Monsignor Pope Ping!
I always kind of thought that the fear of pain fuels the fear of death. At least for most people.
When I listen to something like this on Youtube I never understand how anyone could give it a thumbs down.
I’m old enough to have witnessed a few of the older generation passing. They are all gone now. My mother had what we call a good death. She was placed in hospice and told she had at most three months, she lasted just over a year. During that year she suffered from what was basically the failure of the largest organ in our body, the skin. She suffered a great deal of pain. She said that she wasn’t going to have to go to Purgatory because she had suffered on earth (she converted at the age of 76) and I believe that she was right. Her last words were, “Open up this door, I’m coming in.”
Maybe this could be why there is so much interest in “near death experiences.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, after spending many years in a Soviet prison, wrote of the inherent weakness of man. He observed that those who become accustomed to living in comfort shy away from the troubles of others, and will compromise in all areas to preserve their pleasures. He also observed that those who had been stripped of all comforts and essentials, would lose their lives rather than compromise their morals and ideals.
Because Jesus did.
The world hated Him and yet He gave His life for it. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son....
God did not call us out of this world. On the contrary, Jesus sent us INTO the world to preach the gospel. The only way the world is going to hear is if we go out into it.
We were never commanded to build edifices called churches and expect people to come into it to get saved.
God made this world for us to live upon. I fear Him more so that I should fear all else less. Though I hope to live with my wife and live long enough to watch our granddaughter grow to her estate. I have contributed to and desire a world of Freedom and Liberty in order for her to do so.
God willing I may achieve more of these things, and less the trappings of the world.