Posted on 08/08/2014 6:30:46 AM PDT by NKP_Vet
Shortly before taking leave of this world, Sir Winston Churchill, who had lived a very long and illustrious life, was reportedly asked about the state of his soul:
“I am perfectly ready,” he said, “to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”
Only someone of the stature of Sir Winston could pull off a piece of effrontery that egregious. And, thank God, there’s probably not much of him in most mortal men. I doubt that there was any at all in my brother Michael. He was far too humble to trade witticisms with the Deity.
And certainly there wasn’t anything the least bit long or illustrious about his life. Which is what accounts for the fact that, following an unexpected heart attack ending it late last month, the world scarcely took any notice.
The news was not carried on network television.
The President did not schedule a special news conference to announce the passing of a Great American.
There were no flags flying at half-mast.
(Excerpt) Read more at crisismagazine.com ...
Thus we all owe God a death, following which there is the inevitable reckoning. “In death,” Joseph Ratzinger reminds us, “a human being emerges into the light of full reality and truth.” The many masks behind which we have so often sought to hide can no longer be worn. “Man is what he is in truth. Judgment consists in this removal of the mask in death. The judgment is simply the manifestation of the truth.” (emphasis mine)
My understanding is, no one will cease to be. You will either be living in life, or living in death, and the choice will be ours.
His Holiness was once described by his peers as having "a towering intellect and a backbone of tempered steel."
He WOULD know what to say about life AND death.
“to philosophize is to learn how to die” montaigne
I once read a "pondering thought" by a Jesuit. If God judges one to hell, he (the Jesuit) thought that God, in His infinite mercy, might not condemn that soul for ETERNAL suffering but might end that soul's existence, for to be without God was hell. It was just a musing.
death, of course, is the final scene we are all destined to play
Wrong, death isn’t the final scene. The purpose of life isn’t mortality, but eternity.
Although Montaigne was an influential writer in the 16th century, I don't go with his idea on learning how to die. NO ONE "learns how to die." We CAN learn how to live WELL, that is close to God.
Philosophizing is speculating, theorizing, explaining, arguing. I don't really believe that those things prepare one for death.
Having one's SOUL prepared by staying close to God is the way to go since we have NOT A CLUE as to how, where and where we will finally end life.
Just as opinion.
“death, of course, is the final scene we are all destined to play”
It is the final scene in this earthly life.
That reminds me of Ayn Rand and the illusion of the independent individual.
Death is Nature’s way of telling us to slow down - or - I’m going to take it real easy until the day I die, then I’ll taper off ....
Beginning Experience, a peer facilitated weekend for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one
There is also a link on my FR homepage.
I don't mean to turn into Aquinas here, but if you say thy will be done to God, they that at least to me says that you have a sliver of faith. Then of course there are the overly scrupulous who will be still arguing with the risen Christ that they are not worthy of being there.
Me, if he lets me in i;ll be like sweet and join the choir of the Triumphant.
A. Our death does not pay the debt of our sins. Rather, it puts an end to our sinning and is our entrance into eternal life.
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