The Rose

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully, and before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon blossom and also the horns. And he thought, “How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?” Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready to bloom, it died.
So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The Godlike qualities planted in us at birth growing amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.
Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and find the rose within others.
This is the characteristic of love, to look at a person, and knowing his faults, recognize the nobility in his soul, and help him realize that he can overcome his faults. If we show him the rose, he will conquer the thorns. Then will he blossom, blooming forth thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold as it is given to him.
Our duty in this world is to help others by showing them their roses and not their thorns. Only then, can we achieve the love we should feel for each other, only then can we bloom in our own garden.

Death

Death

Death is always painful when it comes because it means that a person is cut off from the world of the living. It means that between the dead and the living there comes a distance much farther than the farthest point on this earth. When a person lives, one can always hope he will come back home sooner or later; but when a person is dead, one can only hope to join him someday.
There is something final in death which no one ever likes. When death comes, it’s all over for the person this side of life. No matter how miserable one’s life may have been, death appears terrifying. Life is just too beautiful to end in death.
But our faith teaches us that death is the necessary passage to eternal life. Jesus himself said, “Unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Fear of death is inherent to man. Yet, such fear diminishes even as one’s hope for a much more beautiful life increases. And if such hope is founded on Christ’s Good News that by His own death He already has won for us eternal life, and that if we take our cross daily and follow Him we will have eternal life, then, death ceases to be terrifying. To some, it even becomes something to welcome for death would tear down the curtain that separates us from God, who is the source of all our happiness and of eternal life itself.
Indeed, it is only when we are aware that we have “debts” in this life to pay in the next that we should tremble at the thought of death. In this life, we are aware, justice is either imperfect or altogether absent. The evil man seems to thrive better than the good. This surely cannot last forever. Somewhere, true justice must be rendered.
Death is terrifying because it ushers us to that somewhere where full justice is rendered. The more “debts” I incur in this life, the greater is my fear for death will lead me to the halls of God’s justice where only the truth shall prevail. And I will be left alone to face God’s justice.

Purgatory

What is Purgatory?
It is a prison of fire in which nearly all souls are plunged after death and in which they suffer the most intense pain.
Here is what the great Doctors of the Church tell us of Purgatory:
So grievous is their suffering that one minute in this awful fire seems like a century.

St. Thomas of Aquinas, the Prince of Theologians, says that the fire of Purgatory is equal in intensity to the fire of Hell, and that the slightest contact with it is more dreadful than all the possible sufferings of this Earth!
St. Augustine, the greatest of the Holy Doctors, teaches that to be purified of their faults prior to being admitted to Heaven, souls after death are subjected to a fire more penetrating, more dreadful than anything we can see, or feel, or conceive in this life.
"Though this fire is destined to cleanse and purify the souls", adds the Holy Doctor, "still it is more acute than anything we can possibly endure on Earth."
St. Cyril of Alexandria does not hesitate to say:" that it would be preferable to suffer all the possible formats of Earth until Judgment Day, than pass one day in Purgatory."
Another great Saint says:
"Our fire, in comparison with the fire of Purgatory is a refreshing breeze."
The other Holy Writers speak in identical terms of this awful fire.

The existence of Purgatory is so certain that no Catholic has ever entertained a doubt of it. It was taught from the earliest days of the Church and was accepted with undoubting faith wherever the Gospel was preached.

The doctrine is revealed in Holy Scripture, and has been handed down by Tradition, taught by the infallible Church and believed by the millions and millions of faithful of all times.

Yet, the ideas of many are vague and superficial on this most important subject. They are like a person who closes his eyes and walks deliberately over the edge of a yawning precipice.

They would do well to remember that the best means of lessening our term in Purgatory, or of avoiding it altogether, is to have clear ideas of it, to think well on it and to adopt the means God offers for avoiding it.

Not to think of it is fatal. It is nothing else than preparing for themselves a fearfully long and rigorous Purgatory.

Heaven

If today there are Christians who do not take their faith seriously, one reason could be that not much thought is given to heaven. There is even a box office hit movie which is entitled, "Heaven Can Wait." Yes, for many, heaven is some distant reality worth thinking about only when one is neither old or sick, when death has become a matter to think about.

People wouldn't want to think of heaven while they are young and strong because they feel that there are more pressing and urgent things to think about on this earth. Already, life on earth has so much to offer, so why think of heaven? Yes to many, heaven may as well wait.

When we want to think of heaven, however, we should rather not think of it as something ever so distant; nor should we think of it as some faraway place where all kinds of activity cease, where all excitements are muted, where one has nothing to do any more but sit around and stare at angels and saints.

When we look into ourselves, we discover one thing in particular: our brokenness. Something in us tells us that we are not meant to live and die in that brokenness. Something tells us that somewhere in our growing up we would reach the experience of wholeness, of unity and, above all, of communion with life itself and with the rest of all living things. Something in us tells us that all our miseries are not meant to last forever; that all enmities will cease, and that peace will settle and become permanent.

It is strange that Jesus did not speak of heaven in terms of delights and pleasures. Instead, He spoke of heaven in terms of relationship and communion with the Father, whose love is forever and is all-merciful and forgiving. "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him may not die but may have eternal life." (John 3:16)

Heaven, then, is to live in loving relationship with the Father, something which has been made possible when God revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, His Son, and made us brothers to Him and sons to Himself. Heaven is living the life of God, which we experience vaguely now but which will be revealed in all its grandeur.

Very dimly, we do experience heaven now, especially during those moments when we are in communion and in peace not just with the persons loved, but also with ourselves and the rest of creation.

Heaven is something I can choose to live now, because now I have the power to accept the relationship God offers through Jesus, which is being preferred by the Spirit present in the goodness every person possesses in his heart.

"Anyone who loves Me will be true to My word, and My Father will love him; we will come to Him and make our dwelling place in Him." (John 14:23)