Mortal Sin before Death

[wjp984]

That is not correct. You are judged only on the state of your soul at death.
Good works have no merit if you die in a state of mortal sin.

A horrible person sinning their whole life but who repents and is absolved and then immediately dies is saved.
A good person spending their life doing good works etc but who commits a mortal sin and dies unrepentent immediatley thereafter condemns themselves to Hell.

To think that after you die God weighs up the good and bad you have done in life and will save you if the good outweighs the bad is Protestant thinking.

Actually, if Purgatory exists, tecnically you would be judged on your whole life, and that is a Catholic belief.

 

[TheDoctor]

That is not correct. You are judged only on the state of your soul at death. Good works have no merit if you die in a state of mortal sin.

Agreed. If you die in a state of mortal sin, rejecting God and cutting yourself off from Him, all the good works or graces you have had count for nothing. Your judgement is Hell by your own rejection of God.

A horrible person sinning their whole life but who repents and is absolved and then immediately dies is saved.

By “saved” if what you mean is that they are assured of Heaven I can only say “yes” if the person is truly repentant and that is only known by God. They will, however, be judged based on their life, as the catechism says:1021 Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming,** but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith.**
The amount of time that “saved” soul spends in purgatory and the level in Heaven that they are allowed would be based on a judgment of their lives - is that not what the Catechism is teaching?

A good person spending their life doing good works etc but who commits a mortal sin and dies unrepentant immediately thereafter condemns themselves to Hell.

Of course.

 

[Pug]

I know I have always been taught that when Catholics die in mortal sin, without confessing or making perfect act of contrition that we will go to hell upon death.

You know, I find it very hard to believe that a forgiving God could let someone that lead a wonderful life of charity, helping to shelter and feed the homeless, numerous acts and devotions to our Lord, could just with one slip up of mortal sin (right before death thus having no chance or thought of confessing) die and go straight to Hell as a result, while someone like Hitler has a deathbed conversion and and is saved from the fires of Hell

I know what we are taught, but I’m having a hard time with seeing the logic.

God created us to be capable of acting freely, especially to love. I think perhaps you are having a problem understanding that our free choice is profoundly connected to individual actions. A choice does not have to be a pattern of many choices over many years to “count” as a choice. One choice alone upon being tempted to something gravely wrong and knowingly and willingly and freely and with enough thought is fully sufficient to be a choice against the good. One choice alone is sufficient to engage our God-given capacity to choose. In such a choice, we choose against the divine law and God’s plan for us. We are turning to something else, perhaps something internal, but not God.

A scripture passage that might be helpful is the parable of the workers in the vineyard. When a wicked person repents at the end, is this not like the workers who didn’t look for work until the very end of the day, and so finally got hired, yet were paid the same wage as those who worked all day in the oppressive heat? See Matthew 20:1-15 for parable.

Or, perhaps the parable of the prodigal son. I’m not so interested in the prodigal himself, but the elder. The elder spends his years being a good son, yet he gets upset when the prodigal returned and there was a feast. He said to his father:‘Look, all these years I served you and not once did I disobey your orders; yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns who swallowed up your property with prostitutes, for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’ He said to him, ‘My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’"
What if the elder refuses to rejoice? What if he chooses to leave the Father out of disgust for the unfairness of it all? What will become of him?