Well, that is what is going to happen if you and I do not convert, do not get back to the Lord, do not take the chance of this opportune time of our lives to believe and to live with him. Jesus himself said that we would die in our sins if we did not convert, turn back to him, and allow his truth to transform us and to set us free.
"I have told you already: You will die in your sins. Yes, if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins". (John 8:24)
He is not saying this to the pagans or to people who do not believe in him, but to the believers!
"To the Jews who BELIEVED IN HIM Jesus said: If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free. They answered, "We are descended from Abraham and we have never been the slaves of anyone; what do you mean, "You will be set free?" Jesus replied: In all truth I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave. Now a slave has no permanent standing in the household, but a son belongs to it for ever. So if the Son sets you free, you will indeed be free." (John 8:31-36)
It is well known that nowadays in the Church of God — Holy and Catholic — due to the terrible influence of modernism, relativism, or the "smoke of Satan" (as Pope Paul VI would call it), people are afraid of hell, afraid of talking about it, afraid of talking about the devil, and so on. This fear leads to the disgrace that many people do not only omit this subject but also deny its existence.
In the past, atheists and people belonging to some dark denominations of occultism would affirm that the Evil One and hell do not exist. Nowadays we see religious people, priests, bishops and communities denying their existence — and along with it: if there is no hell, there is no sin, there is no resurrection, no need of God, no need of faith, the only important thing is to enjoy today and to feel good!
This is an abomination that comes straight from the hands of Satan himself, and people are not only accepting this idea — which seems reasonable, but is just as poisonous as the affirmation that God is so good and merciful he would never send anyone to hell — but also living it to the full.
And my brethren, from the bottom of my heart I need to affirm categorically here, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit: this is why the world and the Church are in the deplorable state they are in, in so many areas. If there is no hell, no sin (sometimes they say also no heaven), then there is no need for conversion.
When we look at the life of the saints of the Church, we can have an idea of the call to conversion that should resound in our hearts when we think about the constant need we have of it, and of the call to work out our salvation.
Starting off with Saint Paul who was a pagan, assassin of Christians and was converted to the Christian faith through his personal encounter with Christ (), he wrote and left us great recommendations about this subject:
"So, my dear friends, you have always been obedient; your obedience must not be limited to times when I am present. Now that I am absent it must be more in evidence, so WORK OUT YOUR SALVATION IN FEAR AND TREMBLING." (Philippians 2:12)
Saint Augustine was another pagan who descended to the lowest level of sin, humanly speaking, and who became one of the greatest mystics — a saint of the Church at the level of the seventh mansion (as Saint Teresa of Jesus would teach). It was only after more than thirty years of the prayers of his mother Saint Monica that the grace of God touched him deeply, when he was in the church listening to Saint Ambrose of Milan preaching the homily. There he began his process of conversion.
After meeting Christ, he recognised how late he had come to love the Lord, how he had walked in darkness, and that his soul had been restless until it rested in God. He confessed his need of the grace of God; and in one episode of his life when he was tempted, he teaches us clearly what conversion is.
He was already bishop then and one day one prostitute recognised him and started to shout: AUGUSTINEEE! AUGUSTINEE!! He firstly ignored it and pretended he didn't know her but she didn't give up shouting: AUGUSTINEE! AUGUSTINEE! He then started running and trying to lose her but she went after him, AUGUSTINEE!
After running unsuccessfully he entered a Church and sat on the chair trying to hide from this terrible temptation from his past of impurity and luxury. Suddenly, she turned up in the doors of the Church and standing there she shouted once more: AUGUSTINEE! AUGUSTINEE! And stretching her bare legs and trying to use her old ways of seduction, touching her legs and thighs she said: Do you remember me? I am that one!! He then, hold off with the the grace of God and replied with strong voice: BUT I AM NOT THAT ONE ANYMORE!!
This is what I call conversion! This is what the grace of God works in us: it transforms our minds, transforms our mentality, transforms our hearts, transforms our paths, transforms our lives and the way we live them, in order that we may be totally ordered to Christ.
Saint Augustine said the deed of salvation is greater than the deed of the Creation for God created us without our consent but can not save us without our cooperation. This is because He gave us the gift of Free Will.
When we turn to Saint John Vianney, in France in the nineteenth century, we see a humble priest who could barely speak Latin (which was one of the requirements to become a priest in the Church at that time), but who lived an extraordinary holiness in union with Jesus and Mary. He was a sweet, lovely and holy priest who was very fearful of hell; and many times during his life as parish priest in Ars, he would ask the bishop of Lyon for dispensation from his duties so that he could weep for his sins for at least two years, because he was afraid of being condemned to hell.
He was a priest who knew about the RESPONSIBILITY of being a priest and would say, "The humblest of the Holy Masses, celebrated by the humblest of the Priests in the poorest community on Earth terrifies the whole Hell and put the Evil one in fear!" That is why he would live and love spending the time of his whole life by giving it in for the sake of the celebration of the Holy Mass and confessing from 12 to 18 hours per day!!
When people came to him from France and from across the world in those days, in the 1800s, he would not give absolution in confession unless the person showed regret and a sincere will of conversion. He would not do as many priests do nowadays — saying that nothing is sin — but he would say to nearly everyone who came to him, with tears in his eyes: "I am very sorry, because you are condemned to eternal damnation. Your destiny is hell. The path you are living will certainly keep you away from God when your death comes."
Unlike many religious, priests and bishops who hide the truth that saves, he was worried only about the salvation of souls. He knew the words could be tough sometimes, but that was what God used to bring people to conversion. I want to leave these words for some priests and religious who keep holding back the truth of God that saves, and who do not speak out for fear of human respect or political correctness:
"The retribution of God from heaven is being revealed against the ungodliness and injustice of human beings who in their injustice hold back the truth." (Romans 1:18)
Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina is another great saint who, when he was first becoming a priest, kept a phrase in his dormitory: "Penance or hell!" He took this advice seriously and lived a heroic life, being one of the most famous priests in the history of the Church to have received the stigmata of Christ. Once a woman came asking his help to find out if her husband was saved, since he had died recently and Padre Pio had some extraordinary gifts.
He tried to hide his face and started to tremble and the woman asked again, "Where is my husband's soul?" to what he replied crying, "He is in Hell!". She asked then, "How can he be in Hell if he had confessed before dying?" He then said sadly, "He hided a secret sin and didn't confess!"
One of the biggest graces one Catholic could have in his life is make a good and general confession of the sins of his whole life, after a good examination of his conscience and repentance of his sins.
Saint Augustine is the saint who said, "The frequent and constant preaching about HELL is enough to convert a whole community!" And since preachers and pastors don't preach about Hell anymore, I want to be a prophet and declare the truth with the power of the Holy Spirit, with the grace of the Father and protected by the blood of Christ; along with the general of the army of the Lord, the Blessed and Most Holy Virgin Mary, with Saint Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, with the saints and angels from Heaven and in communion with the Militant Church, the Suffering Church and the Triumphant Church: Hell exists and we will go there if we do not embrace our daily conversion!
Let's have a look at some paragraphs (1033-1037):
1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him." Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice.This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."
1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather... all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"
1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire." The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few." Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance": Father, accept this offering from your whole family. Grant us your peace in this life, save us from final damnation, and count us among those you have chosen.
That is why Jesus says in the Gospels we should be ready at all the times for we don't know the hour when he will be back and the hour we will die.
This reminds us of the parable he told his disciples about a rich man...
"Then he told them a parable, 'There was once a rich man who, having had a good harvest from his land, thought to himself, "What am I to do? I have not enough room to store my crops." Then he said, "This is what I will do: I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grain and my goods in them, and I will say to my soul: My soul, you have plenty of good things laid by for many years to come; take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time." But God said to him, "Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul;and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?" (Luke 12:16-20)
So many people only care about this life and to earn goods for this earthly life but were and never will be worried about where they will live in the eternity. Maybe like the other parable Jesus told from the rich and the poor Lazarus (cf. Luke 16:19-31) this sort of people would only acknowledge eternity when they die, but it will be too late...
There is no time for repentance after death! The only time we have to convert ourselves and get back to God is now, it is today, it is the time of this life!The worst news I have to give to you is that repentance is a process fruit of the grace of God which many people would try to have beforehand to their death and will not be able to have because our hearts became insensible when we are in sin and away from God!!CONVERSION CAN NOT BE IMPROVISED!
When we go to another saint of the Church from Italy, Saint Philip Neri we understand the words from Saint Paul that we are citizens of Heaven and our homeland is in there (cf. Philippians 3:20) for what he taught everyone around him with his words and his life was PARADISO, PARADISO, PREFERISCO IL PARADISO! That means PARADISE, PARADISE, I RATHER GO TO PARADISE! He is the one who said, "There should a hospice only for the people from this century who are not worried about saving their souls!"
In paragraph 1034 we have the mention that Jesus often speaks of Gehenna — which was the Jewish word for hell, where there would be the unquenchable fire reserved for those who end their lives having refused to believe and to be converted. We see the Church just follows strictly with what Jesus himself says. This reminds us of John's Gospel:
"For God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be judged; but whoever does not believe is judged already, because that person does not believe in the Name of God's only Son. And the judgement is this: though the light has come into the world People have preferred darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, to prevent his actions from being shown up; but whoever does the truth comes out into the lights, so that what he is doing may plainly appear as done in God." (John 3:17-21)
Jesus spoke of hell about fifty times in the four Gospels, and people still think they should not be doing the same, and they try to hide this truth. And that is why so many people are afraid of talking about this, or would rather say hell does not exist — because they do not want to face the truth about their own lives, because they themselves are far too scared of thinking about their own death and judgement.
My dear brethren, our soul and body will be lost for ever and there is no turning back. According to the Letter to the Hebrews, we have come to know that there is no such ridiculous thing as the reincarnation that the spirits teach...
"Since human beings die only once, after which comes judgement". (Hebrews 9:27)
For those who think and teach that hell is going to be a place of fun and joy with sex, drugs and rock and roll, paragraph 1035 reminds us that it is going to be a place of eternal fire and punishment. People are out of their minds when they think there is going to be any sort of laughter in hell. They are going to cry like the rich man who was condemned to hell and, suffering there, was asking Abraham for help.
"So he cried out, "Father Abraham, pity me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, FOR I AM IN AGONY IN THESE FLAMES." (Luke 16:24)
People are refusing to believe, refusing to convert, refusing to give up on their earthly pleasures and Saint John of the Cross, another mystic, this time from Spain, who used to say and teach, "In exchange of earthly pleasures one suffers eternal torments". In order to change the focus we should do as he also teaches, "Give up your desires and you will find what your heart wishes for!"
In the paragraph 1036 we are reminded the need of conversion and that the existence of Hell is a call from God to our own RESPONSIBILITY! And here we touch in a point that the world that is governed by the evil one, this modern society we live in, tries with its greater efforts to make us forget about.
That is what the parties, the drinking, the drugs, the sex, the euphoric joy of false friends, the dirty jokes, the bad company, the earthly pleasures with no commitment, the "feel good" industry (inside the Church and in the midst of Christians), and the theology of prosperity (from the Protestants) all do...
"So do not let anyone lead you astray, 'Bad company corrupts good ways.' Wake up from your stupor as you should and leave sin alone; some of you have no understanding of God; I tell you this to instill some shame in you." (1 Corinthians 15:34)
Our flesh with its appetites, the world with its temptations, and the devil with his pomps all try, all the time, to make us forget about the responsibility we need to take for our Christian life, about the necessity of our conversion, about the effort we need to make in order to keep the life of grace in us, and to work out our salvation.
In the paragraph 1037 we are reminded that Hell and eternal damnation is not the last word from God nor from the Church because WE HAVE A SAVIOR! We have a God who made himself flesh from our flesh in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary and came to this world to save us from Hell. He accomplished his mission and during this following Holy Week we are called to remember the sacrifice of the Son of God who gave himself freely to bring us back home, to the homeland we belong to. He paid the price for our sins to allow us to get back to his grace!
Millions of saints in the Church, like some of the ones we spoke about today, had the experience that Saint Paul had...
"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength. By calling me into his service he has judged me trustworthy, even though I used to be a blasphemer and a persecutor and contemptuous. MERCY, however, was shown me, because while I lacked faith I acted in ignorance; but the grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus. Here is a saying that you can rely on and nobody should doubt: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them; and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the leading example of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who were later to trust in him for eternal life. To the eternal King, the undying, invisible and only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." (1 Timothy 1:12-17)
Like Saint Paul many and how many of us do the same thing over and over again because of ignorance, because of the lack of faith, because we have the will to do the good, but we have no power to do it. That is why the good thing we want to do we never do but the evil which we do not want, that is what we always do (cf. Romans 7:18-19). God knows our hearts!
This gracious time of Lent is the constant call to conversion of God to us and maybe this Holy Week of 2019 is the time for us to get back to the House of Our Father. Do you miss the House of the Father? Do you miss the graces of the Father, the care, the goodness, the holiness, the hug of the Father? He does miss it too!
Don't think your sin is bigger than his mercy... Don't think he wants to condemn you... Don't think he is there ready to pour out his wrath to send you straight to hell and that is why things are not going very well in your life at the moment... NO!!! GOD IS MERCIFUL, GOD IS GOOD, GOD IS FATHER!
Just as the prodigal son one day woke up from his illusion and from the dreams of false happiness that sin had made him believe in, we too need to make these two steps of conversion. From the Greek, in which our New Testament was written, there are two words that mean conversion. One is μετανοεῖν, which in English is metanoia. The other is ἀνάστασις, which in English is anastasis.
Metanoia means a change of mentality — a change of the way we think — and to get back to looking inside of ourselves. This is the first step of conversion, where the prodigal son remembered that there was so much bread in his father's house and he was starving out there. We too need to look inside of ourselves and to allow the light of the grace of God to help us to see the reality we are in!
ANASTASIS means rise up (the same verb from Greek used to describe Jesus is risen from the dead), get up from the misery we are in and give a concrete step, it is a physical attitude. That is when the prodigal Son got up and started to walk back towards the house of his Father. We too need to give this step towards the Holy Catholic Church and seek a priest to confess our sins and say, "My father I sinned against Heaven and against you... I am no longer worthy of being called your Son!"
The rest and what happens after that is in the hands of God... I dare you to do that!!
If we do the minimum that is to take up a serious life of prayer and conversion we would not be led astray as Saint Theresa of Avila would say, "Who does not pray throw himself into Hell without the help of the devils!"
My deepest wish is that you understand what this is all about... We need to start and keep up the good work in the process of our conversion, fighting against this mentality of death and sin that reigns in the society, we need to follow the steps of the saints and run away from every occasion of sin and mortal sin that can take us to Hell.
May God grant us the grace of a powerful contrition, true sorrow for our sins that lead us to a genuine conversion!
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