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Many people have received images to share about the love of God for His creatures. But the one true image is that given through the person of Jesus Christ: God-made-man, who came to our world and revealed what the Father is really like: Someone who loves us all.
Just as a person in Heaven helps us by his love and his intercession, so must we help others. It is as if we can breathe out a bright cloud of Divine Love over each person whom we greet and help out of love for Christ, Who first loved us.
No-one can enter Heaven by beating on the great doors, and demanding to be let in. Those who love God are willing to trust, to adore, and to wait in humility and repentance; then He lifts the patient soul over the gates, in prayer, to see the beauty of God's glory, and to prepare him for permanent union.
There are many people in religious life who nowadays despise the virtue of obedience; and there are many Parish Priests who think it infantile to obey rules and regulations, and who disregard even the instructions of the Pope. They displease Christ our Lord Who saved us by His love and by His obedience to the Will of His Father.
If a man knows that God came to Earth to conquer sin and death, by dying on the Cross to save sinners, and remains unmoved by that knowledge, he needs a very special grace, to be able to open his heart to God, and to see clearly what lengths God has gone to, to rescue him from his sins.
A person with a tender heart must weep, when considering the sufferings of Jesus; yet a true follower knows that the Cross is the centre-piece of His message. He showed us that even in the extremes of suffering He still trusted in the Father's love and goodness, and believed that good can come out of evil. The same can be true for us, if we believe in Jesus, and do as He asks, by repenting and being Baptised. Through Him, we can overcome sin, and even have Eternal Life.
Lapsed Catholics do not grow in the knowledge and love of God; and when they die, those who see God and are ashamed of their earlier indifference go to Purgatory, whilst those who hate God and are resolute in their rejection of Him hurl themselves away from Him and therefore into Hell, which is life without His light and peace.
The Father looks down from Heaven with a compassionate gaze, seeing all the elderly parents who are regarded as a nuisance by their healthy adult children. He sees how few are invited to share their children's lives and homes when they are becoming lonely, and deserve love and attention.
The Catholic Faith is something simple enough for a child to understand, even though it also fascinates and satisfies the most profound souls and the greatest intellects. A child can grasp the truth about a loving, Divine Saviour, Whose family, the Church, hands on the truth about how to do good and prepare for Heaven.
When Christ was on earth as the God-man, suffering amongst sinners, and praying for us to be forgiven, it was as though His love for God the Father and for human beings was so great that His prayers could not fail to reach Heaven - thus ending the alienation of mankind. His prayers were heard and granted; and so it's as though He threw out a landline, so that not just He but all who trust in Him can follow His Way into glory.
The Father is like a great king, in Heaven; and whenever we pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ at our side, delivering our requests, it is as though the Father is so full of love for His Son that - as He declares to the Saints, Who surround the Father in Heaven - I can refuse nothing to my Son Jesus, nor can I refuse anything He asks for His friends.
Some Catholics ignore Christ; others look bored in His Presence; many take no notice of the teachings He gives through His Church. They scarcely believe that He is a real person - a Divine Person - Who is pleased to be shown love as well as to give it.
Priestly celibacy enables a man to move towards Heaven on an uncluttered highway, without distractions. He can be single-minded in Christ's service until his old age, when he can enter Heaven, and be rewarded for all Eternity for his self-giving, and enjoy the bliss of God's love, with all the Saints.
It is important to treat the dead with respect. Yet, no matter what type of death people die, no matter in what way they will be mourned, what counts, when they die, is whether they did so in friendship with God - which means they are on their way to God - or alienated from Him, forever to be without His love and beauty and peace. We all ought to prepare to leave this life.
Some people do not believe that God is interested in their many little projects, or little troubles. But just as an insignificant crack in the ground, near the Cathedral, can be seen by an interested person to be teeming with fascinating life, so the human soul with it's apparently hum-drum preoccupations is fascinating to God, Who is interested in everything we think and do and say.
Just as an astronaut who deliberately cuts himself free from his spacecraft risks floating away alone into space, to die, so a person in mortal sin risks finding himself eternally 'lost' without any of the joy and peace and love of God, his Eternal 'Home'
A person who perseveres throughout each day in simple acts, out of love for God, gives Him glory, by fulfilling duties, being kind to neighbours, forgiving wrongs, explaining the faith, and trusting in Christ, in difficulties, for example. That person's course to Heaven is as straight and well founded as a row of plants in a straight row in a cottage garden.
God wants us to be at peace in our souls and minds. When our lists of things to do become so large that we seem to have a dark cloud over us, crushing our joy, it is time to shorten the list: to work out what is essential, and to do some of the rest when it is possible later on.
It is a shock to some kind souls, to realise, after death, that, for Heaven, it is not enough to have been kind to one's neighbour. Love of neighbour is essential for Heaven, but cannot make unnecessary the need of love for God, too, in people who are also chaste, humble and obedient.
God wants to save us. People who accept Christ's invitation to follow His Way to peace, forgiveness and joy can reach the bliss of Heaven, if they persevere until death, to enjoy the company of the saints at the heart of the Blessed Trinity; however, the caverns of Hell are full of terrified people who have refused the graces of Christ, refused to follow His Way, and instead have found themselves, after death, at the mercy of the demons who have long ago chosen to disobey God. These sinners freely chose to ignore Christ's love, and Christ's warnings.
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