Heaven
Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly
purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they see him as he is, face to face.
By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According
to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and
other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided
they were not in need of purification when they died, . . . or, if they
then did need or will need some purification, when they have been purified after death, . . .) already before they take up their bodies again
and before the general judgment.
And this since the Ascension of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven - have been, are and will be
in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ,
joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the Passion and death
of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine
essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the
mediation of any creature.
This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - this communion of
life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all
the blessed - is called heaven. Heaven is the ultimate end and
fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme,
definitive happiness.
LISTEN BELOW!!
Artist: Kwaya ya Mt. Seilia Mafinga
Song: Aleluya Tushangilie
Song: Aleluya Tushangilie
To live in heaven is to be with Christ. The elect live in
Christ, but they retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own
name. For life is to be with Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the
kingdom.
By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has opened heaven
to us. The life of the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession
of the fruits of the redemption accomplished by Christ. He makes
partners in his heavenly glorification those who have believed in him
and remained faithful to his will. Heaven is the blessed community of
all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.
This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in
Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of
it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the
Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: no eye has seen, nor
ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for
those who love him.
Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is,
unless he himself opens up his mystery to man's immediate
contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. the Church calls this
contemplation of God in his heavenly glory the beatific vision.
| Download Utukuzwe Mungu Mp3 |
How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God,
to be honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with
Christ your Lord and God, . . . to delight in the joy of immortality in
the Kingdom of heaven with the righteous and God's friends.
In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill
God's will in relation to other men and to all creation. Already they
reign with Christ; with him "they shall reign for ever and ever.
The Final Purification
All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly
purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death
they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to
enter the joy of heaven.
The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of
the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the
damned. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on
Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. the
tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture,
speaks of a cleansing fire.
| Save Let My Life Be Worship Mp3 |
As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final
Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever
utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in
this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that
certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the
age to come.
This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead,
already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: Therefore Judas Maccabeus]
made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their
sin. From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of
the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the
Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific
vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving,
indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead.
| Save Babusisiwe Mp3 |
Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by
their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the
dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those
who have died and to offer our prayers for them.
We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love
him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our
neighbor or against ourselves: He who does not love remains in death.
Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no
murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Our Lord warns us that
we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of
the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means
remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. To die in mortal, this
state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the
blessed is called hell.
Jesus often speaks of Gehenna of the unquenchable fire reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be
converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus solemnly
proclaims that he will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil
doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire, and that he will
pronounce the condemnation: Depart from me, you cursed, into the
eternal fire!
The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its
eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state
of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of
hell, eternal fire. The chief punishment of hell is eternal
separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and
happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
| Save Aleluya Bwana Amefufuka Mp3 |
The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the
Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent
upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny.
They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: Enter by the
narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to
destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow
and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are
few.
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the
advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single
course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him
into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not,
like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the
eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash
their teeth.
God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful
turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in
it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not
want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance.
