Wednesday April 24, 2024

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“When we die, Jesus comes for us and clears our minds of all misconceptions about how we’ve lived our lives and about who he really is.”

Good News Reflection for:

Wednesday of the 4th Week of Easter
Memorial of Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest and martyr
April 24, 2024

Today’s Prayer:

I thank You, Holy Father, for enlightening our lives in Jesus! May Your word take root in my heart to announce it to those who haven’t heard about it yet. Amen.

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Today’s Readings:

Acts 12:24 — 13:5a
Ps 67:2-6, 8
John 12:44-50
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042424.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-april-24-2024

Receive what you choose for eternity

In the Gospel reading today, Jesus explains how people end up in hell.

Many are confused about this. As Catholic Christians, we’ve been taught that immediately upon our death we “receive” our Particular (i.e., personal) Judgment and that our soul immediately goes to its reward or punishment. But if we misunderstand the divine meaning of “receive,” we assume that our fate is entirely up to the Judge and how he chooses to sentence us.

We presume that God either gives us heaven (with purgatory first if we need to be purged of some unholiness when we die) or he gives us hell (if we’ve committed a mortal sin without repenting and going to Confession and/or if we reject belief in Jesus).

From this, we get the impression that God is a harsh father who is eager to punish bad children, and then we assume that anything bad that happens to us is because we are bad and God is punishing us. In this mindset, we fear that because we are not perfect we might lose our salvation. And (I hate to admit this) we hope that the unrepentant sinners who greatly irritate us will finally get their just rewards of God’s hellish condemnation.

Right? Are you hoping that this world, because of its worsening and widespread immorality, will soon be chastised and severely punished by divine intervention? To some extent we all would like to see evil-doers get punished. But Jesus did not come to condemn the world. He doesn’t have to. We condemn ourselves. Hell is not what God wants for evil-doers; it’s what they want for themselves.

When we die, Jesus comes for us and clears our minds of all misconceptions about how we’ve lived our lives and about who he really is. Then, fully understanding, we receive what we want. If we want to be like him, we’re purged of everything that’s not like him. If we prefer to be unChrist-like, we don’t want to spend eternity with him. God gives us what we want.

(You can research this by looking up the word “salvation” in the Catechism; see https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM.)

God does not sentence anyone to hell, because Jesus took the punishment for us and for the whole world. God won’t reject anyone who wants accept the salvation that Jesus provides, even if it happens at the moment of death. God won’t turn away anyone who wants to live with the Savior forever, but neither will he reject our free-will decisions to disregard the truth.

This is why he added: “Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words is judged — not by me — but by the word I spoke.”

What is the word that condemns people? “I love you. I really, really love you. I love you so much that I died for you.” To reject that is to prefer hell.

To help you reflect further on this, go to our Faith Booster: “The only guarantee of heaven” @ https://wordbytes.org/faith-booster-minis/the-only-guarantee-of-heaven/.

Discover more of the Father’s love for you. Read Terry Modica’s book “30 Days to the Father’s Heart“; for more information, go to https://30daystothefathersheart.com/.

© 2024 by Terry A. Modica

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