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People who meet Christ after death vary in their reactions. A person on fire with Divine Love is overjoyed to greet Him. Someone aware of her still-cold heart will accept the painful 'thawing' which is her purification. Someone frozen in spirit and unwilling to be changed will freely choose to hurl himself away, into Hell.
A firm and mistaken private judgement about a moral issue is like a boulder in the heart of someone who claims to have examined Catholic claims and found them inadequate. A private opinion that abortion is a right, for example, prevents sincere and fruitful exploration about the Catholic Church.
Jesus Christ was aware of His own Origin and Divine nature throughout His whole life on earth. Though He took a human nature to Himself and lived as a little boy in our world, He did not have to be told His purpose in life. About all these things, He had Divine knowledge and implicit human knowledge, as a boy, though He had to learn how to put it into words.
Jesus is willing to say, today, to each person who goes to Him, repenting of sin, what He once said to the adulterous, sorrowful woman: "Neither do I condemn you. Go away and don't sin anymore". This is true, even for people guilty of those sins which are particularly repulsive to virtuous people.
It is the Lord's wish that the Last Judgement picture be used on a sanctuary wall, as a reminder of the truths we ought to know: that each of us, by our freely-made choices, is walking towards either Heaven - by the grace of Christ - or towards Hell, which is the loss of God.
It is part of Christ's plan that this 'Last Judgement' picture serve as an image in a sanctuary, and as a restatement of truth, an illustration of the Catechism, a teaching aid, and a proof of my own understanding of the Gospel: that each of us is making our way to Heaven or Hell, through our freely made choices as we accept or reject the graces Christ won for us on the Cross.
A person who ends his life in Hell is trapped, and hopeless. He had one life on earth, and countless opportunities in which to do good, to love God and his neighbour and to make wise choices. But in freely choosing to do evil, right to the end, he chose to live in Satan's Kingdom, from which there is no escape.
Christ died, to conquer sin and death; yet He would have done so, to save a single person from going to Hell. Millions, however, are in danger of condemning themselves to Hell because they lead hard-hearted and sinful lives. Each of us needs to repent, by the grace of Christ, before we die.
A great battle goes on when a person is torn between love of God and love of self. Satan attacks that heart and mind, while the Guardian Angel acts to restore that soul's peace. Someone like this desperately needs to pray in the name of Jesus.
The sacrificial prayer of Christ at Mass, to which we unite out prayers and praises, infallibly pierces the cloud between earth and Heaven and arrives at the throne of the Father, Who delights in pleasing His obedient Son.
The Lord showed me a castle wall, crenellted, which encircled the front of Heaven, as I might portray it, in my 'Last Judgement' picture. He showed me the significance of this: 'THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY IN': His way, Jesus Christ's Way.
There was a scene of horror in the film 'Zorro'; yet The Lord showed me that the horrors of Hell surpass all the horrors of those earthly mines, where brutal slave-drivers force the workers to dig and sweat in unbearable conditions, in deep caverns beneath the surface. The demons are the slave-drivers in Hell.
Just as pond creatures which make their way to the surface of a pond are dazzled by the sunlight above, so human beings who rise up from earthly life and enter Heaven are dazzled by Divine glory; so as I paint them in my Last Judgement I should not paint them in much detail, but as if half hidden in dazzling light.
A person who refuses Divine Help, and pursues his selfish desires until death, inevitably experiences the painful separation from God which they chose in earthly life and which continues into Eternity. Without God, all is pain and grief, unending, in the company of the demons and all the damned.
Any politician who wants to help his country should oppose with all His might unjust and immoral new laws. Once such a bad law is passed, it is easier for sinister, related matters to gain approval, and the government becomes like a runaway train which endangers onlookers as well as passengers.
Christ said that in looking at my Last Judgement people will see in an instant what is important about life. Through seeing the three main areas - Heaven, earthly life, and Hell, they will straight away receive His message, which is that only the virtuous go to Heaven - through the grace of Christ - when they die, whereas unrepentant sinners go to Hell.
There are souls in Hell who are being tormented by demons. In earthly life, they refused to listen to God who loves them. They chose to walk on the path to Hell as they cried out, until death. 'I can do whatever I like'.
The Lord assured me that I was right to picture Christ as He is: God made man, that is, God made visible; but I am right to leave the Father's face invisible - since He is transcendent, and ineffable: indescribable in His holiness and beauty.
Whenever we speak to others about our faith in Jesus Christ: God-made-man Who came to earth to save us, we are spreading the Gospel just as the Apostles did - and Lydia, and countless Christians through the ages. Even when we seem to see no results, God is bringing good out of our efforts and encounters.
Christ is God-made-man, Who endured 'hell on earth', and sacrificed His life, in order to teach people about sin and goodness, and to conquer sin and death. He showed by his coming to earth, that the Father is not a tyrant, glad to send people to Hell, but a loving Father, Who, with His Son, has done everything possible to rescue, warn and convert sinners, to spare them their inevitable disaster.
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