HEAVEN
122. Glory is to see God and to enjoy Him, without end, in eternal bliss.
He goes to heaven who dies in the grace of God and has no debt of sorrow.
He who has a debt of sorrow goes first to purgatory.
Heaven is a place of supreme and eternal happiness; one sees God clearly; one enjoys every good, without any evil.
The essential glory consists in seeing God clearly.
It is more blissful to see God for an instant than to enjoy eternally all the riches, pleasures and honors that can be imagined in this world; for the whole world, compared to God, is as nothing.
What a joy it will be, my God, to see You, not for an instant, but for all eternity!
The good will be eternally in heaven.
We have all been created for heaven.
Everyone goes to heaven who truly and resolutely wants to go to heaven; that is, whoever provides the necessary means to achieve it.
All men want to go to heaven; but some have only the will of the lazy; they want to go to heaven and do not want to put the necessary means to obtain the most precious of all goods.
Heaven is the reward of infinite value that God has reserved for those who serve Him faithfully in this life.
It is a prize so precious that, in order to obtain it for us, the Son of God Himself gave all His Blood, and even His life.
If, in order to give it to us, God were to require us to ask Him for it on our knees for two hours a day, or to do the most rigorous penance for a million years, heaven would still be a gift.
But God does not ask so much of us, but only that we observe His divine commandments: something very easy to do with divine grace, which never fails.
The only thing that can make us lose heaven is mortal sin.
If men, in order to obtain eternal goods, had, I do not say as much, but half the care that they have to obtain the goods of the earth, all would be saints, all would go to heaven.
But, alas, many men live on earth as if they had to remain there forever, without taking any care at all to merit eternal happiness.
In heaven, the rewards are in proportion to the quantity and quality of the good works done in the grace of God.
He who has eternal reward does not envy him who has more; as a child, content with his little dress, does not envy him who has a big one.
Every good deed that we do, being in the grace of God, has its merit and its reward in heaven.
The reward for every good deed, even the most insignificant, is greater than all the material goods on earth, and will last forever.
Let us try to make the most of every day, and even every moment of our life, doing all the good we can, so that our merits and rewards of glory may always increase.
If those in heaven could envy us for anything, they would, because we, while we live, can always increase the treasure of merits and prizes for heaven, and they cannot.
HELL
123. Hell is the deprivation of the sight of God, and the place where one suffers eternal fire and all evil, without any admixture of good.
He who dies with mortal sin goes to hell.
Hell is the place where one suffers many pains.
These punishments are of harm and of sense.
The penalty of harm is the deprivation of the sight of God, the Supreme Good.
It is the greatest penalty of the damned.
When the soul is separated from the body, it turns toward God with irresistible impetus, with much greater vehemence than a fish seeks the water, or one who is in the fire seeks to get out of it; but God eternally rejects the soul that is in mortal sin.
The penalty of sense is the torment of fire and all evil, without any good.
In hell, the demons are the executioners.
A single mortal sin is enough to merit hell.
In hell, the punishment is proportionate to the quantity and quality of the sins committed.
It is true that there is hell.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is infallible Truth, says so many times in the Holy Gospel.
God forbids moral evil and must punish him who commits it.
The law, in order that men may be compelled to obey it, must have a penalty appointed for transgressors.
The transgressors of human law are justly punished; with greater reason must the transgressors of divine law be punished. No one can break God's law with impunity.
God is infinitely just; just as He rewards the good with eternal happiness, so He punishes the wicked with eternal punishment.
Mortal sin is a grave offense against the infinite majesty of God; therefore, it deserves infinite punishment.
The sinner cannot suffer infinite punishment in intensity, but only in duration.
The punishments of purgatory are little feared, because they are temporary.
God, as a wise legislator, had to establish a punishment that would truly turn away from mortal sin; such is the eternal punishment of hell.
The fear of hell is one of the causes that the law of God is fulfilled, and souls are saved.
For a single sin committed in a single moment, does God punish with an eternity of punishment?
Punishment is measured by the gravity of the offense, not by the time spent in committing it.
Even human justice punishes with perpetual imprisonment, and even with death, the crime that is executed in a moment.
God is a Father of mercy for the good; but for those who die in mortal sin He is a most terrible judge.
Those who die in venial sin, because God is good and merciful, He does not condemn them to hell, for He is also infinitely just.
God was as good and merciful as He is now, when at one stroke He cast thousands of angels into hell.
Because God is infinitely good, He infinitely loves virtue and infinitely abhors sin; for this reason no one rewards or punishes as much as God.
If because God is good and merciful He should not punish with hell, for the same reason He should not permit the countless evils that exist on earth.
God, in the government of the universe, is not governed by the sentimentality of men.
In this world, a place of trial and not precisely of rewards and punishments, God, with infinite wisdom and justice, permits horrendous catastrophes, bitter pains, which reach both the good and the bad.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, the holy martyrs, beloved children of God, suffered such atrocious torments that it is horrifying to think of it.
What will not divine justice demand that the rebellious sinner, obstinate in evil, should suffer?
Those who die in mortal sin are reduced to the same condition as the devil, for whom we have no compassion.
Whoever wills to go to hell goes there, for God gives abundant grace to all, so that they may not fall into sin; and to sinners, while they live, He always offers generous pardon.
No one is condemned except by his own free will, committing grave guilt.
Even savages, who have never heard of the Christian religion, if they are condemned, it is their own fault; for where the voice of man does not reach, the voice of God reaches.
Do you want there to be no hell, but heaven for you? Live always in the grace of God, and if you have the immense misfortune of losing it, try to regain it as soon as possible.
THE PURGATORY
124. Purgatory is the place where the souls of those who die in the grace of God, without having entirely satisfy for their sins, go to be purified there with terrible torments.
The one who dies in the grace of God and has some debt of sorrow goes to purgatory.
This debt of sorrow can be:
1º For venial sins; and
2º For not having done due penance for mortal sins, forgiven as to guilt and eternal punishment.
With the confession well made [well made means: with sorrow for having made Jesus suffer, with purpose of amendment, that is, what measures to take in order not to fall again into the sins confessed and having confessed all mortal sins and their number], the grave faults and the eternal punishment are always forgiven; but not always all the temporal punishment is forgiven.
God, in forgiving mortal sin, ordinarily commutes the eternal punishment into a temporal punishment.
This temporal punishment must be paid in this life or in purgatory.
In this life it is paid by doing good works, especially by fulfilling the penance imposed by the confessor. [or by gaining indulgences].
Purgatory is a place of temporary expiation.
The souls in purgatory, when they have made full satisfaction for their sins, go to heaven.
God, infinitely just, leaves no good or bad deed without reward or punishment, even if it is a matter of small things.
Those who die with only venial sins do not deserve hell, nor can they go to heaven, because nothing stained can enter it.
There must therefore be a place for souls to purify themselves before entering heaven.
In purgatory one suffers the deprivation of the sight of God, the torment of fire and other pains.
The greatest pain of the blessed Souls is not to be able to see God and to think that, since He is infinitely good, they have offended Him.
The blessed souls, seeing themselves stained with sin, gladly immerse themselves in those flames, and even wish they were more ardent in order to purify themselves more quickly.
Let us learn from the blessed Souls to abhor sin, even slight sin, above all evil.