Why is so much importance placed on our state at the moment of death

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It isn’t an ‘either-or’ though.

If you are in a state of grace, then your ‘life’ will serve as your way of glorifying God.

If you are not in a state of grace —I.e. you have unrepented mortal sin at the time of death—your life will serve to show what you could have been had you chosen salvation.

As C S Lewis put it, and which I paraphrase here, the action that you may have chosen reluctantly and in spiritual dryness, but in obedience to God, will shine more and more brightly on your death in a state of grace. You will appreciate more and more deeply all good that you and anybody else in a state of grace did.

But if you die in mortal sin, even the ‘good’ that you did in life will make you angrier and angrier as you have chosen to reject God. You will feel the spoiled nature more and more for eternity. Not ‘regret’, because that would imply you would have chosen differently and wish to be saved, but ever deeper and more spiteful anger at God and at all good.
 
Still seems a tad unfair for God to make someone die(and he does make them die!) immediately after committing a mortal sin, no matter how much you say it was the persons choice that they sinned it was never their choice to die without having a chance for confessing their sin.
 
He does in Catholicism, too, on the whole.

But the most basic saved/condemned distinction is based on our souls at death, do we love the Most High or do we hate Him? He is very merciful, but one who deludes himself into thinking he will repent before death after a lifetime of sin, is in for a rude awakening. Virtue or vice is a habit.
 
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oliver109 said:
Still seems a tad unfair for God to make someone die(and he does make them die!) immediately after committing a mortal sin, no matter how much you say it was the persons choice that they sinned it was never their choice to die without having a chance for confessing their sin.
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God is very merciful and often gives us many chances to repent before taking us. I think you need to trust in God’s Judgment. He is kind and merciful, not trying to play gotcha.

But I think there’s a bit of a presumption in there as well. The fact that we ever get to repent is itself a merciful gift. It is not as though we just deserve it. But He is loving to gift us with Confession.
 
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Kei said:
The fact that we ever get to repent is itself a merciful gift. It is not as though we just deserve it.
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Agree with you there but i think that if some people get to repent then surely all people should get to repent, unless God somehow thinks that some people would never want to repent, though we have no evidence apart from perhaps Judas that there are such souls.
 
oliver109 said:
God to make someone die(and he does make them die!)
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You seem to be claiming that God specifically acts to cause a particular person to die at a specific moment. I disagree. Although God does in fact know, and always knew, when and how one would die, that does not mean that God “made” them die then.
 
oliver109 said:
Agree with you there but i think that if some people get to repent then surely all people should get to repent, unless God somehow thinks that some people would never want to repent, though we have no evidence apart from perhaps Judas that there are such souls.
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Not all people are the same, and God surely can sort it all out.

But, we should also keep in mind what actually happens vs what could theoretically occur. Even when someone commits suicide, we believe there’s a possibility (s)he repented before finally dying, for instance. We ultimately don’t know with certainty the final state of these people’s souls. But God does, and God surely acts with Charity, for He is Love (or charity), and His Justice is tempered with His Mercy. So, ultimately, we pray for the souls of even those who seemed to have a bad death. God doesn’t force the sinner to repentance, but He does try to move him. He knows the repentance of each soul and the amount of Grace given to each soul. You are worrying yourself with things you cannot know.
 
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Our whole life is taken into account, death is simply when it ends and we go to judgment. We will be rewarded or punished according our works. What makes it not just a simple tally is the grace of Christ, which absolves us of the evil deeds and gives supernatural merit to our good deeds.

In that light, he who perseveres to the end in faith and charity through grace will be saved; while he who perseveres in final impenitence–the refusal of grace and charity–will be condemned.
 
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oliver109 said:
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The end is most significant because of free will and God’s willingness to forgive those that choose to repent. The entire life is considered for merit or demerit. The final state determines the state of charity or malice which determines the salvation or condemnation. The merit or demerit has an effect of Beatific Vision or suffering as the case may be.
 
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It still seems profoundly unfair to me for God to condemn someone because they happened to die after commiting a mortal sin, take two people A and B, they both live lives where they sin, then repent, sin then repent, they both struggle against the sinful temptations of life but person A goes to confession one day, dies after leaving confession and is rewarded with heaven while person B goes to confession, leaves confession, sins then dies suddenly and goes to Hell, it is profoundly unfair that God could not or was not able to save that person(how can God not be able?) could not give person B another chance.
 
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oliver109 said:
God could stop them
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Could? Absolutely. Would? I deem it extremely unlikely. Our deaths are also part of free will; not just our own but the sum of all the decisions of all the people everywhere combined with natural processes. So for God to set all that aside it seems to me that there would have to be an extraordinary reason.
 
oliver109 said:
Still seems a tad unfair for God to make someone die(and he does make them die!) immediately after committing a mortal sin, no matter how much you say it was the persons choice that they sinned it was never their choice to die without having a chance for confessing their sin.
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God does not play a game of gotcha. He is not looking to strike someone down who is seeking salvation the moment they stumble.

He desires all to be saved (see also 1: Tim 2:4)–He doesn’t abandon one who wants to be forgiven:
Matt. 18:[11] For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost. [12] What think you? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them should go astray: doth he not leave the ninety-nine in the mountains, and go to seek that which is gone astray? [13] And if it so be that he find it: Amen I say to you, he rejoiceth more for that, than for the ninety-nine that went not astray. [14] Even so it is not the will of your Father, who is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.
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That’s why God grants us anything we seek if it is conducive to our salvation. As Jesus promises:
Matt. 7:[7] Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.
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He elaborates on this elsewhere:
John 16:[24]…Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full.
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The condition on His unfailing promise to give what we seek is that it make our joy full, that is, it is good for our salvation (that’s what full joy is). Making a good confession when we are in mortal sin is always good for our salvation!

The classic Roman Catechism sums this up when discussing this principle of prayer:
For God will either grant what is asked, and thus they will obtain their wishes; or He will not grant it, and that will be a most certain proof that what is denied the good by Him is not conducive either to their interest or their salvation, since He is more desirous of their eternal welfare than they themselves.
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The only unforgiveable sin is final impenitence–a heart hardened against the Holy Spirit until the end. If you are seeking to be saved and and seek and need the grace of penance for that purpose, you will receive it by the omnipotent power of God.
 
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I like your optimism here but i have to disagree with your idea that God does not play a game of gotcha, St Aquinas said that God can let anyone die in their sins if he wishes, even if they were a good person in their life with only sinning sometimes. St Aquinas even said that we will benefit in Heaven from seeing people in Hell in their torments and we will thank God there for the mercy he has shown us and the justice he showed the damned. No Catholic authority has ever said what St Aquinas was saying was wrong or unbiblical.
 
oliver109 said:
St Aquinas said that God can let anyone die in their sins if he wishes, even if they were a good person in their life with only sinning sometimes. St Aquinas even said that we will benefit in Heaven from seeing people in Hell in their torments and we will thank God there for the mercy he has shown us and the justice he showed the damned. No Catholic authority has ever said what St Aquinas was saying was wrong or unbiblical.
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Once again, you’re mistaking what is theoretically possible with what actually happens. God WOULD be perfectly Just to let someone die in their sins, and COULD, theoretically, let someone who was good die in their sins (as their sins justly deserve punishment). But, the question is if He does actually do this to someone trying to lead a good life in friendship with God. God understands their heart better than anyone else.

Those in Heaven given a more perfect understanding may enjoy the mercy and justice of God in a way we don’t fully understand or appreciate now, yes. We shouldn’t presume the Mercy of God when we sin (this is the sin of presumption). But, we can trust and hope in Him.
 
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Kei said:
But, the question is if He does actually do this to someone trying to lead a good life in friendship with God. God understands their heart better than anyone else.
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Indeed, but then why has God never revealed the real reason why he does not save everyone? He could say it was because some people were just so wired that they would never want to repent(itself hard to grasp if that person did make attempts at repenting in their life) but God leaves it for us to guess.
 
oliver109 said:
Indeed, but then why has God never revealed the real reason why he does not save everyone?
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He has redeemed everyone. It’s a matter of if we take up of His Redemption. We know God desires the salvation of all people.
We have a choice. He may push and pull and plead, but ultimately if someone goes against Him, that’s their choice.
 
Kei said:
He may push and pull and plead, but ultimately if someone goes against Him, that’s their choice.
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That is the Molinist understanding, just one of two viewpoints regarding this matter, the other one is that God could save everyone but chooses not to as he does not have to for his own reasons.
 
It might help our understanding, make us less stressed about a controversial topic, i don’t really know as he has never revealed the main reason.
 
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