Ad Jesum per Mariam

The Four Last Things Death Judgement Heaven Hell

The Four Last Things – Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell The conference opens with the recitation of the Hail Mary. The closing words of this familiar prayer, “now and at the hour of our death,” provide a meaningful starting point for reflecting on The Four Last Things. In these simple words, we speak a profound truth: by praying for the hour of our death, we acknowledge a reality that extends beyond the present, a future beyond the limits of this moment. This recognition is crucial, for it challenges the idea that this world is all there is. By admitting the fragility of the present, we invite the intercession of Mary, not just for navigating this life as if it were the end-all, but for the moment when our earthly life concludes—when something beyond begins. This is Key to Our Human Experience This is key to our human experience. It reminds us of our dual nature in a world marked by sin: we are both perishable and imperishable. Our bodies age, and no matter how well we care for them, time eventually diminishes all physical things. Yet, we sense something within us that endures. In contemplating the four last things, we are engaging with something profoundly important. Time itself has a limit; it, too, will one day cease. Each of us feels this limit individually—our days on this earth are finite. No amount of health or medical advancement can extend our lives indefinitely. Death is the inevitable end of our earthly journey, underscoring the transient nature of life. So, the question arises: when that moment of death arrives, what lies beyond? What are we truly praying for when we say, “now and at the hour of our death”? Explore these questions, and more, in this audio media on: The Four Last Things – Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell. ------------------------------- Image: The Virgin of Carmen and the Souls of Purgatory with St. Joseph and the Prophet Elijah: Mexican Artist and Painter: Juan Francisco de Aguilera: 1720 This small painting on copper, made for individual devotion, depicts the Virgin of Carmen interceding on behalf of souls in purgatory.

Duration:: 1h 10m
Broadcast on:: 05 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen. Mary, Queen of all hearts, Saint Louis-Marie de Montfort, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Those words with which the very familiar prayer that Hail Mary concludes are a fitting launching point for our consideration of the four last things. Now and at the hour of our death. And in that simple set of words, we are saying something very, very profound. Because if we are praying for the moment of death, we are recognizing that there is something that extends beyond this now, which does come to an end. Note how important that is. Because it takes off the table the notion that this world is all that there is. And that when this life ends, there is nothing. And let's be blunt, those philosophies that talk about being united to the universal energy are basically saying, after this, there is nothing. That is exactly what that means. And so note, we recognize that there is a fragility about this now. And because this now is fragile and yet very important, we ask her intercession. But we don't simply ask her in session because we are navigating and living in the now, as if that's all there is. Rather, we say, and at the hour of our death, because we recognize that at that moment of finality, there is something else. Note how important that is. And in simply speaking that way, we are also naming the dual aspect of what it is to be human. In this sin-fallen world, we are both perishable and imperishable. Our body, as we know, ages. And sooner or later, regardless of how well any of us ages, age undoes us. Sooner or later, time corrupts all physical things and reduces them to nothing. And so there's this physical element of who we are, which is perishable, it is subject to death. And yet, if that's all we are, there is no need to pray for the hour of our death. Because after that, there's nothing. And so we realize then that part of what it is to be human is that there is an aspect of us that is, in fact, deathless, immortal. The soul, let's be clear, is not eternal. It is immortal. It doesn't pass away with death. But the soul has a beginning. Eternity has no beginning and no ending. And so the soul, there's a part of the human person which is fundamentally imperishable. And note what that implies beyond this now, which is brief, when something comes to an end, there is an endless expanse that doesn't come to an end. And part of what it is to be human is to have that immortal character about us. What we say when we mean the soul is immortal, it does not die. If it doesn't die, it has no ending. And so then now we recognize that when we speak to the four last things, we're saying something absolutely important and profound. The intrinsic characteristic of time is that it has an expiration date. Time will come to an end. It's not just that as time continues, it brings an end to other things. Time itself, at some point, will end. Each of us experiences that, personally, in our own individual life. The time I have in which to live on this earth is limited. And regardless of any advances in medical technology or how healthy I eat or try to live, the simple fact of the matter is my days on this earth will come to an end. Death is the dominant fact of life in terms of our life's duration. Because it reminds us that this is limited. So then the question is, when that moment which waits for everybody arrives, death, what else is there? What is that we're praying about when we talk about now and at the hour of our death? What happens at that point? So the first thing we recognize is that death is a reality that waits for all of us. I'll be blunt. Nobody here is just going to get assumed out of this life directly into heaven. I am willing to lay money on that. OK? So let's just recognize that. And so we know then that there's something fragile, provisional, and passing about our lives. And as Sacred Scripture so beautifully says in one of the Psalms, what is man that you're mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? Our span is 70 years or 80 for those who are strong. And then it continues, and most of these are emptiness and pain. In other words, there's a certain futility about us. If you think about it, because again, now we just simply look at the fact of death, the first of the last things, death. Death is the last thing that waits for us. And it is in no small measure the last thing that waits for the universe. God did not make man for death. Death has come into the world, Sacred Scripture again says, through the envy of the devil. The wages of sin, as St. Paul says, are death. In other words, as we keep surrendering ourselves to what is wrong, we're earning a paycheck. And that paycheck has all of the zeros of death on it. That is what death earns. That is what death-- that is what sin earns. That is what sin produces and why? Because sin is the undoing of what is good. It is fundamentally and intrinsically destructive. Saint Augustine will talk about how when the heart turns more and more toward wickedness, there's this curious element of somehow we're unmaking ourselves. And there's a real truth to that. And so know what happens with the finality of death. The wealth we accumulate, somebody else gets. Maybe one of my heirs, maybe the government just takes it. But the wealth that I accumulate, somebody else gets. The reputation I've accumulated, well, okay, that remains in the world behind me, but it's not going to follow me anywhere. The property that I've earned and owned, I lose it. And death also makes us all remarkably equal. The king and the slave are equal in the grave. The rich man and the poor man are equal in the grave, both come to nothing. Know how all of these earthly categories-- successful or unsuccessful, famous or unknown, wealthy or poor, sick or healthy, important or insignificant. Note how death renders every single one of them meaningless. That's the real meaning of the expression you can't take it with you. It's not just a matter of wealth. All of these distinctions that we make between ourselves, all of these ways where we hold some up as superior to or better than others, death levels at all. All are equally dead. All are equally helpless. All are equally gone. Know how remarkable that is and how sobering that is? This equalizing reality which says, beyond the temporary illusion of my 70 years of being better than somebody is that long expanse of time where we're equally dead. And so again, let's look at the consequences of what we believe. If there is nothing beyond that, what value does human life have? Let's be honest. How do you assign a value to it? How do you even pretend to say it's infinitely valuable when in the end it is just another passing thing that comes to nothing? Note the importance of now and at the hour of our death. And so the real question is, what waits for us at that moment of our physical unmaking? What mites for us at that moment? And what waits for us, the church says, the second thing is judgment, death and judgment. And so at the moment of death, and all of a sudden, all of a sudden, judgment is the second thing. And let's be honest. That's not a word we like to hear. What's one of the things we love saying, don't judge me. And yet, and note what judgment now implies, I will appear before someone. So in other words, beyond death is a personal encounter with someone. I will appear before someone who has authority over me. Whether I want to be there or not, whether I accept that authority or not, does not matter. The authority is absolute. And so all who die will be judged. And what is the quality of that judgment on the one who appears? It is a judgment pronounced on the way one's time was used while he or she left. Has that time been used for good or hasn't it? Has that time been filled with emptiness or hasn't it? No, one of the measures of the judgment is what do we do with our time? And that's necessary because without time, we have no life. We live in time, we live by means of our time. Even if we fall into the trap of saying, no, I'm feeling something inside of me. Yeah, and you're feeling it over time. And you're feeling it in time. And if all of my time is spent being resentful for what happened to me in the past, well, you know, that's one way to live. And it is a way to live. Not particularly constructive, not particularly healthy. But it is a choice that I am making with my life. And so note, then, the implication is if I am going to be judged according to how I have lived, the next implication is my life is not entirely my own. That has never been. If my life is uniquely and entirely and exclusively my own, why would I be judged? The only one who can judge me is me. And so note now the next implication, the arrogant attitude of modern man that says, who is anybody to judge me? Who is anybody, even the Lord, to tell me what to do with my life? The simple truth of the man's answer is he's the Lord. And he's the Lord of your life, whether you accept it or not. He's the Lord of the universe, whether you believe in him or not. And so again, this radical individualistic way of approaching things, I am the Lord and captain of my faith. My life is mine to do with as I want, founders on the simple fact that in the end, I am accountable to somebody else for what I have done with the life that is given to me. All of that, just from the simple statement, that judgment waits for me. Because if I'm judged, I'm accountable. If I'm judged, I am not uniquely authoritative over myself. And note what this underscores. Life is a gift. And just as each of us goes out after death, in a sense, empty handed, we come into the world, empty handed. And in those empty hands, we're given life, which we didn't earn for ourselves, we didn't get for ourselves, but it has been given to us. And the one who gives us life is the one who wants us to account for the life that we've been given. Next implication. If that, indeed, is the case, there is no one who comes into this world merely by accident. There's an intentionality and a directionality toward every single life. If someone has given me life, I've received life for a reason. No. Implicit in the fact that I'm alive and going to be judged is that life has meaning. Life has value. Life has purpose. Life has direction. It is not simply something that begins and then comes to an end. I am alive for a reason. And note then, this idea of judgment at the moment of death deals with the reason I'm alive in the first place. Why? Because all human life is given a fundamental directionality when it comes into the world. As St. Augustine so beautifully says, you have made us for your self, O God. And our hearts will always be restless until at last they rest in you. The life that has come from God was made for God. And in the end, its ultimate meaning, its ultimate destiny, its ultimate belonging is with God, not with itself. Now, as we just pause right there, just by using two words, death and judgment, look at everything we've unpacked. Look at everything that we've said about what it is to be a human person, about what it is to be alive, and about the value of the limited time that we've been given. The time that we've been given is brief, and we don't get a do-over. So again, just so that we're absolutely clear. Nobody here was ever an Egyptian princess in a previous life. Nobody here was a cook in the king's castle in a previous life. You notice how nobody ever is that? Nobody here was a famous general or a great artist. Nobody here after you die might be coming back as somebody really cool. That doesn't happen. We get one go around, and that's it. We get one go around, and that's it. And so note then the infinite weight given to the time, the limited brief time that we have, because it's that brief time within which we forge our eternal destiny. Now, how remarkable that is. Note how remarkable that is, and note what that says about the fundamental uniqueness of each person. It's not like God only has so many souls, and so he has to keep reusing them. One per customer. And note that that immortal soul that I've been given will forge its everlasting destiny by means of a passing body, with which it interacts with others, by means of which it lives in the world, by means of which it prays, thinks, loves, or does the opposite. And so what we do in and with through our bodies here in time matters greatly. Because this accounting that we give of our lives is the accounting given to the one who has died to save us from sin. So now again, judgment. Somebody is judging me. And what do we know from the Gospels? Jesus himself says, the Father has given all judgment to the Son. And so it is that believer or unbeliever, atheist or agnostic, it doesn't matter, good or bad, all will appear before the seat of Jesus Christ. And there are no exceptions to that. All will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, who gave his life on the cross on behalf of all. And as sobering and frightening as the idea of judgment is, there should also be something reassuring in that. Because the one who died for me. The one who gave his life that I might have life. The one who took flesh and shared our human nature in all things except sin. The one who stepped out of heaven to save me is the one who waits for me. And so while my consciousness of the wrong I have committed and the wrong I live gives me pause. There should also be a sense of confidence that the one who is judging me is looking for a reason to get me across the goal line. The one who waits for me at that moment is that one who wants to save me. Who wants to find a reason for me to live. Know how powerful that is and how important that is. This is the basis of Christian hope. The basis of Christian hope is not, oh my god, we're all going to get before Jesus and we're all in trouble then. Well, you know, any one of us might be in trouble then. But the main thrust of this is that we shouldn't be cringing and frightened by this. Because if we are honestly trying to move forward with what he has given us, the one who waits for us is him. Who wants us to be saved. And it's very important that we recognize that. Then when we speak of judgment, we speak of two levels of judgment. And again, this is important. It's not merely a matter that every individual will be judged. But as Jesus says in the gospels, nations will be judged. There will be a moment when he comes and we don't know when it is. Regardless of what the guy on late night TV says about discovering something in the Bible that tells us when the second coming will be, regardless of what some supposed visionary says about our lady told me exactly when it will be coming, nobody knows. There is no fixed time that we can calculate, that we can be determined, or that is going to be given us in advance. The Lord has said there will be certain signs, and that's all we're going to get. And why? Because it will be at an hour and a time and a day that takes the universe by surprise. That includes us. That includes us. But there will be a moment when all creation is caught up in the glory of Jesus Christ. And there will be a judgment on the world in the big sense of the word, a judgment on the universe, a judgment on all people. And it's at that moment where the Lord will begin making all things new with a new heavens and a new earth. And so the world does come to an end. The universe does come to an end. It is not forever, at least not the way it is. And again, what happens more often than not is when we hear statements like the end of the world, we have this image of the Hollywood movie with the great CGI effects where everything is blowing up all over the place. You know, we have images of fireballs, and destruction, and explosions, and tidal waves. That is not what we're talking about. So first and foremost, to be clear, the world comes to an end in its entirety that will, in fact, happen. But when we speak about the end of the world, the first thing we speak about is not the fact that it comes to an end in time. We speak of the goal of the world. As important to understand that, the end of the world comes before the creation of the world. Now you're looking at me, Father, how exactly does that work? Think of it this way. Has anybody here said, tomorrow I am going to do this? And then the next day came, and you did it? That happens sometimes, right? Sometimes we forget. So when we get it right, tomorrow I am going to do this for you. And I show up, and I do it. What came before you doing it was you choosing the goal. You deciding to do it. That's the end. The end of the world is first the reason of the world, the meaning of the world, the why of the world. The Lord decided I will make a world that is ordered to the good and to me, then he made the world. The world made the decision to create a world that would move toward him that he would complete, fulfill, and care for, then he made the world. The reason, the end, always comes before the beginning or else the action is purposeless. And so note, the world has been given a direction from the first moment of creation. The sin, the original sin, the fall of man, introduces a certain disorder into that movement. But it doesn't take away the fact that there is an original goal, an original intention, an original purpose that God will complete. And so that first end, the reason for creating the world is what brings us to the second end, the time, the ending in time of the world, the fact that history will come to a conclusion, the fact that the movement of the universe and the futility of the physical universe will come to an end. And that end will be both constructive and destructive. It's important that we understand that. Because what will, in fact, be destroyed is evil, and sin, and darkness, and everything that is built on those things. And so when we speak of the world coming to an end, we are speaking as well of evil being put to an end, of death being put to an end, of suffering, of poverty, of hardship, of lack of forgiveness, and enduring resentments, of arrogance, all of those things will come to an end. They will be put to death. They will be destroyed. And why? Because the new heavens and the new earth will have no shadow of evil, no taint of evil. We can't imagine what that would be like, because we can't even begin to imagine a world free of evil. We can't imagine a world where I don't have to worry about suffering sorrow, loss, or hardship. We don't know what that is. And so note, what we wait for is a victory so wonderful we can't even begin to picture it. Try to imagine that. What would a world where no one dies look like? What would a world where no one is selfish? What would that even look like? What would a world where no one had to protect themselves look like? We can't even begin to imagine what that is. Everything we have around us is colored by our worry about those things. And so as we look toward what we expect, the ultimate things, there's going to be that moment then where all are brought before Christ, and he pronounces judgment on all together. Note how remarkable that is. And at that moment, then, it works like this. When we die, we individually go before the judgment seat of Christ, us, not you and your friends, you. And that's called the particular judgment, the judgment that is pronounced on my living, on my life. And as a result of the word that is pronounced over me at that moment, my undying immortal soul is released either toward heaven or hell. But note, the human person is a union of body and soul, right? At the end of the world when Christ creates all things, that is the moment when the bodies of all the dead rise from the earth. Our souls are reunited with our bodies. Individually, our particular judgment is concerned, is confirmed, and neither body and soul we are released toward heaven or body and soul that's a completely united human beings, we are condemned to damnation, as well as the nations of the earth and their works. At that moment, the works of darkness and destruction will be condemned and put to death. At that moment, the works of goodness will be gathered by the Lord and made glorious and perfect. And so we do not look forward to the destruction of what is good or who is good. But we do look forward to the destruction of what is not. That's the meaning of that marvelous prophecy that we heard on All Souls Day. On this mountain, the Lord will destroy death. That moment will come where there will be no death, period. And so death we see then, the first of the last things, is a transition point for us, not a terminal point. It brings to an end my time here on this earth, and it opens the door toward what awaits me on the other side. That having been said then, let's just linger with this for a minute, because we're in the middle of our All Souls, no Vena. And the reality is the vast majority of us who will appear before the Lord are going to appear splendidly imperfect and splendidly unready before him. Let's be honest. We are not going to stand before him as fully formed saints, at least not most of us. Some of you guys may be, but not me. We will be appearing before him with certain amounts of the works of darkness still clinging to us. Certain affections for those little or big sins we can just never let go of. We're going to appear before him with those apologies we've never said. With those wrongs we've never tried to make right. And then just think about your own families in your circle of friends, because we all have several members of our circle of acquaintances and relatives who they're not horrible people. But let's be honest, they're not particularly good either. And that might be a good description for any one of us. So the question is, what happens to that guy who's obviously not on the fast track to return a life, who's lived a life largely indifferent of goodness, but hasn't surrendered to what is wrong completely? What happens to that person? And so again, we come back to how we use the time we've been given. Being forgiven of our sins is absolutely necessary. But that in and of itself doesn't pass us directly to glory, because we're also obliged to undo, to repair, to restore, the damage our sins cause. And part of how we use our time, the expectation is, we're trying to do that. We're trying to do that. If we don't get-- that's what penance is, OK? Penance is not punishment. Penance is, in a sense, an attempt to restore what I have damaged or what I have broken as a result of the wrong that I've chosen to do. If we don't do penance in this life-- and frankly, there's a lot of us Christians who don't do penance, who are even aware that we should. And so we appear before the Lord with this weight of unresolved damage behind us. Our sins have been forgiven, but we also haven't done our part to participate in the healing of the world. The Lord doesn't condemn that soul to damnation, but the Lord doesn't just automatically open up the gate to heaven and say welcome home. In other words, because why? Heaven will not accept a soul tainted by evil. Let's just be really blunt. Holiness casts out sinfulness. The unapproachable light of God has no place within it for our darkness. And so those of us who aren't going to be ready, my heart is still cloudy. There's a fair amount of light, and there's a lot of shadow. That's a fair description of many of us. If that purifying of the heart doesn't take place while I live, the Lord in His mercy allows that purification to take place after I die. That is what purgatory is. Purgatory is that state or place of purification for those who will be accepted into heaven but aren't ready yet. Because otherwise, the only option is I'm sorry about your luck but you're going down. So note, if we take God seriously and the holiness of God seriously, if only the perfect are going to get saved, that writes most of us out. If only the obviously holy are going to get saved, man, then we should be frightened, then we should be worried. So note, this is not a harsh doctrine. It means God takes Himself seriously. You've lived a life that's been indifferent to trying to get better. Yes, I'll save you. But you've got to do something. There's got to be something. And so this is where the purgatory comes in. Purgatory is temporary. It is intense. And so again, let me be clear. According to the teaching of the church and the witness of the saints, nobody should be aiming for purgatory for a couple reasons. If you miss, if you miss, you get the most disastrous of all outcomes. Two, however difficult it is to purify and do penance on earth, the purification that awaits for us in purgatory is very efficient, but it's also not pleasant. It will be more painful than the difficulty we run into here. This is why we pray for our loved ones. This is why we pray for our dead. So that that process can be ameliorated, so that that process could be sped up, so that they can move through it easily and seamlessly to heaven, and so now we pause. Because this is important. We've got thousands and thousands of names on the envelopes here for our all souls in Ovena. Some of the names on those envelopes would have died 50, 60, maybe 100 years ago. Depending on how far back somebody's doing their generations. So the question is, well, like Father, they died 100 years ago. Why would I pray for them now? Interesting question, isn't it? And so again, a worldly way of thinking is my prayer for them does no good. They're gone. No. Let's go back to the judgment. Each of us, individually and personally, appears before Jesus Christ. And remember I said, it's you and not you and your friends? It's not exactly true. The prayers we say today for our loved ones who have passed away even decades ago, even centuries ago, will stand with them before the judgment seat of Christ. The works of penance we do on their behalf, regardless of how long ago they have passed away, will be with them at that moment. Because that moment of appearing before the Lord is outside of the time span of the world. And because that's the case, what we do for them today, the Lord sees at the moment there before him. He sees their entire life from its beginning to its end all complete before him. He doesn't need to review the documents. He doesn't need to recall anything. When he sees us he sees, when the Lord looks at you, he never just sees you now. He sees the entire length of your life from its beginning to its end. He sees it all. Which is why the Lord can touch us now and heal something from our past. Which is why the Lord can touch us now and prepare our future. And so the same thing, when our loved ones, when we stand before the Lord, it doesn't matter when they're set, those prayers that we say for them, those works we offer for them, are there. Note how marvelous that really is. Note how it takes the loneliness away. Note how it takes a certain amount of the fear away. Note how merciful the Lord is. Because he gives us a chance in no small measure preempt purgatory for some. It gives us a chance to nudge that one toward glory where maybe he was leading the other way. And it's really important that we recognize that. It's very important when we deal with situations like drug overdoses, suicide. Things where you point to a person and you just say, I don't even know what to believe. And the loss is so tragic, but so negative. And the interesting thing is our prayers can stand with them who died in such a lonely way as they appear before the Lord. And so they don't have to be there by themselves. That's a wonderful, wonderful thing. And so having said that then, Bo, in the end, however, death and judgment are passing realities. Sooner or later, there will be the last judgment after which there is no more judgment. By definition, if it's the last judgment, there's not the sequel to the last judgment. This isn't a Hollywood franchise. We're going to have last judgment number five. So when we get to the last judgment, that is it. The destiny of the universe and all that contains is determined, and the new heavens and the new earth will be made, not by throwing out the old, but by the radical, glorious transformation of what we have. Death as well, at the moment of the last judgment, death is the last enemy to be destroyed, but death then is likewise overcome, done away with, there is no more death. There is only the Lord, the people He has made, and the two permanent locations or states that remain, and therefore ever, and those are heaven and hell. OK, so again, understand that ultimately the possibility of everlasting outcomes that wait for us is binary. It's heaven or hell. There's no really cool, super-secret third place that we might end up. It's heaven or it's hell. Those are the only two options. There is salvation and there is destruction. There's nothing in between, because the Lord didn't make us for in between, He made us for life, and He desires that we're saved. But He also gives us the freedom to reject that. And if my life is lived as a continual prayer to the Lord, which effectively says to Him in my heart, even if I never use those words, I don't need you, I don't want you, I don't desire you, I don't care for you, and my life dies breathing out that prayer. Oh, He'll answer it. He'll answer it. You know, one of the most dangerous myths that we have in the Christian tradition is the myth of the deathbed conversion. That's really rare, OK? Exceedingly rare. We love telling those stories, you know? And like, you know, my uncle George was a really horrible man, but right before he died, that next to never happens. That next to never happens. And why? Because if my heart was that hard all the way through, it's not going to suddenly and spontaneously change at the end, you know? And so, you know, we have to pay attention to the fact that our lives acquire a certain character as we live and move forward. And so then, let's now-- so then now we talk about the other two outcomes, heaven and hell. And let's be blunt, hell is real, OK? Hell is real, and we can go there, all right? So again, you know, modern man doesn't like hearing that. You know, everybody gets to heaven, it's wonderful. Jesus loves me. Yes, he does, but hell is a real possibility. And so now we look at the Lord's own words in sacred scripture. There's this image of the last judgment and the separation of the sheep and the goats, and that standard of you were relentlessly across your life indifferent to the needs of those you could have helped. Go to the lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. No, what he doesn't say? Oh, just put it a couple years down there, and I'll get you back into heaven. No, you are caught off. Or the time the Lord says, people from the east and the west will be coming into the kingdom of God. I'm going to close the door, and you're going to be banging on it saying, Lord, Lord, Lord, let me in. And I'm going to say to you, I have no idea who you are. And nobody does there. He takes away that dangerous misconception that if I just say that Jesus is Lord, I'm OK. You will say to me, Lord, Lord, and I will say, I don't know you. Because Jesus doesn't give us a formula to repeat with our lips. He gives us an attitude to live with our hearts. And if I say, Jesus is my Lord and Savior, and I don't live in a way that corresponds to that, all I'm doing is telling a lie. And so no, the Lord Himself very directly holds forth the fact that there is an everlasting consequence to how we live and to what we do with what He has given us. Which means the Christian who's been given more in terms of grace is held to a tighter standard, a higher standard. That one who doesn't receive this grace, who hasn't received this knowledge, the Lord would not hold that person accountable to the same thing. So hell is a real possibility. And now again, we pause. However, the church has never taught that other than Satan and his fallen angels that any individual human being is in hell. The church has never taught that Judas is in hell. The church has never taught that Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler are in hell. The church has never done that. It simply holds out the fact it is a possibility for all of us. And the ancient advice-- and it's really good advice. The ancient advice in the church was this. If a guy is ever going to get in front of the people and start talking about hell and who could go there, the only person he has any right to assign there is himself. Note how important that is. It's not for us to judge. Judgment on the eternal level belongs to Christ. So that statement of absolute condemnation, the church itself, will not make about anyone. You know? It's fair to say the odds are really good certain individuals are there. But we never want to pronounce definitely. What we want to do is always be aware of hell as a possibility for me, a possibility for those that we care about and we want to avoid that. But we don't avoid it simply by living to avoid it. We avoid it by seeking heaven, which is what we're supposed to be doing. And so note, the two eternal outcomes-- heaven and hell-- the key is to be seeking heaven and to be living in such a way that my heart is naturally moving toward heaven. The key is not to say, how do I avoid hell? The key is to desire the good of heaven, the good of the Lord, and to begin moving in conformity with that, because that's what gets me there. And note the difference in attitude. If my fundamental perspective is I'm going to avoid hell, I'm going to live in a frightened way. I'm always going to be looking over my shoulder. I'm going to be worried. I should always be aware of it as a possibility, but where my energy needs to go is growth and goodness. And so now then, now then we have to recognize if our life has a fundamental directionality about it. It is a directionality ordered to heaven, ordered to eternal happiness, ordered to everlasting goodness because God has made us for himself. The great treasure of heaven is not that heaven is paradise. It's the presence of God. The great pain of hell is the inability to feel the presence of God. Note how that goes. Hell is the inability to feel the presence of God at all, even though that is the great desire of the human heart. It is eternal pain, eternal emptiness. It burns like fire because the most basic fundamental element of what it is to be human is unsatisfied and never will be. That's the pain of hell. The image is of fire and external torments. There are just ways of teasing that out. But the great joy of heaven is not first and foremost seeing my loved ones. That's one of the joys of heaven but is not the great joy of heaven. The great joy of heaven is not being in the company of the angels and the saints. That is one of the joys of heaven. But it is not the joy of heaven. The great joy of heaven is seeing God face to face and being with him. To stand in the unapproachable light of God and to be filled with joy, the joy that only his presence can give us. God himself is my salvation. And this too separates the Christian idea of heaven from every other version. Other traditions will hold to a paradise. I will be happy. I will be filled with blessing. And it's kind of in the mind. It's kind of like earth but just a lot better. No, God himself is my salvation. This life of Jesus that I've been given in baptism is pulling me there where I will be with the one whose life I already share. The human person who's not baptized but made in the image and likeness of God will finally stand before that one if he gets to heaven in whose image and likeness he was made and will only then suddenly see himself as he really is. That's the other thing. This is why, St. John, the Apostle writes, we don't know what we'll be like then. We only know we'll be like him because we'll see him as he is. And seeing him who is the one who created us in his image and after his likeness, only then will we really see the fullness of ourselves. Only then will we see that. And so there's this other element, this revelatory element that happens at the end of our lives where suddenly before the judgment seat of Christ, we are going to see, in a sense, with the eyes of the spirit, this immortal part of our character, our soul in all of its wonder, in all of its potential beauty. And we're also going to see the ways we mocked it up. But then moving beyond that, one of the great gifts of heaven, the idea of the glorified body, it's the glorified person. We will see who we were always meant to be there, made new, restored, redeemed, and glorified. And we will have the eternal joy of living that. Know how wonderful that is. And so when the church speaks and the great writers of the spiritual lives speak about heaven, one of the things they keep coming back to is that heaven is beautiful. No, not heaven is happy. Not heaven is pleasant. Not heaven is filled with angels. Heaven is beautiful. There's a beauty about it. It's the beauty of goodness, the beauty of God, the beautiful light, holiness, a beauty with no shadow or stain of what is ugly or scarred or diminished, a pure beauty. And note how marvelous that is because there's something in the heart of man that desires beauty, real beauty. And it's that seeking after that eternal destiny, which is not just happy, but beautifully so. Not just good, but beautifully so. Not just everlasting, but beautifully so. And they use words like that to spur in the hearts of their listeners, the hearts of the faithful, a desire for this. Because again, heaven is our true home. We are moving in that direction whether we realize it or not. The most religiously indifferent soul on the planet is still moving that way. The question is, will you ever get there? And so now again, we pause. So as much as the characteristic of heaven is a beautiful joyfulness, the characteristic of hell is an empty sorrow. And in reflecting on this, St. Louis de Montfort has a hymn, actually, The Voice of the Damned. And it's a soul that is lost crying out from the depths of the infernal realm. And one of the verses of the hymn is a marvelous summary of the real pain of what we speak about when we speak of hell. And he has the tormented spirit cry out in this way. I moan, and I moan without repenting. I burn, and I burn without consuming. Now I'm blanking. I regret and I regret without laughing. Note the images. Note the images. I have all of these statements. But there's something in me that can't do these things. Because that's how I've lived. I never learned how to repent. And so my moaning goes nowhere. I suffer, and I suffer without hoping. Those four simple statements, those four simple statements, there's no value in my suffering. All I am is a burnt out husk of a person who remains nothing other than a burnt out husk. I don't even have the relief of disappearing. I groan, and I groan. And normally, when I groan, I'm looking for someone to help me or forgive me, but I can't ask for it. I can't repent. And so this image of not so much that hell is fire, not so much that hell is marked by physical pain of some kind, but by this radical emptiness in the human person. And honestly, how does one get to hell? That emptiness is there before he ever gets to hell. It is a life that empties itself of the possibility of goodness. It's a life that empties itself by its indifference, by its clinging. And so Father Demoffert then, in describing this individual, says, I exchanged the length of eternity for the pleasure of a moment that passes. I traded away the wealth of eternity for a trifle that I lost. And so it's this image of not even realizing it until I find myself here, when it's too late to do anything about it. I valued all of these empty things in such an ultimate way that in the end, all I had was the emptiness they gave me. And what I ended up doing was I set eternity aside for the sake of these things. And so when we put it that way, it's stark. It's not the happiest thing to reflect on. But the simple fact of the matter is then know how important it is to have a sense of the directionality of our living so that we can choose the right value, the right weight, the right goal, the right direction. Because our living becomes clearer always when we know which way to go. When we know what it is we want, really want. When we know what it is that the Lord really wants from us, then we can begin to move in that direction. So we reflect on these things for that reason, because why? Man was not made for death. Man was not made for destruction. And when man brought death and destruction upon himself and upon his world, God would not let man have the last word on that. And so he sent his son. To bear the burden we cannot bear. To win the victory that we cannot win and to open the way to life that we could not find on our own or secure for ourselves. Don't know how marvelous this is. And the more we understand that, the more we understand this great gift of God who refuses to let us simply be lost and absolve his hands of it, we don't really appreciate the four last things. Because as sobering as they are, the real thing about them is it should mark our lives with no small hope and no small joy and no small sense of what it is that is so very, very important. One final note to wrap it up, because I've been torturing you guys for quite a while, and you're thinking, yeah, this is held. Listen to Father Hugh, just go on, and on, and on. He doesn't stop. But it's this, when we speak of the end of the world and the Lord overturning all of the structures of wickedness and evil, we come back to something that he says in the very beginning. When Adam and Eve first fell in the garden, Almighty God spoke to Adam and Eve, both of whom refused to ask for his forgiveness. The first recorded incidence of anybody ever saying sorry, not sorry, is Adam in the Garden of Eden. Yes, I did. I ate the fruit, but it's not my fault. The woman that you made, you know, and you don't want to see him looking at God saying, if you're left by rib alone, I'd be OK. No, you put me to sleep, you took the rib, you made the woman, look where we are. You know, it's not God turned to the woman. Eve, what did she do? Sorry, not sorry. Yes, I did, in fact, eat the fruit. But the snake, the snake's the one. So no, nobody ever apologizes. The snake won't apologize because he wanted to do this. So the Lord doesn't speak to Adam and Eve. He speaks to the snake. The Almighty speaks to the evil one, to the serpent. And he says to the serpent, I will put enmity, animosity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. You will strike at their heel. She will crush your head. This is the one animosity that comes from the hand of God. He hardwires it into the world, OK? The history of the universe is characterized by this animosity between the serpent and the woman. The woman is not Eve. She's already lost. She's crushing nobody's head. She's already lost. She's cooperated with Satan. She's, on a certain friendly term, she's disordered by him. She is not the woman. The Lord is speaking about another woman. The church from its earliest years has referred to this verse, Genesis 3, 15, as the gospel before the gospels. Because it's here that it sees in sign and in promise the image of our lady. Sinless, what does it mean to be sinless? It means completely opposed to the serpent. Sinless, a true mother of the truly living. And it is the children, the truly living children of this woman who will be the great opponents and the great enemies of the serpent and all of its offspring. And among the children of that woman, there will be a he, one unlike all of the others, through whom victory would come. In that moment of man falling into death in the garden, Almighty God already announces that there will be an ending. There will be a victory. There will be that moment when the head of the serpent is decisively and finally crushed. That's important for us here at the shrine. Because that image was dear to the heart of St. Louis Marie de Montfort. And he was very conscious of the fact there is much about living and trying to live a good Christian life in this world that meets with no small opposition, lamentably at times from within the church by means of our indifferent or hostile brothers and sisters, let alone the world in which we try to navigate. And he understood, however, that the plan that God has in place will continue to move forward. And that Jesus Christ, who came into the world the first time by means of the Virgin Mary, will be completely consistent. And in a certain way, by means of our lady, he will manifest his glory at that ultimate moment. And in between, he will continue revealing his glory by means of those other children, his brothers and sisters of our lady, who live truly as her sons and daughters. And that it is by these servants and children of Mary across the ages that the Lord is pleased to carry forth the program of his victory. Not because they're mighty warriors, not because they're physically strong, wealthy, or important, but rather they're the children of our lady's humility, they're the children of her obedience and her generosity. And in a world that devalues those things, their humility stands strong. Their generosity is continual. Their obedience to what is good and right is not lightly set aside. Where the serpent is proud, they are humble. Where the serpent seeks gain for himself, they are giving. Where the serpent seeks to be a law unto himself, their hearts seek first the will of God and his kingdom. And it is through these children of Mary, Father de Montfort is going to say, that the Lord, little by little, reveals his glory until that day when his glory will be manifest. You know how marvelous that is, that sense of being involved in something much bigger than ourselves. Being involved in the fact that it's not just that my life is accidentally lurching toward heaven, but that this movement by which Christ comes back and reveals his glory, I have a part to play in that. And the more I turn to our lady and the more I involve myself trying to live as a true child of our lady, the more effective that part I play can be. You know, it's a marvelous, marvelous insight. And no, no, how open to everybody that is, you know? And why, because the presence of our lady helps us to become more and more like Christ in our living? So the more she is with us, the more we surrender to her, the more in our everyday actions who we show forth is not Mary, but Jesus. What a marvelous, what a marvelous understanding that is. And it becomes that way where the world around us comes to meet and see and recognize the face and the touch and the word of Christ. You know, so if we speak of the last things and we speak of the Lord coming back to complete things, we who gather here on a regular basis, whether as members of the Association of Mary, Queen of all hearts, or just as people who come to the shrine need to recognize, the more we involve Mary in our living, the more we do have a real part to play in that movement. And note how marvelously hidden and yet powerful that part can be. It doesn't require me to travel around the world. It doesn't require me to obtain a new skill set. It requires me to be very, very good at the basic duties God has given me to carry out. And when I do that, when I do that, the face of Christ is revealed. What a great gift that is. And these small revelations of the face of Christ are what begin to get us and our brothers and sisters ready for that great day when we will encounter the full revelation of Christ in His glory. And while the day may catch us by surprise, there is nobody who's going to miss it when it happens. The Lord be with you. May the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit come down upon you and remain with you forever. Thank you all for coming out today. [APPLAUSE] (audience applauds)