Friday, November 1, 2013

Repent and Believe in the Good News


In my morning meditation,  I continued to bare my distress to the Lord about a recent conversation that what awaits us following death is God’s  punishment for our sinful lives; namely, that we will suffer in the fires of purgatory and not enter heaven when we die.  It’s not that I do not believe in the importance of being purified before entering heaven; however,  there seems to be a contradiction with the following Scripture passages for those of us who repent and believe the Good News. In  Psalm 103:11, the psalmist proclaims: “[as] the height of heaven above earth, so strong is [God’s] faithful love for those who fear him. As the distance of east from west, so far from us does he put our faults”  and,  in Is. 1:18, God says to us through the prophet: “Though…[their] sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Is 1:18).  As explained in a footnote in the Jerusalem Bible on this passage, “the condition on which God insists is avowal of the sin and repentance…and the inner conversion that this implies.”  I believe that one who avows or admits his/her sins and brings his/her sinful behavior into harmony with the Holy Will of God is purified of that sin in the here and now through the sacraments of reconciliation, Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick.  Furthermore, did Jesus not say to the good thief on the cross “this day you will be with me in Paradise”?  He did not say” You will be with me in Paradise after you suffer in the burning fires of purgatory following your death.”  If his repentance and sincere sorrow, if his admittance of his guilt and his suffering united with the sufferings of Jesus’ on the cross were accepted  as his purification and readiness to be in the presence of God in eternity that very day, why is this not true for those of us  who sincerely repent and believe in Jesus’ words to us in this very moment and on our death beds: “This day you will be with me in Paradise.”  I believe it does. What is your belief?

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