As we write and act our part on the stage, we all know: The trapdoor will open. We will leave the stage!
Our exit may be sudden or slow, but it will be final. Here today, gone tomorrow. The trapdoor will open. We will leave the stage! We will go to Judgment! We will meet The Critic!
We think about our exit before the trapdoor opens.
1. “When I die, I die. That’s all there is to it.”
2. “When I die, I am going to Heaven because I am a good person!”
3. “When I die, I am going to Heaven because I believed in Jesus!”
4. “When I die, I am going to be punished. My soul is stained, shrunken, and shriveled by every sin I have committed. God sees the ravages of sin on my soul. If He gives me what I deserve, I will suffer in hell forever.”
Catholics take a broader view:
A. “Against all odds, Jesus fulfilled the prophecies. The odds are trillions to one that He is the promised Son of God. He said to one man, one time, about One Church: ‘Verily, verily I say unto you thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven. Those whose sins you forgive on earth are forgiven in Heaven.’“
B. “Since Jesus promised that priests in The Church He Founded could forgive sins, I will do whatever I need to do to obtain that forgiveness.
C. “Jesus said, fourteen times, “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.” What that means is: “If I have ‘life’ in me, my mind will work well enough to obey He Who brought me into being as an actor on the stage. I will get to Heaven. Now, what must I do to avoid spending any more time in Purgatory than necessary?”
