WHO NEEDS RELIGION?
WHO NEEDS RELIGION?
By Fr. Brendan Kealy
“to think we will control our own destiny beyond the grave is to fall to the sin of vanity.”
There is a growing amount of Catholic people who couldn’t care less about Jesus Christ. They lack a motivation to be religious, whether out of laziness or just an outright disbelief in anything other than themselves. They do not know the full meaning of life and are selling themselves short of the eternal and living Truth. They ignore the spiritual nature within them.
To not care about religion is to deny a fundamental part of our human nature. Life as we know it, not only includes our time here on earth, but also a time of another existence, set out for us by God, after we depart this world. To think we will control our own destiny beyond the grave is to fall to the sin of vanity. The word ‘religion’ comes from the Latin word ‘religare’ which means ‘to tie fast’ or ‘to bind’. This binding ourselves to God, through Jesus Christ is called faith. This binding or holy communion with our faith will raise us from the dead, leading to an eternal life in heaven someday. To untie or cut this bind now, separates us from God, and will lead to an eternal separation from Him beyond the grave. The reality is that God, who created us, is within every human creature. He wants to enlighten our minds to the existence of a counterfeit faith that the devil creates, that binds us to a darkness of lies. Satan is the destroyer of life and antireligion.
WE HAVE A DUTY TO PRAY FOR EACH OTHER
Those who reject God and the holy Spirit of religion have been captured by sin and self-vanity. They lack true wisdom. They should accept God’s message for what it really is and not some human thinking on the philosophy of life and death (1Thes 2:13).
Many of the unfaithful are brought to burial in the Church, where family and friends come to honour them for having been the people they were. But, more often than not, there is no mention of God in His Church, only praise and ‘worship’ for the dead, who are treated like a god. This too is vanity. The purpose of a funeral Mass is for the priest and the full congregation to intercede with God, to show divine mercy on the deceased soul, in all their sinfulness. Our intercession at this time is powerful before the presence of God, which can save the soul from going to hell. At the time of death, God knew everyone would be in the Church, some time later, so, He takes this into account when judging the soul, provided we are in the Church to pray and intercede to Him to show mercy.
As spiritual brothers and sisters, we have a duty to pray for each other whether alive or dead. Sadly, in most funeral Masses, nobody is praying for mercy, because they have foolishly convinced themselves that everything is good and that the deceased, who may never have shown any signs of faith while alive, is now a saint in heaven. Sometimes, even the Priest announces sainthood, by declaring that the deceased has definitely gone to their eternal reward. A funeral Mass is not a Canonisation Mass. It’s a time to implore divine mercy.
PURGATORY IS RARELY PREACHED AT MASS
Purgatory is a salvific option that helps the soul, who is still clinging to sin, to be purified for many years and even decades to come, in a spiri tual fire of purification. It is a prison where the soul enters into a redemp tive suffering to cleanse their soul. The souls in purgatory unite their sufferings now, to the sufferings of Christ, to bring salvation to themselves and the world. We can avoid purgatory by uniting our own sufferings now, as a sacrifice with those of Christ, without complaining. It is Jesus’ decision where we will end up.
A funeral Mass is not the place or time to celebrate the deceased life, but it is the place and time to celebrate the memorial of the life, death and resurrection of the Risen Jesus Christ. It is time to give Him thanksgiving and praise. He unlocked the gates of heaven for the faithful. He also unlocked the gates of hell for the unfaithful and disbelievers. Memory tables at funeral Masses should have items placed on it that are a testimony to the deceased faith and not their social lifestyle.
DIVINE WISDOM INFORMS US TO FEAR JUDGEMENT DAY
Divine wisdom is attained when we believe in the invisible without first demanding to understand it. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that we cannot live without religion, because it connects and relates us to God. He is the source of our existence and our true happiness. Getting to know God, through Jesus Christ, should be our life’s ultimate goal here on earth, especially if we intend to live with Him in heaven.
Religion is a specific form of moral excellence and teaches us how to live and be found worthy to enter heaven. Just because many religious of the Church did not live by this moral excellence and surrendered themselves to the influence of the devil’s filth and abusive behaviour, is not an excuse to abandon God and His Church. The abusers lived by the satanic will of the devil and not by the divine loving will of Jesus Christ. They will pay for their eternal sins in hell, if they did not genuinely atone for them and repent. They also have a duty to seek genuine forgiveness from those whose lives they sadly destroyed.
VENERATING THE DIVINE MERCY IMAGE
One of the conditions which Jesus asks us to do, is to venerate Divine Mercy Image, His image. When Jesus said, “Do not be afraid” (Mk 5:36), He summed up our Christian identity to rely on His providence, which is handing ourselves into His protective care. This is why He has the words ‘Jesus I Trust in You’, so prominently displayed beneath His feet in the portrait of Divine Mercy. These words should be our signature prayer in life. When we venerate this image, we have to be increasingly aware, that not only are we acknowledging the resurrection of the risen Christ, as He appears in the image, but also, acknowledging our total belief in all the seven sacraments of the Church, which flow from His Sacred Heart. All sacraments bring healing to the soul.
We must also look into His loving and compassionate eyes, promising to unite our hearts with His Sacred Heart, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary. She plays a very important part in our salvation journey. At this moment of veneration, we are to promise to sacrifice our freewill in place of His divine will. We must stop offering Him lip service, when sometimes we do not trust Him. Living our faith is to trust Him. It is not easy, and our trust will be tested in trials (James 1:2-4), but it is the ultimate sacrifice He thirsts for (Jn 19:28).
THE SLATE IS WIPED CLEAN TO START AGAIN
Listening and trusting Jesus is an essential element of true faith. This ‘binds’ us to the divine will. It is what distinguishes us from the devil’s disciples. Our human existence boils down to the giving of ourselves to Jesus with a pure heart full of faith, that He gave us in baptism. Divine Mercy Sunday is the perfect day to have our sins forgiven, but also, on this day, there is a special bonus, because Jesus promises that any outstanding debt, that we owe Him from a lifetime of sins forgotten or too ashamed to confess in the past, are totally wiped clean. This is why St. John Paul II said it is like receiving a second baptism.
This means that any outstanding punishment due to us, beyond the grave in Purgatory, is removed on this special day only. At the time of our death, He will only judge us from our last participation in a Divine Mercy Sunday. He will not go beyond that date. It is an extraordinary promise, so trust Him and rejoice. Sin is removed and forgiven in every confession, but an outstanding debt can exist for sins that we have not truly amended or atoned for properly. This is because we effortlessly fall for sins, every time they present themselves for the taking. Jesus expects us to make a serious effort to stop falling for the same sins over and over again.
Jesus promises us, through Saint Faustina of Divine Mercy, that His mercy and generosity will be unfathomable and limitless to any sinner on this perfect day of repentance. It does not matter if the sin is darker than night, as long as we come to Him in confession with a humble, sorrowful and contrite heart.
Our reward will be eternal life and that is what religion is all about. Easter blessings.
Fr. Brendan Kealy
