Everlasting is the Kingdom of God; Without eternal death we too shall become Everlasting!

Into the realm of Eternal life with God we shall enter into a mystery that only the angels knew first. No matter what quality of an unknown existence that awaits us the vision of his essence will become a reality and what the man whom St. Paul spoke about going to the third heaven will open our minds to see God as he is. “I know someone in Christ, who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up to the third heaven. And I know that this person (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up into Paradise and heard ineffable things, which no one may utter. (2 Cor 12: 2 - 4).

What Paul could not describe is the very element of what awaits all of us. It is not something we cannot envision but awaits each of us when we too shall see, comprehend, and share in what God is in his eternal happiness and a righteousness that will finally come to fruition. The righteousness and deep spiritual entity that is prepared for those who hear the words of Christ and seek with baited breath to become a glorified soul because of the faith given us through the Cross that Jesus welcomed.

For too many people who are living in a showered community that keeps within its walls of doubt and false gods the promise of pleasures untold that will take them to hell with many friends and maybe relatives as well. With all the evangelizing we may give to those we love there might be a shock when we see our students of wisdom never heard our words or saw our example of holiness that overcomes the shadow of evil.

Will we have an opportunity to convince them to ask God for forgiveness even as they slip on the wide road that leads to perdition; in a last-minute call for them to believe in the God they ignored all along?

Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately, - or immediate and everlasting damnation. (CCC 1022).

God predestines no one to go to hell; for this is a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in 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.” (CCC 1037).

How easy and simple is the premise of finding eternal life; God created the path to that third heaven Paul spoke of, Christ died and rose from the dead to present the path to enter that heaven and the Holy Spirit constantly prods our desires to live for God and all he has promised. Why, then, do so many ignore the very Wisdom, who is God Eternal, to call them into the one attribute that will ensure their final welcome into the third heaven which is a free choice?

Ralph B. Hathaway