Amazingly, we all know we’re going to die. Many make preparations. We write wills. We tell people what we want them to have “after we’re gone”.
We spend, collectively, billions on life insurance. Beneficiaries are selected. Properties are transferred. For the well-to-do, estates are set up. Trusts are brought into being.
And, we all try to delay the inevitable. “I want to go to Heaven, but not yet!”, we insist, as if we can add any time to that which has been appointed.
All those concerns relate to the effects of death on the living. What about the effects of death on us? “I’m going to Heaven! I’ve been saved! I believe in Jesus!” are frequently heard among the simpler souls.
Not heard are the unspoken fears: “My soul is going to Judgment. It will stand before Jesus. A jury of those affected by my thoughts, words, and deeds will be passing sentence on my soul. I am very, very afraid that all I have done wrong will descend upon me. A crushing weight will take me to eternal pain.”
This is where it pays to be Catholic! “Hey, they’re moving me into hospice.” (It’s always “hospice”, never “the hospice”. Never could figure that out, some appeal to importance at a time when it is least needed.) “I just have a few days left.”
The dying Catholic calls for a priest. He receives the Last Rites. He is forgiven. You should think about that. Here today? Get smart, fast!
Where does The Catholic Priest get that power to absolve sins? He gets it from Jesus, whose words on the subject are passed on in Mt. 16: 18-20
“And I tell you that you are Peter,and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[ will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Can’t get much clearer than that. The priest in The Only Church Jesus Founded has the “Keys to Heaven” and this incredible power along with them: “. . whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Probably the stupidest thing it is possible to do is be too stubborn to not live in such a way that you are not in a position to ask a Catholic priest to provide you with the Last Rites.
Even if you were that stupidly pig-headed, it’s worth a shot to ask. It is the only chance you have.
Most professional schismatics would rather see you suffer the eternal torments of the damned than admit that Jesus had the power to give The Only Church He Founded the authority to forgive so many, many sins as are erased in The Last Rites.
