The Ecstasy

The Ecstasy

Eileen Renders                             February 2024

   As Catholics, most of us have heard the word “Ecstasy” as it pertains to our faith at one time or another. Because of my unrelenting quest to understand and surrender to Jesus wholeheartedly at the time of death, I have very frequently asked Him for wisdom to understand the process after death.

   In my heart, and because God is relentless in pursuing each of us to surrender to Him without fear, and with trust, I felt I could not accomplish this in such a way as to be satisfying to God without knowing how to achieve a perfect surrender to Jesus, the Bridegroom. Therefore, many times I have asked for His help in the form of understanding what occurs after death, and why is it so important to perfectly surrender in trust without fear.

   Jesus provided the wisdom and need for understanding we must fully surrender to His will, including our time of death. Perhaps, even more so at the time of death. Jesus is the Bridegroom, and he desires our full surrender to him, and trust in Him. Without fully surrendering to Jesus, and trusting in Him, we cannot experience the Ecstasy of uniting with Jesus when we leave this world.

   When we are in the state of grace at the time of our death, and truly trusting in God’s will, we will experience the ecstasy. The ecstasy is when we pass from this life and are met by Jesus in the afterlife. He will gently take our souls and carry us off to heaven. The body will remain and decay. It is the body that has sinned many times over, and will one day be replaced in heaven with a new body, although it will look identical to the one our soul was housed in during our life on earth.  

   Therefore, if we live with the fear of death, we need to pray to God to help us build the trust in Him that He truly deserves, He is our creator. When our trust in Him is strengthened, our fear of the unknown will dissolve. It is the Evil One who works at instilling fear into our hearts so that we cannot fully surrender to God.

   God is our father, our creator, and as our father and creator, he wants only the best for his children. Praying for God to strengthen our trust, and remove our fears is a prayer that we would be wise to say frequently.