The problem with assuming heaven for anyone

I was reading an interesting commentary by a well known Catholic priest on his blog, and many equally interesting comments. It was stimulated by the death of a priest who had suffered a long illness. Apparently what would normally have been a funeral Mass had become a quite secular sounding "celebration of life," with much jolly recollection of his giving and his larger than life personality. This prompted the blogging priest to do some soul searching and wonder if that is really the right thing to do as he explained, correctly, that the purpose of the Catholic funeral or requiem Mass is to pray for God's mercy for the soul of the departed. Making the funeral a "nice guy send off" with the usual statements that we all hear at many funerals these days "surely he or she is in heaven with God 'already'" presents several problems. By the way, before I discuss any further, two points. I'm not linking to the discussion because it's easy to get caught up in extraneous detail about how nice guy/traditional or whatever he was, and that's not the point or, at least it should not be. The second point is that any truly pious and honest faithful believer who hopes to understand God at all, whether you are Muslim, Christian or Jewish, has, throughout history, never presumed that the deceased has done a "cake walk" straight into heaven. In fact, it is the solemn duty of the faithful in all denominations to pray at the memorial or funeral gathering for God's mercy on the soul of the departed. It is a modern innovation, and one that is not helpful to either the deceased or his or her family, to presume that the person is in heaven, to say nothing of assuming he or she is already wearing their halo and has special orders from God.



Now, I am not being insensitive. We do know, for example, that infants who perish of course are not judged and have no barrier to immediate presence with God. We know this from the implications of what Jesus said, which is to not harm children or lead them into sin because their angels always face God directly. In other words, there is a straight sinless channel between children and God, and this is why Jesus warned in the strongest imagery to not introduce sin to a child who is naturally in a sin free relationship with God. Thus one can infer from Jesus' own words with great confidence that the only group one knows with certainty who immediately achieve heaven, since they are innocent of sin by virtue of their youth, are children. (By the way, traditional Catholic doctrine believes that at the age of seven children become able to identify sinful behavior, and thus become responsible if they sin, and it is for that reason that children are at that age taught the sacraments of Confession followed by Holy Eucharist). This is why Jesus warned to, rather, cut off an arm rather than to lead a child into sin, because children do not have a "carte blanche pass to heaven until they are like eighteen or twenty-one because they are soooooo young" by any means, and thus the adult sinner who depraves children by teaching them sin is fully accountable to God, and Jesus implies that hell will be their reward.

The only adult who ever lived who one knows in total confidence resides in heaven and immediately achieved heaven upon passing, and in his case, by ascending, was Jesus himself. This is because heaven is the natural home of Jesus, and being of part of the Holy Spirit by birth, he had purity that cannot be impugned. Further, Jesus was in existence in heaven before he was born, as I explained in more detail in a recent blog posting, and thus, with his ascension, Jesus truly of anyone "returned home" directly to heaven.

The only adults who had an absolute guarantee of heaven, and they wisely did not rest their laurels on that guarantee, but continued to live in "hope" were the Apostles themselves. Jesus virtually guaranteed them heaven when he spoke of their being reunited there, obviously. One can also infer this guarantee from the famous event where the mother of James and John sought a promise from Jesus that each of her sons would sit in what she assumed would be Jesus' earthly kingship at places of honor at his right and left hand. He replied that only God can bestow such honor, meaning, only God determines who has what portion of heaven granted to them. You can safely read into what Jesus was saying that he was essentially stating they would be with him in heaven, but he cannot speak on behalf of God, who judges entry to heaven and then the placement therein. My point is, though, if you read what the Gospel authors, especially Peter, Paul, James and John wrote, you clearly see they take even their status most certainly not for granted, and continually live in "hope" of being redeemed and saved to join Jesus in heaven. Thus we know that while scripture teaches that Jesus redeems all believers from original sin, all humans are still accountable to personal judgment by God. No one "bypasses" being judged by God.

So to get to the heart of the matter, why is it a disservice to the dead, particularly those who seem to be most worthy and virtuous, to omit or breeze over the "praying for God to give mercy to their soul" part and just get right to the "celebration of life" with much mirth and joy about how good that person was and how surely they must be rewarded now in heaven. Well, as I said, ask anyone, particularly a Muslim, and they can explain to you that it is a solemn duty to not presume on behalf of God, and that it is the sole purpose of the last religious rites to expressly pray for God's mercy for the departed. The reason I say to ask any Muslim is because they retain the most of the three faiths contact with what was expected at funerals, which is exactly that, not a memorial party (which if held, no problem, but not as a substitute for the humility of the funeral prayers on behalf of the departed). This is precisely why Orthodox and Catholics retain a solemn funeral or requiem Mass.

All faiths recognize, even if they have difficulty remembering this in these modern narcissistic times of minimizing sin, that only the pure can enter heaven. Who is pure? No one but, as I've said, the youngest children who have not been exposed to sin. Muslims assume that God's mercy and acceptance of the worthy deceased into heaven renders them pure and worthy to obtain heaven. That is true, but based on scripture Christians (all of them, until the "Reformation") identified the process of rendering worthy deceased to be pure enough for heaven as the state of "purgatory." I explain the Biblical basis for purgatory in previous posts which can be found by following that label. Thus Catholics retain an understanding that praying for the dead is of benefit to them and Biblically justified, as it assists the deceased in their preparation for entry to heaven. Basically it all comes back to praying to God to have mercy on the soul of the loved one, overlooking and forgiving any shortcomings or sin that they retained at death. And that is the rub.

No matter how worthy and wonderful a person seems on the outside, living a virtuous and outstanding life, I can absolutely assure you that there are flaw and sins of both omission and commission that no one knows about but God. Rather than being less true of a priest, that is even more true of a priest. A priest, like a physician, has a special burden and responsibility. Physicians, in theory, are giving and do great things. But to assume that a priest pops sin-free right into heaven is like assuming that a physician never abuses a patient or takes drugs because he or she is "so good" and "knows better." Um, not exactly. Studies show that physicians are particularly vulnerable to both drug and alcohol abuse, and the list of abuses by many is becoming quite long and shocking. I mention this comparison so that you better understand what I am about to explain about priests.

No matter how many specific duties of a priest you list, their responsibilities are basically only two, in the eyes of God. One is to conduct the worship of God. The other is to ensure the proper faith formation of their flock. All specific duties fall under those two responsibilities. Now, where does "being the most fun loving and generous priest, a real hoot to be around, who anyone can talk to about their problems, and who kids get a kick being around" fall under of those two? Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock... still waiting for your answer. I know far too many priests who fall for the "cool priest" popularity trap, and the more the flock celebrates at his funeral his cute personality and fun at athletic outings, the more God is simultaneously asking him to account for the missed opportunities where the priest was more concerned with being "Mr Cool," "Mr Popularity" or "Mr Administrative Whiz" rather than 1) conducting worship of God and 2) ensuring the proper faith formation of their flock. TRUST ME. Priests, like everyone else, do a lot of purgatory time and can use your prayers. Also trust me, you'd be surprised how many priests, pastors, preachers, imams, "bishops" (the Protestant and non-denominational variety), rabbis and etc end up in hell, sad to say. Not for the omissions that I mention above, of not being diligent in worship and faith formation of their flock, but for modern day idolatry.

I will confine my comments and severe cautions to Christian religious, both Catholic priests, nuns and other religious and non-Catholic "men and women of the cloth." I have blogged before and will repeat that God is fully aware of how many Christians proclaim God and Jesus Christ out of one sides of their mouth, while retaining pagan beliefs in ideas such as "reincarnation" and occult fortune telling on the other side of their mouth. Some of these beliefs are totally secret from others but their family and fellow believers, while others are shockingly open about it (still thinking, though, that people "don't know their 'secret learning'" and, incredibly, they think God does not know.) Some actually believe that their family members are "reincarnated saints" or members of the Holy Family (I cannot describe how high up the blasphemy scale those thoughts and worse deeds in fulfillment of that belief are in God's eyes). I've been insulted to my face by Catholic priests who engage in what they think are secret occult beliefs, and if I know, trust me, God who knows every subatomic particle that ever existed, or will, etc etc knows every thought and impulse by these men, and by the nuns who likewise are cultists. Those are not problems of purgatory (forget "going immediately to heaven") but are rather most dire perils of hell.

I have to be painfully blunt. It is such a prevalent problem that when I read of the death of a priest, a nun, or friar, or of Christian pastors of any denomination, I now always think, "I hope that they are not one of the ones who think that their aunt is reincarnated Mary Magdalen" or that Jesus is "channeling" them because they have a prominant Leo or Sagittarius horoscope chart. That's not purgatory material, that's hell material. When I was studying cultists undercover I was shocked to see that some of the worse blaspheming cultists constantly declare their love of Jesus Christ at the same time. I learned that this is because they think they *shudder* have actual reincarnationed connection "within" the Holy Family itself. Many of them have contaminated men and women religious of their family with that belief. They are modern Eves and even more shocking than that, lacking any shame or regret.

This is why one cannot assume that even the most beloved priest, for example, is absolutely assured of heaven because, in fact, only God knows what is truly in their heart. You cannot assume the best of priest goes to heaven any more than you can assume that the best physician never conducts malpractice, or has a secret addiction that impairs the welfare of their patients. I mean, you can't be paranoid, but that is why you don't judge, God does. This is why solemn prayers for mercy of God on each deceased one, including priests, is essential, because you do not know all that God knows, for which they may need a great forgiveness.

But back to the discussion of what we hope are the vast majority of friends, family and priests who are worthy and who will, with God's mercy, gain heaven. There is no human who does not need purification of the sin that they conducted, both through commission and omission, in their lives, period. If you read my posts on the subject you will see that Isaiah, the great prophet of God who foretold Jesus Christ, insisted on purification (from which the Church understands purgatory) before he would speak to God when God first called him. Angels brought hot coals with tongs from God's altar because this holy man knew he had "unclean lips" and lived among those of unclean lips. One cannot be human and free from sin, and one cannot enter heaven with any stain of sin.

So, in that discussion that I read, that initiated this long commentary, the usual case was cited of the Great Pope John Paul II. Surely he must be in heaven right now, having been so good, faithful and beloved? The answer is that surely we can have confidence that he will gain heaven, but yes, even for him, only after purification from sin, what we call Purgatory. Here is why. The Popes who so dearly love God, as did Pope John Paul II, are beloved in return, and can have confidence in God and Jesus Christ. But what do they mean by "confidence?" Confidence means these holy men understand that they are flawed, no matter how often they confess, and they trust that God and Jesus Christ will lead them to heaven. In other words, their confidence is not an instant passport to heaven, but knowing that God will take them through what they must go through to achieve heaven in purity. So, you might ask, what could JPII possibly be stained from regarding sin? Well, I can say with total love that he was one of the greatest servants of God, but as a result, he had a little bit of a vanity problem. Not about his faith, but because he allowed himself to be manipulated in his "media hound" weakness. He was snookered into some diversion from his image as the Vicar of Jesus Christ, not in his heart, which remained pure, but in his vanity he did not recognize when the media and some around him steered him into some very non-Vicar of Jesus Christ actions. I don't want to make more of it than I already have, but this is an example of what was unrealized by him, but became very clear to him when God revealed all. Pope John Paul II would insist on being the first in line to purify away from him the unrealized erring of vanity that he had unconsciously allowed to divert even an iota from the fullness of his work and image as the Vicar of Jesus Christ.

I guess the best way to summarize it is that assuredly JPII would have been the first to identify times when he was a bit lured away from being in a proper role and mindset as the Vicar of Jesus Christ if it had not been for his personal small, but real, weakness of vanity. The vanity I mean is not lack of humility, to the contrary, but the vanity that comes from thinking that being liked and being amenable to any and all proposed actions in order to be popular, to be loved, and to spread the genuine love of Jesus Christ is the same as being totally true to his role as Vicar to Jesus Christ. Sometimes Vicars of Jesus Christ have to say "no." JPII, to the frustration of those who sought to undermine Church doctrine, never deviated one iota from his purity of doctrine, thank God. But JPII allowed himself to be used in some less than pure agendas, which he did not recognize because of that dash of vanity. So yes, even the greatest and the most loyal to God, and the most loved by God (and Mary) as JPII most assuredly was still needs purification, because of the web of sin that all humans reside within, often so blindly.

I hope this helps. It's not one of my favorite topics, but its inescapable, as there is a terrible crisis of idolatry and hubris among all the faiths, western and eastern. Assuming the gravy train to heaven is one of the largest signs of this problem, and I continue to be astonished at how more have not realized it and the danger and disservice such presumption causes as consequences.