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Dear Father Angelo,

last year, after a brief ,unexpected and terrible illness, my mother passed away.

I must admit that, however great the pain was for losing her, and still  is, somehow it has helped me to renew my faith, both by increasing my devotional practices and by asking myself those spiritual questions which I used to disregard up to that point, even though I was frequently going to Mass on Sunday. Unlike before, now I feel the need for Sunday Mass, for monthly Masses celebrated for my parents, for frequent Confession, for more fervent prayer, to read the Catechism and diaries of saints, to read the Gospel to my young children in the evening, before taking them to bed, and to teach them many prayers (a deed I never intended before). It is quite true what some say: God knows how to draw great spiritual fruits for His children from apparent evil. 

However, thinking of my mother’s death, I hope  you will answer my following questions:

1. Can the intercession of the saints be asked only for the living or also for those who are deceased? Does it make sense to pray to a Saint (about the Madonna I already know the answer) to alleviate a deceased person suffering in Purgatory?

2. I was reading Sister’s Diary by M. F. Kowalska, who is the patroness of the Divine  Mercy devotion , and I found a statement written by her on January 1st, 1938, the year of her death, where she reports of having heard Jesus’ voice in her soul exhorting her to fight for the salvation of souls by instilling trust in Divine Mercy among them, and then so she says: “At these words, I felt a deep understanding of Divine mercy. Only the soul that wants to be damned shall be damned, for God does not condemn anyone”.

But, if God does not condemn, what does the Catechism teach in regard to the salvation or damnation of one’s own soul at the moment of death, when one appears before  Christ’s tribunal for an immediate judgment? I think that on this earth there are not many (at least so I hope!) souls who want to go to hell. Men are often unable to control their vices and bad tendencies because either led to think that certain behaviors are right by their ignorance in the faith, or weakness of mind or spiritual indolence, or guilty distraction, but it does  not seem credible that there are many people who hate Jesus Christ, whom they often have a vague conception about, to the point of willing to stay afar from Him for all eternity. Most men sin by saying “what I do is not a sin (at least a serious one)” or “I continue to sin because God will forgive me, as He is good”, or “I believe in God but in my own way, I don’t need religious practices”. Surely, those statements are all very dangerous, the result of the devil’s deception, but I cannot think of anyone living with the aim of going to hell (with the exception perhaps of Satanists and the greatest criminals in history).

So, my question is: could God give the soul who is descending into Hell one last chance to review his or her life,  clearly understanding all the negative aspects, without the deceptions of the devil and the distractions of the world? That is, could God give the chance to choose, in complete freedom and full awareness, whether to follow the devil’s path or  His, and,  in the latter case, to go through a long and harsh purgatory? Ultimately,  on  this earth our choices between good and evil are never fully free and completely aware. We are fragile beings, exposed to the constant snares and deceptions of the devil, and some have not even received an adequate religious education and do not shine with intelligence.

Can fools be condemned for eternity?

I greet you and pray for you.

Michael


The Priest’s answer

Dear Michael,

1. I like to think that the renewed fervor in your spiritual life is one of the most beautiful gifts that your mother obtained for you upon entering Heaven.

I think of the words that the Holy Father Dominic said to his brothers who were crying for the loss of his presence when he was close to dying: “Do not cry, because I will be more useful to you over there than here”.

Upon entering Heaven, your mother did the same.

And if in this life she could not obtain the fervor in faith as she would have desired, now she has obtained it for you.

2. I am convinced that the Holy Masses, monthly celebrated for Her, obtain you many graces, without you even realizing it.

A Mass is never celebrated without benefits.

3. You ask me if in Paradise the Saints intercede for the souls in Purgatory.

When the Saints were on earth, they obtained graces for everyone, even for the souls in Purgatory.

And since they are fully conformed to Christ who continues to intercede for us (rf. Rom 8:34), they also intercede for the souls in Purgatory.

4. However, they can no longer deserve those graces  in paradise.

Even so, they put their merits at our disposal and we can direct  them for the  benefit of our deceased.

Maybe, so we do with the Madonna when we recite the Rosary and the litanies in suffrage for the deceased, don’t we?

Well, if we can obtain the intercession of the Madonna for the deceased, we can also obtain the intercession of the saints for them.

Thus, for example, to recite the litanies of the saints is excellent for the souls in Purgatory.

5. What you read in the Diary of St. Faustina is perfectly true: “Only the soul that wants to be damned shall be damned, for God does not condemn anyone”. For that reason, the Catholic Church says that Hell is “self-exclusion from communion with God” (rf. CCC 1033).

6. I agree with you when you say that no soul on earth wishes to go to Hell.

However, there are many with no wish to go to Hell, who do not believe in Hell at all, nor do they believe in God, nor do they live trying to accumulate “a good foundation” (1Tim 6:19) to bring with them for eternal life.

But, thinking that either Hell or God does not exist is not enough to avoid going to Hell.

Many people tacitly exclude themselves from communion with God.

When they will be judged, they will find out not dressing in the new garment, made of grace, which is the indispensable condition for entering Heaven.

7. You ask me if they still have the chance to think and convert as soon as they arrive there.

The Gospel does not guarantee this to us.

Indeed, the Lord said “be prepared” (rf. Mat 24:44) and said that, as happened in days of Noah when “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” people were all heedless about what was to happen to them, so will it be to many (rf. Mat 24:38) as well.

In the whole Gospels there is no passage where the Lord tells us to trust in a further possibility.

8. On such topics, serious and decisive for our eternity, it is necessary to rely on the word of the Lord, the only who is competent in the matter.

Here is what the Gospel of Luke reports: “He passed through towns and villages, teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.

Someone asked him, «Lord, will only a few people be saved?”. He answered them, «Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough. After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door, then will you stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ He will say to you in reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ And you will say, ‘We ate and drank in your company and you taught in our streets.’ Then he will say to you, ‘I do not know where (you) are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers!’ And there will be wailing and grinding of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves cast out. And people will come from the east and the west and from the north and the south and will recline at tables in the kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last»” (Luk 13:22-30).

9. You conclude by saying that our choice “is never fully free and completely aware ”.

I agree with you that there are degrees of freedom and awareness.

Nonetheless, the maximum level of awareness is not required to attribute an act as good or evil, but rather a sufficient degree of lucidity.

We should also consider that the option for certain sins clouds the judgment of conscience.

That is why St. Augustine says: “The beginning of freedom is to be without crimes” (Homilies on the Gospel according to St. John, 41,9).” … such as murder, adultery, any uncleanness of fornication, theft, fraud, sacrilege, and other such like. When once a man is without these (and without these ought every Christian man to be), he begins to lift up his head unto freedom: but this is freedom begun, not perfected. …” (Ib., 41,10). 

Before St. Augustine, Jesus said: “the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil” (Jn 3:19).

Such darkening of the mind is guilty.

One cannot justify oneself because of a lack of awareness of sin when one’s own conduct has erased the sense of sin.

10. John Paul II in Reconciliatio et poenitentia said: “This individual may be conditioned, incited and influenced by numerous and powerful external […] and internal factors […]. But it is a truth of faith, also confirmed by our experience and reason, that the human person is free. This truth cannot be disregarded in order to place the blame for individuals’ sins on external factors such as structures, systems or other people. Above all, this would be to deny the person’s dignity and freedom, which are manifested-even though in a negative and disastrous way-also in this responsibility for sin committed. Hence there is nothing so personal and untransferable in each individual as merit for virtue or responsibility for sin.

As a personal act, sin has its first and most important consequences in the sinner himself: that is, in his relationship with God, who is the very foundation of human life; and also in his spirit, weakening his will and clouding his intellect” (RP 16).

11. You mentioned St. Faustina Kowalska.

Well, when St. Faustina narrated the vision of Hell just shown to her, she herself wrote: “There was one thing I noticed [in particular]: most of the souls there are ones who doubted  the existence of Hell” (Diary 741).

Therefore, the appeal  to conversion remains and urges us to keep our own consciences clear.

12. Finally, your last question is: “Can fools be condemned for eternity?”.

We said that God does not condemn, but that man condemns himself.

So, yes, quite foolish to eternally condemn oneself.

Scriptures refer to them when saying: “While claiming to be wise, they became fools” (Rom 1:22).

With my best wishes for every good and a peaceful and holy Christmas, I bless you.

Father Angelo