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Question

Father Angelo,

I always wish you peaceful days, full of joy.

I wanted to ask you for information. What things must we essentially do to save ourselves from eternal damnation, that is, after death, to be with God in heaven and to be sure of it? We know that doing good it is a must and must always be done, for ourselves and for God and the next brother or sister….. What things can you indicate to me? Can you give me some directions according to your illustrious opinion and some fixed points of things to do ?

Wishing you all sorts of good I thank you. I add aside that the site is EXCELLENT.

Thanks.

Stefano

A priest replies

Dear Stefano,

1. Thank you first of all for your appreciation for our site.

I take advantage of this to say that the happy setting of our site and all the editorial work is due to our excellent webmaster Pasquale.

Without his work this site simply would not exist.

May the Lord bless him and keep him safe and sound for a long time!

2. Coming now to your question: the essential point in Christian life does not consist in escaping eternal damnation, although this element is also indispensable, but in gaining eternal life.

3. Now eternal life is not so much a place of happiness, although this too is present and in a way that surpasses our greatest imagination, but it is a Person: God.

And even more precisely it is Jesus Christ.

Eternal life is the communion with God, with Jesus Christ.

4. It is Jesus who told us: “This is eternal life: that they know you, the one true God, and the one you sent, Jesus Christ” (Jn 17,3).

5.  As you can well understand eternal life is already lived here.

And we live it when we possess God in our heart through sanctifying grace.

When you live like this, you are already saved, although not yet definitively.

6. More concretely, we are certain to live eternal life here and to continue it also in the future when we live what Jesus told us in Jn 14:21: “Whoever accepts my commandments and observes them, this is the one who loves me”.

And again what he said in Jn 14:23: “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him”.

7. Here are the criteria:

– to be united to the Lord through sanctifying grace by obeying his Word which tells us to love others as He loves us;

– in particular it is necessary to observe his commandments, that is, the ten commandments and also the precepts he gave us regarding the sacraments;

– finally it is necessary to flee from sin.

I wish you well, I remind you to Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo