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Whether a person becomes careless about his spiritual life, or deliberately sinful, his soul can become like a neglected garden: unpleasant for God to look upon. That person is loved by God, yet appears horrible, compared with holy souls. It's as stark and tragic a contrast as between a neglected garden, full of rubbish and rotting woodwork, and a renovated garden which has flower-beds, trees, and all sorts of features to delight the eye and to bring peace.

Christ wants us to avoid the ultimate disaster. Christ leads us by love, encouraging us to follow the Way to Heaven, helped by His guidelines and graces; but those who persist in disobedience and foolishness, ignoring His Commandments and decrees, or neglecting prayer, or corrupting others, or being irreverent towards His Sacred Ministers, or persisting, without repentance, in any grave sin, are allowed to follow their own paths. Alas, these lead to the great sewer which carries souls to Hell.

Some people ignore all God's warnings about sin. It is a terrible tragedy, that some people determinedly refuse to listen to God, and refuse to accept His gifts, refusing to obey His laws and His Church, as well as their own conscience, in order to fulfil selfish desires. There can be no change of direction, after death; and some find themselves trapped forever in Hell, without God, through their own fault.

It is not irrational, to conclude from what we see and know, that there is a Divine Creator of all that exists. We can look at the order in the whole universe, and the wondrous development of an embryonic human being who becomes a fully-grown adult, who thinks and reasons - and who can choose, guided by his 'in-built' conscience, to do good or evil.

The 'quality control' exercised towards humans, denying life, is loathsome to God. God wants every woman to know the truth about the gift of life. It is a gift from God, even if circumstances are not what a woman would want. He wants every woman to know that there is a fork in the road, ahead. When a mother decides to rid herself of her unborn child, and have it aborted, she is taking the road away from God and Heaven, by her cruelty, and the taking of innocent life.

Some people distance themselves from God: those who see children as a nuisance, pregnancy as a disaster, and who are actively involved in supporting or providing direct abortions, as well as people who enjoy pornographic images of abused, defenceless children, and those who maliciously corrupt or abuse children for sexual pleasure. Unless they repent before they die, they will find themselves completely separated from God, by their own fault, forever.

People who freely choose to request or assist with a direct abortion, are responsible for the death of an innocent human being who has received life from God. Such choices mean that those people, in disobeying God, separate themselves from Him. Unless they repent before they die, they will find themselves in danger of Hell, by their own fault, having ignored all requests to do good, and all warnings.

Jesus wants everyone to know that by killing innocent human beings, people are setting themselves, by their own fault, on the path towards Hell rather than Heaven. To assist at or request an abortion is to kill the innocent; and Christ warned us, long ago, that it would be better for a man to be thrown into the sea with a millstone round his neck than to injure or corrupt one of his 'little ones'.

There is a tremendous need for intercessary prayer. It is possible for the non-baptised to be saved, if they have never heard the Gospel but have persevered until death in doing good and avoiding evil; but many non-Christians have refused to believe in Christ. Others have committed grave sin and refused to repent. Others have mocked the Church or mocked her priests. Others have ignored the call of conscience, and followed selfish ways, knowing these were wrong. Thousands fall into Hell, everyday, alongside unrepentant Christians.

Many Catholics do not enjoy the lights and consolations that God delights in giving to His faithful children. People who refuse to repent of their grave sins - which they do not want to abandon - act like a man who puts a boulder in the path between himself and Christ. It blocks the flow of light and joy from Heaven. Of his own free will, such a man is refusing Christ's free gifts.

Wise people reflect, and actively prepare for Heaven. As we occupy ourselves with ordinary concerns, it's as if we are on a walkway which moves slowly towards the moment of our death. Then, the quality of our relationship with God will be revealed - or even the lack of one. Some people will see God and leap into His embrace. Others gladly surrender to purification, ashamed at not being ready for Heaven. Others continue to do what they did on earth, ignoring or despising God, and freely walking away on the steep road to Hell.

People who have really loved God have offered thanks and praise, even amidst difficulties. These, if they persevere, race towards Him when they die, impelled by love to enter His embrace. But those who have kept His laws, but have grumbled a lot, because of their worldly desires or preoccupations, must, after death, do penance for their luke-warmness before they can enter Heaven.

The soul of a person who freely chooses to sin can be pictured as a beautiful chamber, with a pair of inward-opening doors; but this place is filled by filthy water, which leaks into that room whenever that person sins. If he does not repent, he is in danger of drowning. Even worse, if he dies, unrepentant, the doors will be unable to open, inwards, because of the weight of the filthy water. He will be sealed with his sins forever, unable to enter Heaven.

Everyone has a desire to pray, unless it is stifled by false teaching. Almighty God sees and hears everything that is said or done by people on earth. He loves everyone; yet those who have freely chosen to repent and to believe in His Son and to share His life through Baptism can be confident that God hears them because they already live 'in Christ', as if enclosed in a great flame of Divine charity which has reached out across the Abyss which separates earth from Heaven. Children of God should be confident in prayer.

For every little or large suffering we willingly bear in patience - even an experience of pain at the dental surgery - we can help to save souls, by that offering of penance in union with Christ. We can help someone in mortal sin who suddenly realises what a dangerous state he is in, or perhaps a dying person, who suddenly receives the grace to turn to God, in trust and hope.

A person who deliberately sets out to harm another, in a spirit of malice, even if he knows this is foolish, is like a man on a motorboat who, full of bravado, aims his craft towards the rapids on a dangerous river. He is doomed, but does not care. People full of such malice are sure to be damned, unless they repent before they die.

We must pray with fervour, that everyone will see the truth: that from Christ, (and from His chosen Apostles) has come a river of redeemed humanity: each person forgiven and transformed by grace - except for those who now resemble dead fish floating in that river because they deserted Christ, whether through deliberate mortal sin or ceasing to believe in Him.

God pours down His gifts from Heaven so that we can use them in the service of the Church and the world, just as Pope John Paul II did. If we use the gifts for personal fulfilment rather than to fulfil God's plans, it's as if we are building a roof over our lives, to avoid seeing God's wishes. We make a notice that says to Him: "Keep Out".

God is all holiness, purity, goodness and radiance. When we die, shall we be sufficiently like Him to be able to reach out to Him with joy, or to do so after some preparation? If our immediate reaction will be complete rejection of God there will be no place to go except down, away from Him into the Abyss.

By deliberate misdeeds, whether acts of malice or immorality, it's as if a man places himself at a distance from Christ. He cannot hear Christ's good advice about repentance and salvation; indeed, he does not want to listen - yet there is no way into Heaven except through Christ. We must pray for all sinners.