that, then something is not being properly understood and must be re-thought. Yes, one mortal sin, if unconfessed and unrepented even at death will send (not can send) a person straight to hell, period. But, as others have said, mortal sin is not a “slip-up” on our part and does not happen “by accident.” But God does not desire this and will give all of us the grace we need for this not to happen. Is His grace not sufficient for us? No one can even begin to imagine the manifold ways that He does this throughout our lives. For example, would God, seeing a person has been struggling for a long time with some habitual serious sin, and has been trying his best to overcome the temptation through prayer and other spiritual means, and who repents from the heart whenever he does fall into the sin and who truly trusts in God’s mercy and love, allow this person to commit some mortal sin and then be hit by a bus, so he couldn’t get to confession? No. What if the person gave up the good fight, despaired of or despised God’s mercy and embraced whole-heartedly his former sinful ways? Will God not try for the rest of his life to get him back on the via justa, the “right way?” Of course. But if that person’s heart becomes hardened, closed and impenetrable to God’s grace, well then that’s that. He’ll go to his own place, the “default” place, as Brooklyn said. If God sees that this hardened heart really isn’t permanently hardened, so that after His trying to break into it for the next fifty years, it will finally let Him in, even at the moment of death, will God not give the person fifty years of life? If He sees that this heart will remain closed for ever, well then the person might as well meet a quick end so as not to be a stumbling block to others. What if this person was only fooling himself in believing that he really wanted to rid himself of this sin and was not truly repentant when he went to Confession? In that case our hypothetical person might be hit by that bus, for God will not be mocked. Of course, I’m being (semi) facetious here. Nobody can “figure God out,” but we do know that all His ways are merciful. Can we draw conclusions when we see bad things happen to good people, or good things happen to bad people, or any such thing? Absolutely not, because only God knows peoples’ hearts and His ways are unsearchable. All we know is that He is in charge of all things, and He knows exactly what He is doing. My point is that God knows our hearts, good and bad, infinitely better than we know them ourselves, and that we must trust in Him without reserve and in all things. Some people see this as a negative thing - as if God is “up there in the clouds, watching our every move, just waiting to condemn us when we commit sin.” This is infantile and is just about as far from the truth as you can get. Unfortunately, I think that many atheists’ view of God is like this, or at least that is what they think our view of God is. Who would want to believe in a god like that? Not me. And it’s a good thing that I don’t have to, for this is not who He has revealed Himself to us to be. We know that God is infinitely merciful. Is this image of God infinitely merciful? Far from it, it is cruel even by human standards. What does infinite mercy really mean? Beats me - I can’t begin to imagine. To me, God’s omniscience is the most comforting thought. But if we reject God’s good graces, then that is our fault. God does not want to send anyone to hell. He created us all, without exception, for Himself. The very reason for our existence is Blessedness, eternal Beatitude. That’s the only reason God created Creation, when it comes down to it, so other creatures might share in His Eternal Blessedness. It wasn’t so that He could demonstrate His Justice to others, IMO. Why should He need to do that? There is no need for that, just as there is no need for Him to demonstrate His mercy (as he already perfectly knows Himself to be perfectly just and merciful), but He wanted to show - actually, share with others - His mercy and love. On the Day of the General Judgement it will be shown how all the condemned justly deserve to be condemned. All people, most especially and importantly they themselves, and all the angels will see how God desired them to be saved (as Scripture says), did everything a loving Father would do for them to be saved, but they would not have it.

Remember what Padre Pio said:** “Pray, hope, and don’t worry!”**