Thanks everyone for your responses.
I’m having a hard time embracing what is taught…that God loves us beyond measure, wants us to always be with Him yet doesn’t seem to take all steps necessary to make sure we are with Him forever. If a person is in a state of grace then falls out of grace by Catholic definition and dies before repenting and goes to hell because of that…where’s the logic in that? God knows what is going to happen before it happens.
The logic is that you are wrong when you say God doesn’t seem to take all the necessary steps…what else could God have done? Of course, he could give wretched sinners clear cut proof of himself, like an apparition (such as to St. Francis; a terrible sinner until Jesus appeared to Him; he ended one of the Church’s great saints). Of course, God won’t cause a miracle all the time: “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.” But God is always after our hearts, in mystical fashion, calling to us in probably millions of tiny ways. John Paul II made a great point in his book Crossing the Threshold, that people want concrete proof of God, but refuse to look to Jesus, who is the ‘image of the invisible God’. In Jesus, what has God not done? Unless people are in situations like death before they execute free will, or people who live good lives but have never heard or ever been taught the teachings of Christ, people are always open to the truths held in the Church. And God is always open to them, calling each one into mystical union.
The fact is that God isn’t the cause of our losing grace; if we had grace, and lost it, it’s our fault…and if we die without grace, it’s still our fault. God takes us when He chooses. As far as a good explanation from Christ Himself on the matter, I’d suggest the parable of the house on sand, and the house on rock. The house on sand withers and breaks and falls. The house on rock survives the storm; a story, to me, of people who have grace, and lose it, and of those who keep it firm.
St. Rita prayed for God to kill her sons before they avenged their father’s death by murdering someone and He did it so He has taken lives to prevent a fall from grace. So, why some people and not others? As Catholics teach it (and I’m Catholic) a baptized baby goes to heaven thru no merit of their own yet we don’t know what happens to an unbaptized baby. Or the deathbed confession of a terrible person whose life inflicted pain on many will get to enjoy heaven someday yet a good Catholic who struggled their whole life to do good maybe misses a Mass and dies and we believe they probably went to hell?
I’m not getting it.
Aren’t there any good arguments out there to refute this? I know I’m not the first person to have problems with this and I’m hoping you all can point me in the right direction.
The only arguement there is: God alone is judge. We shouldn’t judge, but it’s God who is always Just Judge. Why quarrel over who gets Heaven or not? We should rather pray for them, but worry about OUR own salvation. It’s up to God everyone’s eternal destiny. Let’s worry about ours and everybodies…but not assume some extra knowledge; God alone is our judge.
The Church Doctrine of Purgatory pretty well sums up your confusion here, I think.
Lets say that a murderer, who has known for some time that He was wrong, and was sorry to his victims, was dying, and at the impulse of the Holy Spirit, says “Lord, forgive me. I’m sorry. I believe in You, and in Your Son. Please don’t damn me, but in your mercy, grant that I may see You in your glory.” If the man be sincere, perhaps God will give him over to purgatory, to be purified until he ‘pays the last penny’, as Christ himself put it, for his crimes.
And, on the other hand, if a devout Catholic decides randomly one day, at the impulse of the Devil, “I don’t feel like going to Church. I’m going to sleep in for once.” Later that day, this person is killed in a car crash. Perhaps God, observing the former devoutness of the person, and considering their unopportune time of death before repenting, hands him over to purgatory to be purified of this sin which happened at a final point in his life.
And, finally, consider a baby stillborn, or aborted. This baby, not having the opportunity for articulate thought or execution of free will; having no knowledge of life, of good or evil, of Christ or even it’s own existence, but marked with original sin. This baby, being in such circumstances, could pass through a short stint in purgatory (for the soul has no age), and be found in Heaven.
These are questions of God’s mercy. If a serial killer, about to be caught for his crime, says “God, please help me! I’m sorry!”, but says this because of a moment of desperation, and not of true conversion, and then is shot by a policeman, then he’s certainly not going to be counted among God’s elect in Heaven. But again, these are questions of God’s mercy, which we can ponder, but can’t understand. We know that God is both Just Judge and Merciful Savior, but life is a test…think of it like this: we can either pass or fail. If someone gets a passing grade of a B,C, or D, he’s given to purgatory (according to the 3 Levels or Purgatory teaching). If one passes with a grade of A+, then this person will immediately go to Heaven. If someone rejects knowledge and fails, F and lower, they go to Hell. I hope this clears up things atleast a bit for you. God Bless!
