Wheat and Tares
The children of Fatima rushed to the Cova to meet our Lady and to hear another secret that would change their lives forever. Our Lady appeared and revealed the secret: Souls like snowflakes were falling into hell. In the black sulfuric mists the children saw frightful demons consuming these souls. The picture was so terrifying that the children were glad that it was over. In an age like ours this reality of punishment for sins was greatly needed. For this reason we must ask what is hell? Where does it come from and why is a soul plunged into its darkness? Finally, how can we avoid this eternal and terrifying reality?
First, Hell is the result of my personal decisions to choose my will over the will of God. Personalities develop through the choices we make within our daily lives.If a soul seeks to do the will of God then the presence of grace strengthens that soul. In other words that soul is growing in the life of Christ. This soul if it chooses its own pleasure; seeks to dominate others; falls in with secular friends then it creates a physical person who is a monster. My sins create my own monster, my own personal demon. Hell is being formed through the sins which created my opposition to God’s desire to save me. Now because the soul has sought to deny God’s will in thislife God honors that freedom with His Love. As you sowed thus you shall reap and hell is the natural fruit of one who sows separation from God.
Now we discover that hell comes from my decisions in my daily life and is the fruit of my self love. Where does it come from? It comes from my heart. If the heart is determined to “grasp at equality with God”, then the formation of one’s own hell is the result. Consider the soul’s punishment is nothing more than its desire to satisfy its senses and to reject the love which is poured out upon a Cross. Hence the senseof touch burns to be satisfied by lust and so in hell the entire body experiences the sensation of a fire that burns but does not consume. In hell the soul which was created for God is like a starving dog with a steak just inches from its reach. The pain of losing God’s presence burns in the heart as a “pain of loss”.
Other senses according to the sins committed experience a hell of their own. In hell there is a darkness to the extent that all the eyes can see is the tormentors of Satan.The eye becomes the sense which creates a terror eternal for the soul. This sense ignites a response in the tongue which was used to curse. Now it curses and screams. The ear upon hearing the cacophony of cursing longs for silence but it will not have any relief. It must listen to this horrible noise forever. The tongue longs for a drop of cool water because the burning cannot be satisfied in the drought of hell. All the senses are condemned to endure forever that which they hate. In hell there is no possibility of friendship, no pleasure,no music, no water, no food, nothing of goodness. All is torture, regret, and hatred even of self.
Can this hell be avoided? Certainly, choose to be the wheat of the earth. Listen to the word or God and imitate the works of God. Confess your sinfulness and repent. Attach yourself to the will of God and daily seek to expiate for the sins you have fallen into and the sins others have committed. Pray the daily rosary; visit the Blessed Sacrament; meditate upon the passion of our Lord; performs the acts of charity (Seven corporal and seven spiritual); receive the holy Eucharist devoutly and fervently; study the word of God by reading daily the Gospels.God has sown His Word in our hearts which is the wheat of eternal life. The devil is the evil one who sows a false doctrine of pride in order to destroy the wheat of salvation.
In life the wheat must grow with the tares until both mature then the wheat with its goodness will be taken up and place in the barns of heaven while the tares which did not change and did not repent will be taken up only to be cast into the red hot furnace of hell which is prepared for the devil and his cohorts. How true it is that we should fear “hell” and desire the “heaven” prepared for those who love God and want with all their hearts to be with Him forever. In this futile earth we are being prepared by many daily tests to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Let us choose to be with the Holy Trinity, our blessed Mother, the angels, the saints and with all those who pass the test of love. Let the tares be consumed and the wheat be gathered into the joy of heaven.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt, S.D.B.
P.S. Our political situation is presenting us with a physical picture of the wheat (pro life and love)and the tares (infanticide, abortion, racism, homosexual unions, corruption in high places). Reject the women who would choose to abort and support this ungodly act.
Comments are closed.