About heaven: people you don't like who are there

A few days ago Reverend Billy Graham in his daily column, which I love to read, addressed a question where the writer asked how he or she should deal with the idea that he or she doesn't like certain people who he or she knows will be in heaven. The writer is obviously assuming that he or she will achieve heaven, and will thus endure the company of people from his or her church etc who he or she does not like.

"There will be no discord in heaven"

Q: How can we be happy in heaven if it's going to have people in it that we don't necessarily like? There are several people in our church, for example, who are really hard to get along with, and frankly I can't imagine being around them for eternity.

Reverend Graham wrote a really fine reply. He pointed out that heaven is the place of supreme happiness because all sin, hurts and upsets are removed for all are changed before they enter into heaven (including the people who annoy you and of course, you and your biases yourself). Reverend Graham closed with the suggestion that people, while they are alive, work on being more like Christ (he implies that people should work on those irritations and biases while one can, to be more like Christ).

I always marvel how Reverend Graham writes beautiful and helpful replies in only three to four short paragraphs. Not being limited by space, I am more wordy and will therefore add a few thoughts onto his reply.

One reason I want to add these extra points is to help the type of person who has such a mindset, so that I can address some of their fears and make the transformation that Reverend Graham suggests easier.

1) When one reads the Book of Revelation, you see that St. John sees only a few dozen of the personages of heaven. In other words, this one true glimpse that an apostle has of heaven reveals that it is not a place where everyone who ever existed is in a giant receiving line, or a mosh pit of billions. There is organization and purpose even in heaven. Therefore an individual soul will by no means "meet" or "encounter" everyone who is in heaven. You are highly unlikely to ever see the people you disliked on earth. Souls exist in different areas of heaven according to their spiritual totality and also their purposeful eternal existence. For example only several dozen elders surround the throne of God. By that fact that St. John observes and records for posterity one can infer that there are logical groupings of souls in heaven, not a willy-nilly mingling.

What to conclude from that as an "action step?" Strive more for being at the "good place" near Christ, near God, rather than worry about avoiding some humans. If you focus on being as spiritually close and true to being like Christ (genuinely, not Machiavellian), you will find yourself in a more elevated place of heaven with those of a like minded spirit and purpose.

2) Who inflicts the most hurt on a person in their lifetime? Not usually the person who works your last nerve and who you dislike, but someone in your own family, whether a relative or an ex-loved one. Yet just about everyone hopes to see their family in heaven, even those family members who have been hurtful (assuming we are not speaking of grave abuse and mortal sin, in which case one must pray for their soul's survival at all).

So there is a pettiness to focus on acquaintances you do not like while forgetting that the most hurtful wounds are from family, and you of course hope that they all will be transformed and saved. If you feel that way about a family member who has hurt you at some time in your life, you obviously cannot be a hypocrite and worry about someone annoying and "hard to get along with." Instead of worrying about those who have a petty relationship with you, focus on praying that all your family members will change and be saved.

3) Before one enters heaven one's eyes are opened to one's own role in failed relationships. As part of judgment each person is purified of their sinfulness (Catholics call that purgatory, while Reverend Graham phrases it: "All their sins and their selfish way will be destroyed, and they will be exactly the way God meant them to be! They'll no longer be short-tempered or unloving or boastful or thoughtless. Instead they will be like Christ.")

One way that is achieved, in what we Catholics call Purgatory, is that you have to "walk in the shoes" of the other people with whom you have had unfortunate and less than charitable interactions. You learn about and feel the internal hurt that some "cranky" person might have had that you were unaware of, and you realize how good in soul they actually were. You then feel bad and regret the times you were uncharitable and did not work with them to give them the benefit of the doubt. That is why Purgatory takes a VERY LONG TIME for certain people.

4) If anyone should be resentful of the "hard to get along with" getting into heaven, it ought to be the angels. The angels see everything through God's eyes and they know all that YOU have done that is not so splendid, yet they rejoice, as Jesus reminds everyone, for even the worse sinner who arrives in heaven after repenting. Angels don't say "There goes the neighborhood" and neither should you, and you'd be wise to keep that in mind.

5) Never forget that millions and millions of the souls in heaven are the uncountable numbers of children who have died. One is "outnumbered" by the peacefulness and innocent light of those who died as pre-born, as babies, toddlers, or young children. It's hard to have a snarky attitude (even if that were possible in heaven) when one is surrounded by billions of the humans who died as the very young and pure.

I hope that you have found this helpful.

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.

Spiritual direction: grace, prayer, purity after sin

I'm too tired to blog all night so I'm going to try to get back into a more normal sleep time pattern starting in about twenty minutes :-)

But first I wanted to share some thoughts that came up while I was discussing a book idea with a colleague.

Grace is a complicated topic, not because it is difficult, but because there are so many ways to be fruitful in grace. Grace is a gift from God and its best description is St. John's, who describes it as the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit." In other words, grace is the presence of the Holy Spirit within a person, provided by God in the form of gifts. Gifts is not the same as talents, since obviously some of the most grace filled people who ever lived did "nothing" but pray, and didn't even have an education. I could write alot about these gifts but I would summarize them as being all related to the capability of "understanding God."

Now, while one cannot do anything to earn or obtain grace on one's own, one can "cultivate" grace by preparing yourself to receive it. God will fill the person who desires grace with grace, to their capacity. So if you prepare the space within you for the receipt of grace, God is able to send more grace according to his will and perception of your needs.

So what I want to share with you is that in this "achievement" oriented mindset of society, you might be surprised to see how easy it is to cultivate your inner space to prepare for grace. All you have to do is read scripturally sound material that promotes your understanding of God. So I am certainly not saying to read "history of religions" or other academic types of books for this grace cultivation. The way to cultivate grace is to "imprint" in your inner self continual exposure to the pure words of God, and words by those who have walked the same grace path as you. So reading the Bible is an obvious daily activity that promotes grace, even if it is just a small section, and even your favorite sections over and over. It's not an academic exercise, it's the continuing nearness to both God's words and the works of people who author prayers, devotionals, and sermons. For example, reading works by the saints, writings by the present or previous Pope, reading prayers and hymns, books by priests and other religious, and the sermons of the great doctors, founding fathers and others who preach the word of God. So there is a vast amount of prayerful material available that you can select from, including online.

I'll make some more specific suggestions from a reading list, especially if I am the one who has to write my book idea if I cannot persuade my colleague to do it (I'm trying to delegate!) :-) But for now I just wanted to put in front of you the idea that simply prayerful reading is an activity that cultivates grace, and is an easy action to take that can result in much fruitfulness and benefit.

As part of my continuing work at helping readers, especially my teenage and young adult audience, to develop better faith and reasoning skills, I want to jump a little bit onto a tangent in order to clarify a Church practice that has been greatly misunderstood. One of the things that the Catholic Church was attacked about at the time of the Reformation, several hundred years ago, was the "selling of indulgences." An indulgence is a forgiveness or remission of part of the personal punishment that may be due to a person due to previous sins. The Catholic Church believes, and has scriptural reference that supports its belief, that even if God accepts a confession of sin that there is a need to purify, through a commensurate penalty, the lasting effects of one's sins. This is because that even if one feels sorry and has the ability to make amends, it is rare that the effects of a given sin can ever be contained to not cause damage. And so the Catholic Church recognizes that there is a "purgatory" process after death that takes place before the individual is allowed into God's presence. (I've written about some of the scriptural support for this previously, in other posts on this blog). The Church developed an understanding, therefore, that prayer with the intention of being "directed toward" the effects and purification of one's own sin (and on behalf of others) can be performed as a way to remedy and reduce the amount of purgatory needed. That is called 'an indulgence.'

In order to help the faithful, most of whom were poor and simple people with no education, the Church tried to categorize the "amount" of purgatory someone might experience in terms of days and years. That may seem naive and quaint now, but it was a sincere effort to help people "manage" their own salvation. So a person might have a card with a prayer on it, or a prayer would be printed in the Missal, and the prayer might have a footnote saying something like (100 days). What that meant was that for each time that one said that prayer, they could hope for 100 days of their "purgatory penalty" to be removed. Of course no one can characterize the individual process by which a soul will be purified from sin before entering heaven in terms of activities or earthly time measures, but the Church fathers understood that sincerely, remorseful prayer has a real salvatory effectiveness on reducing one's stain of common everyday sin (we aren't talking about original sin). So this is the point I am making in this blog, except I'm talking about the "here and now." Prayer is a method for cultivating your inner self so that more grace from God can be received, AND prayer diminishes the stain of sin that every human has, even if that sin has been fully forgiven. So my point is to show that the Church throughout its 2000 year history has always understood that prayer is not just "the right thing to do because God expects it," but it is also of practical and real spiritual health benefit, not just for now when one is alive, but when one dies and seeks to be reunited with loved ones in the presence of God.

So just to finish the tangent about indulgences, and then wrap up with my point about cultivating grace for the here and now. Corrupt individuals and poor situations of leadership within the Catholic Church resulted in some religious actually "selling" indulgences. For a monetary donation these religious claimed to be able to grant a number of days or years of indulgence! This is outrageous and corrupt and of course everyone was right to be scandalized. However, the Reformation threw the baby out with the bathwater, as the old saying goes. When attacking the Catholic Church for indulgence selling, they lost track of the basic understanding that prayer does have desirable and remedial effect on one's purity which has been compromised by sin. This is because the age of reason was also dawning at the same time as the Reformation, and so the idea of 100 days per prayer seemed silly at the same time that the selling of indulgences was a scandal. But a huge misunderstanding resulted and this is one of the philosophical chasms between Protestant denominations and the Catholic Church. I'm going to make a generalization, but my point is to help you young people have the full outline of the problem and then fill in the details of understanding as you wish. Protestants left the Church carrying away a general disposition that 1) prayer is good because God expects it 2) you read the Bible and have study groups to better understand God, specifically through Christ and 3) there is no punishment or purification for sin that you are sorry for because "it's between you and God" and "Jesus paid the price."

However, Catholics continued with their understanding that they have maintained for two thousand years, which is 1) God expects prayer that is fulfilled via the Mass 2) Bible reading is good, and that's why there is 2-3 readings from the Bible each day in Mass 3) prayer is an essential activity in one's own purity and salvation, not just something "God expects," and 4) being forgiven of sin by God is not the same as being pure to enter heaven, especially if one is not able to contain and recompense for each instance of one's sin those who have been harmed. This is why the priest "prescribes" prayers after Confession (the sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation). The priest is ensuring that the penitent is at least doing THAT much prayer that is "directed toward" cleansing one's self of the stain of sin that has been committed, albeit forgiven. So while the Catholic Church stopped the scandalous and appalling sale of indulgence practice, and also dropped the attempts to "measure" amounts of potential indulgence, thankfully they did not lose sight of their doctrine about the real and salutatory effects of prayer.

So prayer, in the Catholic church doctrine and tradition, is much more than the valid functions of 1) worshipping God because he expects it and 2) your personal dialogue and communion with God. The Catholic Church recognizes a prescriptive, remedial, purification, and penance fulfilling power of prayer that is an essential activity as part of one's own cooperation with God in one's own salvation. This is why the Church knows that "at least" they are getting the person who comes to confession once a year to "do those five Our Fathers and ten Hail Marys" with the intention of atoning and purifying the stain of forgiven sin. Obviously one must be sincere and not just rattle the prayers off without having sorrow for the damage that one's forgiven sins have nonetheless done (damage to innocent parties and to one's own purity). But with even one's average level of belief and faith, prayer works in this purpose. Protestants are very generous in prayer, because they very much believe in the power of prayer as directed toward what we call "intentions," which is to support individuals or institutions in their time of need. So the children of the Reformation are a very prayerful people.

But the difference, so you can better understand and bind the wounds that have been made between the denominations and the Catholic Church, is that they are purposeful in their generosity of prayer, but do not have the same understanding of the other purpose of prayer that is a centerpiece of the Catholic Church's sacramental understanding of the Apostolic church of Jesus Christ, which is that of being a co-participant in one's own individual salvation and in the purification now and in the hereafter of the stains away from sin.

So the next time you have coffee with a detractor of the Catholic Church and they throw in your face that the Church "was corrupt and sold indulgences, and you are the fake church anyway," sigh, as I do, but do not be defensive. Generations of Protestants don't know the reasoning behind the continuity of the Catholic doctrine and tradition (and many poorly formed Catholics don't understand it either, but at least if they are Church attending they are still doing it, albeit minimally!) I want you readers, especially the young people who are seeking to better understand the fullness of situations, rather than have tradition knee jerk reactions, and those of you who seek to better understand not only God, but why the Catholic Church is sacramental in orientation, the way that it surely is, to understand the context of the misunderstanding. Protestants, in general, think that Catholics are somehow "insulting" Jesus by "not having faith that he paid for all our sins." They miss the point; that is original sin. Jesus didn't die on the cross so that people can swindle the bank they work for. Jesus didn't die on the cross so you can lie about your neighbor, or sell drugs. Even if you are "sorry" and "confess to God" personally for those sins, there is genuine damage that has been done to your neighborly community (society), the individuals (victims) and one's own soul. The Catholic Church understands that prayer is your "skin in the game" to "correct" the damage done by forgiven sin and to purify your soul in anticipation of salvation in God's presence.

Here's how it works, using an analogy. Jesus Christ died for all humanity and to remedy the effect of original sin. Therefore, Jesus reopened the door to heaven for all who believe in him. Jesus freed those who believed from the laws of the Old Covenant and brought the New Covenant. However, obviously the Ten Commandments and all of the admonitions of God remain valid regarding human behavior. So we know that Jesus Christ was not a "free pass to sin and it's all OK so long as you say the sinner's prayer and are truly sorry." Jesus consistently warned that the way to heaven is narrow and that temptation is everywhere. He even makes a point that one of his miracles required prayer and fasting in order to be efficacious (this was when the disciples could not cure someone and had to turn to Jesus to do it). Notice that Jesus himself needed the power of prayer and fasting to perform a specific type of miraculous cure. So prayer is continually demonstrated by Jesus to be more than worship but also a sacramental and healing device.

So, imagine that you swindled your bank, you were caught, you had to pay the money back, and you either went to prison or had a severe fine and probation. Imagine you are a Christian (obviously lapsed or very weak in the face of temptation) and so you tell God you are sorry and you mean it. In your heart you know you are forgiven. Is everything "OK" then? This seems to be the stance of non-Catholic Christians of non-sacramental denominations. But as far as the Catholic Church's understanding? Is everything "OK?" Not exactly!

The Catholic Church understands that you have no way of knowing that when you swindled your bank that in the trail of damage: several people lost their jobs and reputations, investors lost money that cannot be repaid, elderly may have had to cash in their pensions, the bank decided to shut down a department as a result, a young intern watched you and decided 'he could get away with it while you didn't and maybe he'd try that improved swindle at a different bank..." and so on and so on and so on. Sin is very rarely a "one victim" event. Crime may be, as someone steals money from a bank. But the sin of coveting and stealing has a ripple effect on people you do not even know, for only God sees all the effects of a sin. So you can be forgiven of having committed that sin, but you owe a debt due to that sin that is not "covered by Jesus dying on the cross," because it is the wrong that has been done to the many that you do not even know. This is why the Church teaches penance based on prayer. The prayer is not "punishment." The prayer is for the intentions of the damage that one's sin has done that one cannot remedy first hand. So if you are the swindler who then was a Catholic and repented, you would go to confession and receive a prayer penance. That prayer penance is applied by God to the benefit of purifying your soul from the stain of that sin's effect AND toward the unknowable victims of the sin. They are like the "collateral damage" to use a military term. You, in this example, meant only to steal the money, and you have no way of knowing about the intern who watched you and wants to now go forward modeling himself after you, even after you've regretted your sin! God "applies" all penance prayer that you do toward healing and recovering the collateral damage of the sin. This is why the Church has derived its understanding of the power of prayer to not only pray for one's own benefit, talk to God, pray for others, but also to offer up to God prayer for God to use to purify one's self and protect others from the ripple effect of sins you committed and now repent.

Nothing cheeses me off more than when people insult the Church by invalidating huge precious insights we have about our obligations to God and neighbor as being "corrupt" or "wrong" just because they don't understand the theology. So I don't mind the insult that "nah nah nah, YOUR Church used to sell indulgences!" I mind, though, the smugness of people who do not understand that they have an obligation to clean up and purify the effects of sin in their own soul and their neighbor's well being as a result of even regretted and "forgiven by God" sin. But hey, I do not question their faith or love of God, even though the children of the Reformation broke away from the tree trunk of the Church that Jesus Christ and the Apostles established. It's when they throw the first stone in our direction that I want to go, "Um, hey buddy, um, do you realize that you just don't get it?"

Anyway, I meant this to be a quick note about grace and its cultivation, but I realized as I typed this that I needed to plug the gap in understanding about why prayer and prayerful reading has a purposeful efficacy in several situations, beyond being for personal intentions or a form of worship. Prayer is an almost prescriptive activity in the Catholic Church because of the Church's many years of understanding based on scripture and tradition that greater purity can be restored through its sacramental, penance, and indulgence intentions.

As usual, I hope this helps in bridging misunderstandings, as information for those who want to learn more about the Catholic Church (for both ecumenical or for faith searching reasons), and to provide spiritual direction helping to better understand God's richness of relationship with humanity. God bless!

Warning: Purgatory is real and not nice

I've written about this before, but find I need to keep reminding people, just as I need to remind people of the reality of hell.

Most non-Catholic Christians deny the existence of purgatory, but they are wrong. They misunderstand the role of Jesus as Savior with somehow giving the "born agains" a free pass into heaven. It's not a matter of just sashaying into heaven. Heaven cannot be endured unless one is pure, and no one is pure. Non-Catholic Christians need to read Isaiah 6:1-7 many, many times until it sinks in. Isaiah of all the prophets came the closest to being in God's presence in heaven while still being an alive human. You see, with the other prophets, when God appeared to them God was, for the most part, "bringing to earth" a portion of his glory, rather than "bringing to heaven" the person themselves. There are really three that you can think of who were drawn to God in heaven: Ezechiel, Isaiah, and St. John the Apostle (Book of Revelation). Remember that even St. John who personally served both Jesus and his mother Mary not only threw himself down in being in the presence of heaven, but ate a scroll. Ezechiel differs from Isaiah and St. John because again, God mostly "brought heaven" to him on earth, rather than drawing him onto the threshold.

Isaiah was also, as the foremost Old Testament prophet regarding prophesying the Savior, the closest to being a pure man doing's God's will during that time in history as one could imagine. Yet when God appeared on his throne to Isaiah, Isaiah himself was stricken with the realization that he could not merit or endure speaking with the Lord due to having sinful lips, living among sinful people. The angel of God burned Isaiah's lips with coals from the altar by the throne of God in order to purify him.

This is the most precise description of the reality and existence of purgatory, plus what its characteristics will be for each person. Isaiah judged himself at that threshold of heaven by recognizing that even his deep holiness and unquestioning service to God does not erase the fact of his being human and thus having to speak profane things among profane people. All people will recognize their own deep sinfulness before they enter heaven. The nature of the purification of purgatory will relate directly toward the quality of sinfulness that the human bears with him or her. So this is not going to be like the green room while waiting to be on the Oprah show. The nature of the coals and the pain involved will be directly related to the among of sinfulness that must be recognized, atoned for, purified and shed from the deceased person. For example, a person who advocated and enabled many abortions, yet confessed and repented before dying, while being saved is not "home free" because of the impurity that still attaches to them for their deeds. I would not be surprised if the penitent abortionist had to view the reality of the physical and spiritual assault that was done to each human infant "from the inside." I would not think that would be a marvelous experience. This is another reason why it is better to not sin once one understands the lasting effects of sin that accumulates on the soul. Being forgiven and "saved" is fine and good, but one is not automatically pure and able to enter heaven just because one is saved.

I know that one reason modern people delude themselves is because of some "near death" experiences where people perceive that they have seen heaven, those who have died before, and had nothing but sunshine and lolly pops before they returned to their bodies. Um, obviously you did not experience purgatory or your personal judgement, which everyone goes through (even Jesus would have, except that he alone would have nothing in need to purify)... because you did not die and God did not intend to take you at that time. Remember, the Father said about Jesus when he was baptized that he was "well pleased" with Jesus. That is a judgement, obviously. So all in a human body who die will be judged. Near death experiences that did not include the judgement means that you didn't "die," dummies. It means that you were able to observe what it would be like to participate in one part of the entry to heaven. It does not mean you were going through the process and then at some point God just changed his mind. God knows all, sees all, controls all, and don't you forget it. Having a near death experience and seeing part of the reality of entry to heaven is supposed to be a grace to increase faith, not to make you a smug expert that you've "got it made" and you know exactly what happens. That is not a scriptural or biblical perception. Even the Apostles themselves who were martyred for Jesus lived in hope of salvation, not smug assurity. They would also be one of the first to recognize the need to be purified before entering heaven. They would expect nothing less.

So I strongly urge you to stop thinking in terms of having some sort of free pass where you are not judged just because you recognize Jesus as your Savior. Further, it's not like one category of sin is "forgiven," regardless if you did it once or a hundred times. Each occurance of a sin is a further sullying of the soul. Someone who mocks someone a thousand times is dirtying themselves a thousand times, not just "once" under the category of "mocking." Even if one repents and confesses, and makes amends, the purification must still take place. Heaven is not a place were stains can exist at all. Like Isaiah, people need to understand the circumstances of life among profane and sinning humans places stains on even the souls of those who are most worthy. Believing in Jesus gives one the opportunity and the reality of being "saved," and being "washed in his blood" makes one pure in terms of original sin. I cannot believe how many non-Catholics misunderstand that. Jesus washes the sinfulness of humans from them (the original sin and the broken condition). Jesus is not bleach and whitener for the sins that an individual commits. All humans must have an personal accounting with God when they die. Believing in Jesus and worshipping God as Jesus taught all to do is not a "clear" for your individual sins.

Revelation 4:1-2
After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven and the former voice which I had heard as of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up hither, and I will show thee the things that must come to pass hereafter." Immediately I was in the spirit; and behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and upon the throne One was sitting.

St. John is clearly taken to the boundary of heaven and states this in no uncertain terms, "a door standing open in heaven" and "come up hither... there was a throne set in heaven." But remember, he had an angelic escort to bring him there plus he was there in the spirit, not having yet actually died on earth. So there is no recounting of his being judged, purified and then reunited with Jesus Christ as would have occurred had he died in fact at that time.

Revelation 10:10-11
And I took the scroll from the angel's hand, and ate it up, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey, and when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And they said to me, "Thou must prophesy again to many nations and peoples and tongues and kings."

Just like with Isaiah, however, there is a clue as to what I am speaking of in what John experiences when he eats this scroll in heaven. The taste was sweet but he got a stomach ache and heartburn! What does that mean, and why would John have "pain" of any sort in heaven, which is perfect? Again, this is because he's not yet actually dead and purified. John is given more "work" to do back on earth, which is to take the word of God which is sweet, but take a hard message of warning to humans, which is the bitter. If John was actually dead he would have been judged, purified and received into heaven, with no further mission on earth. Thus there would have been no feeling of a "heartburn and stomach ache" in heaven.

This is why one must read the Bible very carefully and with open mind to receive all the layers of message held within it, because there are clues as to what the process will be like, or will not be like, even in the most mysterious passages that are plain to understand. These things are not meant to be "mysterious" or "decoded" (which is an elitist view, whereby only the arcane wise "wizards" can figure out divine matters based on knowledge that the average Joe dummy does not possess. That is anti-Christian and anti-Islam). Even the most mysterious aspects of God that challenge one's ability to describe are made accessible by the Bible authors' use of easy metaphors and descriptions of common human experiences, such as sweetness and a stomach ache. Thus people who have legitimate (and not imaginary or self delusional) near death experiences, like John, were not actually dead. They would view some part of heaven that could be described and understood when they returned to consciousness in their bodies. But this by no means is an indication that they observed or experienced "the process" of being received into heaven as one would actually experience when one dies. John should be the role model for understanding that and careful study of this passage and its implications make this clear that while John was in heaven, he was not there through the normal process and so would not experience yet some things that he would when it was his time, and likewise since he was there for a purpose he would see and hear things that he was meant to witness to in service of God's will and purpose for him at that time.

Compare and contrast John's experience with "heaven" with Ezechiel's.

Ezechiel 1: 3-4, 22, 26

3. the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezechiel, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chobur.-There the hand of the Lord came upon me.

You can clearly see that the Lord comes to Ezechiel, and the hand of the Lord came upon him, instead of Ezechiel being drawn up to heaven as John was.

4. As I looked, a stormwind came from the North, a huge cloud with flashing fire...

Here the cherubim arrive, and again notice they come from the North, so obviously this is again a geographic detail that indicates Ezechiel is seeing part of heaven brought to him, not him being drawn to heaven. The electrum and the wheels that the cherubim used alude to the physical reality of life (galaxies) rather than the actual infrastructure of heaven itself.

22. Over the heads of the living creatures, something like a firmament could be seen...

Firmament refers to a sense of boundary of being the 'edge' between earth and heaven. So again, parts of the perception of heaven are brought to Ezechiel as the firmament is shown to him as he stands on earth.

26. Above the firmament over their heads something like a throne could be seen, looking like sapphire. Upon it was seated, up above, one who had the appearance of a man... 28... Such was the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

Ezechiel throws himself on the ground in awe and worship, and God tells him to stand up so he can speak to him. So here he has a similar experience to John where he eats a scroll.

Ezechiel 3: 3

Son of man, he then said to me, feed your belly and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you. I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

So while Ezechiel sees a part of heaven brought to him (you can think of it as God's entourage), Ezechiel is clearly on earth, not raised to heaven itself. He worships God until God tells him to stand up and receive a message. You can see now why I bring Ezechiel, Isaiah and St. John to your attention to study the similarities and the key differences in how they perceive God in heaven and how the differences are illuminating. John and Ezechiel are similar because they are each in turn exposed to heaven because both of them having a mission and words to speak on behalf of God while yet living. Thus both of them have scrolls to eat. This is how Ezechiel and John are similar. Likewise they do not have a purgatory experience because they have not died and gone to heaven in the fullness of their life and the natural process. They are living on earth and heaven is either brought as part of God's entourage to earth or in John's case, his spirit ascends to heaven.

So you might ask why Isaiah had the experience of purification when Ezechiel and St. John did not? This is because Isaiah was actually serving his office as priest in the High Holy place within the Temple of Jerusalem.

Isaiah 6:1-7

In the year king Ozia died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple.

Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings:

with two they veiled their faces, and two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft.

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!" they cried one to the other. "All the earth is filled with his glory!"

At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.

Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed!" For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged."

See, here this holiest of men, serving as a priest in the highest of holy places, the one who one would assume is the least needing to be purified and have "sin purged" is the one who instantly declares his woe at being so unclean and seeing the King, the Lord of hosts. It is the humble who see God and his works and his will the most clearly. Jesus said, years later, "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." Isaiah was the living example of this, and therefore he is the great prophet who would prophesy the coming of Christ, being given that unique honor among all the great prophets of God. Serving in the high holy place of the Temple, and hearing the seraphim shout their continuing glory of God, Isaiah instantly comprehended what all who die and appear before God will comprehend: their utter unworthiness. Thus Isaiah is the one who most clearly "experienced," through his own humility and grace, what occurs when one dies and is judged by God.

Notice too that the seraphim are veiling their faces and their feet, while the cherubim who appeared to Ezechiel did not veil any parts of themselves. This is not just because they appear differently in features and demeanor. Isaiah would have instantly comprehended that he was being exposed to the "full" glory of God in heaven. Angels veil parts of themselves as both humility in the presence of God and to veil the parts of themselves to protect humans because the glory of God shines unbearably strongly through them in those segments. Thus the seraphim veiling themselves while shouting their declaration of the Lord of hosts would have instantly informed Isaiah of his position being in the midst of the heavenly host and in God's presence just as he would be upon his death. This is why there is validation that even this amazingly holy and great man of God who would prophesy the coming of Christ would need to be "purged" of his "wickedness," being in the Lord of hosts' heavenly presence.

One closing thought to this particular blog posting, which I hope has been seriously illuminating and helpful. Modern Christians have gotten a little too comfortable and familiar with an inaccurate mental sketch of the kindly, sandled pal "Jesus." Things change in heaven. If you read the Book of Revelation you will understand that St. John does not see Jesus as the pal who hiked alongside of him, just "one of the guys," ready to have a "comfortable" reunion in heaven. The full glory of God, the Lord of hosts, in heaven is overwhelming. And Jesus, at God's right hand, is not the cuddly Jesus that certain modern Christians foster for their own simplicity and "comfort." Yes, Jesus is to be loved and turned to, for he brings God to humans in both form and word that they can comprehend and love. But Jesus would be the last who would want people to as a result misunderstand the fullness of God's awesomeness, power and perfection as Lord of hosts. Isaiah comprehends this instantly and in perfection, as he sees into heaven from within the very Temple of Jerusalem. Ezechiel has components of heaven brought to him to view, and is immediately "put to work" in physical reality, so his comprehension of the fullness of heaven, while more detailed in physical features than Isaiah's viewing, is not as perfect and complete as is Isaiah's. Remember, Ezechiel viewed God and some "entourage" coming to earth; he did not view God as he is in fullness in heaven AND from the placement in the holiest place of the Temple. Focusing on Jesus as the kind of love-in hippie guy who runs heaven is a serious and disrespectful error, one that he would condemn in the strongest terms. This passage of Isaiah is one of the most important in the Bible and is one reason why the words of the angels are repeated in each Catholic Mass, as the essential reminder of the need for awe and humility toward the one true God.

Purgatory alluded to in the Qur'an

Many Protestants and non-denominationals are annoyed with Catholics for believing that God has to purify in purgatory even those who are good and who believe. I wonder if most people know a little known quote from the Qur'an that alludes to purgatory too.

Surah LXIV 8-9

Therefore believe in Allah and His Apostle and the Light which We have revealed; and Allah is Aware of what you do.

On the day that He will gather you for the day of gathering. that is the day of loss and gain; and whoever believes in Allah and does good, He will remove from him his evil and cause him to enter gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide therein forever; that is the great achievement.

So you will notice that it is stated that even those who believe in Allah, does good things (and thus will go to heaven) must have Allah "remove from him his evil." By the word "whoever" you know that the passage is refering to each individual, not the group judgment of the bunch of believers from the bunch of sinners, with one group going to heaven and the other to hell. The phrasing is very specific that the believer in Allah who does good will have before he enters the eternal garden Allah to "remove from him his evil." All humans, even those with goodness and belief, are stained by sin of the world; it just cannot be avoided. No one stained with evil, even if they are not the evildoer him or herself, can enter the garden that is heaven without being purified by God first, and that is the removal of "his evil," which is his personal stain of sin or being in the company of sinners, as so much of the world requires.

Another analogy, this is a good one

First, don't miss Pope Benedict's great answers to two questions raised by priests during a meeting on February 7. One deals with the reality of heaven, purgatory, hell and sin, and as always sheds great light on why these truths have been wrongly de-emphasized.

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/189547?eng=y

***

Anyway, while reading what the Holy Father said, I thought of a crystal clear way to help people understand the reality of and difference between "personal judgment" upon the death of a human and "final judgment (and resurrection of the body)" at the End of Times.

Let's use a job analogy that everyone can understand.

Upon each person's death they meet with their boss, get their performance review, and their new (and eternal) assignment: hell, purgatory, heaven.

At the End of Times the Lord will do the total reorganization of humanity and earth. This is why it is the Final Judgment because all those who have not yet been "assigned" (since they are still alive) will be assigned, and then humanity in total will be "reorganized" so that while people have glorified bodies restored they do not repeat the cycle of a flawed cycle of original sin and any influence of sin at all. This is possible because all the "chaff" is discarded, the "wheat" has been saved and most importantly after being purified (purgatory) and achieving heaven all souls will have been so fundamentally reborn and transformed that they will not again go the way of Adam and Eve.

Hope this helps. Time's a wasting and it's important that people have a cold dash of water and realize that many have already gone to their future job assignment with great gnashing of teeth. Trust me, I don't enjoy repeating this on a daily basis and harping on it, and I enjoy even less the sour pusses of snots who I see on a daily basis who don't believe me. They'll find out when it is too late but what disturbs me is that they, like the Communists the Pope refers to in the above Q&A, drag along to the not-very-nice future job assignment a lot of people who could otherwise have been saved had they been properly formed from childhood in the true faith and piety toward God.

Spiritual direction: God's perfect justice

Because God is perfect it is important to remember two things. One is that everyone will face personal judgment by God when they depart this life, and this is true if people believe in God or not. God does not come into being and is not controlled in his actions by whether someone believes in him or not. They get a crash course that God exists when they die and face the results of their life on earth. The second thing to remember is that God, being perfect, is the perfect judge. You don't need to worry that the just will receive their reward, and the unjust will receive severe punishment. Everyone from preborn infant to the oldest living humans receives perfect justice when they die.

One of three things happens. The just go to heaven, although even the best of people experience a purification before entering heaven. This is to "slough" away any vestige of sin because nothing can exist in heaven except that which can bear being in the presence of perfect light and goodness, which is God. Think of it as scabs that must fall off even the best persons who lived since it is inevitable that even they have wounds from sin. The less than just but still goodly people, who may be severely flawed but are still redeemable, spend a longer time in this purification, which Catholics call "purgatory." These people have souls that remained predisposed toward goodness and belief, even if many behaviors in their life was less than virtuous. This can be thought of as a pruning of a tree or a bush. Some types of bushes need to be severely pruned, almost cutting them to the ground so that they can live through the new growth after shedding the old. In the most severe cases the soul emerges much as they were as a baby, and they live as the infants do in heaven. What this means is that their relationships and experiences on earth do not translate into their heavenly individuality. So they would not retain any of their earthly experience or relationships in heaven, including when the body is resurrected again in the New Kingdom to come. So people who "escape" from being judged to hell by the skin of their teeth are purified in purgatory to an infant soul state. The third category of people, the wicked and the willful unbelievers go to hell immediately upon their passing. Hell is the place of permanent torment because it is the place where God's presence is totally withdrawn. People tend to think of hell as the place where the most violent people, especially men, tend to go. While this is true there are a distressing number of women in hell. There are more forms of violence than just the stereotype rampaging man with a gun or a military dictator. There are many women in hell and their noses do not stick so proudly up in the air there in hell as they did when alive on earth.

Prayers for your loved ones (and for strangers or groups of people who need prayers) do work, even if the person has already died. That is because God is not bounded by time or space. God can and does provide a "feedback loop" of your prayers now back "in time" to when the people were alive, and they might have tipped the difference for the subjects of your prayer, whether that was observable in their visible behavior or not. Only God can see the soul. People you'd never believe could be saved are saved by God every day. And, of course you must recognize that people you think are "ethical" or "generous" may not have such wonderful souls, and they find themselves in perdition.

Dope use as case study about sin/purgatory/hell

A step by step case study using the example of a marijuana user to illustrate why the action is a sin, how the severity and number of sin occurences grows, and the implications for salvation (how the purgatory process might or might not be available to the sinner).

I’m going to spell it out for you why specific actions, in this first example drug abuse, are sins, what the consequences are, and all within the context of how God perceives these actions. There is nothing in here that is new; anyone with rudimentary religious education of the Bible or Qur’an can figure this out. I am speechless at how self deluding and ignorant people have become, however; it simply has amazed me over the past several decades of rampant sin and ignorance of the severe penalties to come. I am going to use the example of marijuana here in order to have the simplest and most prevalent possible example. Obviously this example can be extended to consumption of any mind or mood altering drug.

1) God’s view of the “smallest” example of drug abuse sin, which is to grow pot plant at home and harvest it for occasional personal use in secret.

Even if you are not purchasing weed, only growing a tiny amount for your own use, and keeping that use secret so that no one knows, this is nonetheless a very serious sin against God. The reason is that a mind or mood altering drug is an artificial barrier placed between the person and God. This therefore violates the first Commandment which is “I am the Lord Thy God; thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.” By using a drug with mind and mood altering and addictive properties you are “having a strange god” that is more important to you than God. The mere act of deciding to utilize a joint on each occasion is a decision to use something that is to you more important, even in only that instance, than God. That is the definition of a “strange god,” which is an inanimate object that you give power to over and above the power you attribute to God. Having a joint is exactly the same as picking up a piece of wood and carving an idol. Each and every time that you have a joint is the same as picking up a new piece of wood and carving a new idol. So consuming a thousand personal joints equals one thousand separate and individual violations of the First Commandment just as if you had sat down and carved one thousand wooden idols instead of one.

2) God’s view of “medium” example of drug abuse sin, which is to purchase pot from a dealer. Another example of this “medium” use sin is to endorse drug abuse by smoking the joints in the company of other people.

Everything that I explained under point one obviously by default also applies here. So each and every smoking of the joint is an example of violating the First Commandment. Now however you are adding additional sins by virtue of doing so publically in the view of one or more people in order to endorse this behavior, and/or giving money to people whose job it is to supply drugs. You are therefore in this “medium” example of drug abuse violating more of God’s commandments and prohibitions in addition to already violating the First Commandment because you are subsidizing the industry through even a “small” purchase AND you are setting an example for others, even in front of only one other person, that drug abuse sin is “OK.” By providing money to drug dealers (either professional or personal suppliers) you are violating the First Commandment in yet another dimension, which is to pay for people to carve those wooden idols and give them to others. And by consuming the marijuana in the presence of even only one other person you are “endorsing the carving and use of wooden idols.” I hope this example helps you to see that even the “small” example is a very grave violation of God’s most important Commandment, the First, and how “medium” examples are not only additional occurrences of violating the First Commandment but also “worse” because you are now tempting and enabling others to also violate the First Commandment.

You also need to understand that you become liable for other Commandments that are violated by yourself and others as the result of the consumption of marijuana. “Thou shalt not kill” is liable to be violated when “using” while driving, doing your job, and otherwise being responsible for the public. “Thou shalt not steal” is violated by financially and publically endorsing an illegal activity that is the direct cause of a robbery and crime culture. “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” is also potentially violated because you are promoting the use of a substance that alters, however subtly, the accurate witness of reality.

3) God’s view of the “largest” example of drug abuse sin, which is to be a drug dealer, whether “small scale” (sold to one person) or “large scale” (block, neighborhood, gang, state or country, anything that involves multiple people).

It should not be difficult for you to figure out right now that hell is full of drug dealers, including the asshole on the block who “just” provides to a few people. A dealer is in the business of not only “carving the wooden idols” but making other people believe in the wooden idols. A dealer’s purpose is to “make a living” off of enabling and influencing people, often using force, of disobeying God and altering not only people’s spiritual reality but also their economic reality. Because the dealer “makes a living” off of pot use, in this case, the dealer is therefore also violating, in addition to all the Commandments listed above, the Commandment “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.” The dealer craves money and possessions and so establishes an illegal and immoral enterprise to take money away from other people through their addiction and/or casual use of pot. The dealer not only takes money from the user, since he covets their money, but the dealer often takes the very means of livelihood for an entire family away from the users as they spend money on drugs instead of their own well being, education and livelihood. By transforming neighborhoods into drug zone the dealers suck away livelihood from the innocent around them as companies flee the neighborhood and jobs can no longer be had (except, ultimately, by dealing themselves). Dealers are responsible for the sins of those who emulate them, and they are responsible for the hardships that both the users and the innocent bystanders endure.

It should be clear that only example one, where the person grows their own pot for their own individual secret use, is a situation where the unrepentant person can still hope to “take their chances when judged by God.” A person who is literally a “singular island” of grapping with a sin such as growing and consuming their own pot in secret with their mouth shut about it has the best chance of being allowed into purgatory to be cleansed and eventually achieving heaven. This is because it really is a matter of their own conscience and background, all of which God is, of course, aware of. A parallel is the term “a victimless crime.” This is because literally not a single person or a single dollar is involved in this “pure and simple” example of single use secret consumption of home grown pot. The very minute that someone becomes aware of this usage, however, and that any money is spent in the purchase of the weed, it becomes the MUCH more problematic number two type of example. There are not too many people who smoke weed that they grow on their own and no one at all knows about it and no one benefits financially from it.

But I want to highlight example 1 because it helps people to understand that God is more “understanding” and “flexible” than the anti-God propaganda would have you believe. God recognizes that otherwise worthy people, as a result of their own choices or compulsions, sometimes “take a chance” with his mercy. That’s why purgatory exists. It’s not a matter of God’s “opinion” when he judges, but it is a matter of God revealing to the person the extent of their personal stain, which physically prevents people from entering heaven. I’ve explained this before that a sin stained soul cannot enter heaven because, to use the analogy, it cannot survive in the pure “atmosphere” of goodness and truth. It’s not like a sin stained soul can sneak into heaven through the back door. It’s still attempting to enter an “atmosphere” that a soul stained by sin cannot “breathe.” Purgatory is the process by which souls can cleanse themselves so that they can enter heaven and survive, living for eternity.

Here’s another example. When one dies in a state of sin it is like a person plugging cotton up their nose so they cannot breathe and wanting to enter a room of pure oxygen. Um, it’s not like God is being mean by insisting that people take the cotton out of their nostrils so they can breathe at all! If they do not remove the cotton up the nostrils they will die of asphyxiation. This is the example of a soul that dies in a state of sin. And by state of sin I do not mean they die without regrets. What I mean is they have an unresolved sin “track record.” One’s soul is stained by one’s track record of sin. Sometimes a person comes to their senses and regrets their sin, but what they did cannot be undone. Suppose the person the sinner wronged has died. The sinner can regret their sin, contribute a big check to some charitable organization, and if they are Catholic, obtain forgiveness through Penance and the Holy Eucharist. So the sinner can be forgiven, as if they never sinned, but the reality is that the actions of their sin cannot be fully remediated due to circumstances of time passing. A person can be forgiven of sin but it is not like time travelers erase the consequences on other people of that sin. This is part of the sin staining.

How do we know this? Look at the example of one of the greatest of the Prophets, the most holy Isaiah, who prophesied the very coming of Jesus Christ. What was the reaction of this extremely holy man, the like of whom has never since lived, when he was first called by God? Isaiah saw God appear, surrounded by angels who hailed God’s glory. (These very words of the angels are preserved in the “Sanctus, sanctus” sung portion of the Catholic Mass). Before God or the angels could even say one word to Isaiah, he told them to hold the phone before even speaking to him because:

Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5).

Notice that Isaiah does not say he is a sinner, because he knows he is not and is instead a very pious and very holy man. Yet this great man recognized instantly that simply by being a human being, especially living among man who were sinning, that he had “unclean lips.” This is the example that Isaiah gives for the reality of one’s total unsuitability to merit seeing the manifested God with one’s eyes, and obviously this is the condition all who would want to enter heaven will be in. Upon his words the following happens:


Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.” (Isaiah 6:6-7).

Notice the angel does not say, oh tut, tut don’t exaggerate Isaiah, you know you are a good man. No, rather the angel immediately acknowledges Isaiah’s insight that by definition he is a man who has “sin” and has “wickedness.” Notice the angel couches the expression that Isaiah possesses sin and wickedness, not that he is a sinner or wicked. This is the stain that I am referring to, where sin that results even from the inevitability of the human condition and living among sinners leaves a stain that must be removed. The angel uses an ember from the altar of heaven. The angel does not light a human charcoal grill, duh. Only an ember from God can purge a person so that they can communicate with God or enter into God’s realm of heaven. So the angel brings an ember from the very heavenly altar where God sits and uses that so Isaiah’s “wickedness is removed” and his “sin purged.” And yes, notice indeed the word “purge.” Whenever someone tells me “purgatory is not mentioned in the Bible” I want to smash his or her mush right into this page of the Bible. I don’t know how this could be clearer, and who thinks that what Isaiah required they don’t require in spades, in orders of magnitude greater than the holy ancient Isaiah? PURGATORY IS MENTIONED IN THE VERY CHAPTER WHERE THE PROPHET WHO PROPHESIED CHRIST IS FIRST PREPARED TO GET THE GOOD NEWS. CAN YOU HEAR GOD NOW? PUT ON YOUR FREAKING EYEGLASSES AND READ YOU MORONS.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for me?” “Here I am,” I said; send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).

Upon being purged by the angel Isaiah is immediately ready to receive the Lord’s voice in his ears and hear his message of what he should do. After being “purged” by the angel Isaiah is now like an angel in that he is cleaned of the influence of sin and wickedness and now able to be entirely in performance of God’s will.

Going back to our original not so glorious example of man or woman, the pot user, you can see how the three instances of small, medium or large uses will all map to purgatory and, obviously, hell. Even the mildest pot user of the first “small” example cannot hold a candle to Isaiah, so this person had better expect some serious purgatory, assuming all else in their life is just. But people in the second “medium” and third “large” categories of pot use and dealing better think really hard about how they measure up to Isaiah. God will not bother with purgatory at all for those whose souls are so blackened that there would be nothing of decency left anyway due to the great weight and persistence of their sin. They will be dispatched promptly to hell.

What happens in purgatory? Let me talk about the most borderline case, where someone “gets into purgatory but just under the wire.” In other words, they escape hell by the skin of their teeth. I have to be honest with you, for those people there is not much “left” to enter into heaven. Some of these people have to be stripped back to how their souls were when they were infants. So while they achieve heaven they do so as infants or simple souls and do not bring the memory or associations of the world with them. They will not be part of “family reunions” in heaven, nor will they recall or miss their families, since there is no sadness in heaven. But it is not God’s plan that people should be given life in the cradle that is earth only so that they sin so much that the personality and grace that they developed on earth be besmirched and blackened so much by their sin that they lose their individuality and, for lack of a better word, “adultness” in order to gain heaven. Don’t count on seeing a lot of loved ones in heaven if they are in the sin business. Or if you are in the sin business.

I hope this example helps. I don’t know how many times it can be spelled out in dog simple terms.

Purgatory

There's frequent discussion of purgatory and a lot of misunderstanding. Purgatory is quite real and anyone who does not prepare for it is being irresponsible. Skeptics who prefer to believe their faith is a "free pass" do not understand that one of the holiest of men who lived, the prophet Isaiah, who proclaimed Jesus Christ in all of his writings, understood the reality of purgatory even as he hadn't yet died, and was certainly one of this most sinless of men who ever lived.

The prototype for purgatory was illustrated in Isaiah 6:5-7 when the seraphim purified Isaiah's lips with tongs holding a burning coal. Remember, Isaiah was one of the greatest and purest prophets to ever live and he felt unworthy to be in God's presence simply because he lived among sinners. With this action he showed the reality of purgatory before being in heaven.

Isaiah 6:5-7

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:

And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin PURGED.

It didn't hurt him, the process of purification, because he was not a sinner - far from it. But God did not wave off his need for the purification of the burning coal. This is because nothing unclean or flawed (even the act of being human) can be "covered up" to be in the presence of God, because nothing untrue or impure can exist in heaven. So those who disbelieve the reality of purgatory and the reality of even minor sin being a barrier to heaven do not understand Isaiah's message - the very prophet who foresaw Christ. Purgatory burns off the sinfulness attached to each human. Isaiah, one of the most holy humans who ever lived, only needed his lips touched. It's not a fun process and people ought to put themselves on sin diets quicker than spare tire diets because all the fat of sin must be burned off in purgatory. Notice Isaiah in his wisdom insisted on his purgatory even without sin except some qualms about his ability and company, and he hadn't even died, he was simply in the presence of God. Isaiah had near perfect comprehension of God's will and reality. Jesus Christ crucified allowed the dare and the hope to be in heaven; Jesus did not erase the need to be totally pure and sin free in heaven.