AFTER DEATH : JUDGMENT
Cyprian of Carthage
We ought to remember that we should do not our own will, but God's, in accordance with what our Lord has bidden us daily to pray. How preposterous and absurd it is, that while we ask that the will of God should be done, yet when God calls and summons us from this world, we should not at once obey the command of His will!
We struggle and resist, and after the manner of froward servants we are dragged to the presence of the Lord with sadness and grief, departing hence under the bondage of necessity, not with the obedience of free will; and we wish to be honoured with heavenly rewards by Him to whom we come unwillingly.
Why, then, do we pray and ask that the kingdom of heaven may come, if the captivity of earth delights us? Why with frequently repeated prayers do we entreat and beg that the day of His kingdom may hasten, if our greater desires and stronger wishes are to obey the devil here, rather than to reign with Christ?
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. . . Consider this analogy: Suppose a man were waiting for his turn to come down in an elevator. In a burst of intellectual freedom he says, "This is ridiculous! I refuse to accept the indignity of subjecting myself to a law of gravitation that that fool, Isaac Newton, thought up and imposed on the rest of us. I am going to be free." He proceeds to jump out the window. For a few seconds, or a few moments depending on the height, he seems to have proved his point. He is getting down faster. He is having an exhilarating experience, free fall and all the rest of it, until he hits the ground. A smashed body is the "judgment" that the law of gravitation passes on all who try to flout it.
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. . . the exalted "immensity" of the human soul and that only possession of God in the Beatific Vision can completely satisfy man's desires
The Rapture?? READ the explanation behind the false ideas so prevelant outside the Catholic Faith
– The “Left Behind” book and movie series about the end of the world is in “direct conflict with Catholic teaching and should not be promoted by Catholic institutions,” said the Catholic Conference of Illinois. The articles’ authors warned that Catholics, especially young Catholics, could easily be drawn into such fundamentalist teachings if they have not received solid formation in Catholic teaching about the last things — death, judgment, heaven and hell.
