The moment after death occurs-the moment, that is, at which the human soul departs from the human body-judgment is pronounced by God. "It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). That sentence is irrevocable; the soul is, now in a state of eternal salvation or everlasting damnation. There is no such thing as a reprieve after death-another chance in the next life. We are granted abundant opportunities in the present life, during which God is ever calling us to Himself and showing the greatest sinners unbounded patience and, if they repent, unbounded mercy. But, as soon as death occurs, the irreversible sentence is pronounced by the just judge of mankind.

 THE MEANING OF HELL

Until comparatively recent times practically all Protestants believed that hell, as well -as heaven, exists in the future life. But nowadays many non-Catholics have ceased to accept the doctrine of eternal punishment. However, whether or not we choose to believe it will not alter the reality. One may refuse to believe that a terrific war is being waged in Europe at the present time, but such complacent mentality will not change the awful reality. I admit that the doctrine of everlasting punishment is a fearful truth, but, since God has clearly revealed it, we must assent to it, however unpalatable it may be. God is infinite, and so He does things on a scale which bewilders our poor finite minds. The reward He confers on those who serve Him is eternal and indescribable; the punishment He metes out in eternity to those who have deliberately rejected Him in this life is everlasting and unspeakable.

Hell consists essentially in the eternal loss of God. The sinner refused to have God in this life-God refuses to have that soul in eternity. In this life a sinner may distract himself with many occupations and recreations; he may indulge in various pleasures, enjoy earthly honors, acquire riches, busy himself with varied pursuits. But in eternity there will be none of these earthly distractions or diversions, and, if the soul misses God, it will experience an eternal void such as we cannot imagine. Black, hopeless, unceasing despair will engulf it, and everlasting remorse will consume it without destroying it, for the human soul is immortal.

The Catholic Church teaches as an article of faith that the pain of loss, which I have just explained, is essential to hell. The lost soul will never see or enjoy God, for whom it was created, and in whom alone it could have found perfect happiness, everlasting beatitude. In place of that everlasting happiness, to which it was destined, it will experience eternal misery and endless suffering.

The Sacred Scriptures speak of hell not only as the eternal loss of God, but also as an unending abode of fire which tortures the soul. Though the Church has not defined that this fire is real, still constant tradition thus interprets it, and it is the common teaching of theologians. But the thought alone of the everlasting loss of the vision or possession of God, the one Object that could possibly make us happy, is something truly appalling, and should constantly deter us from committing sin, at least mortal or grave sin, which severs our friendship with God. Hell may, in fact, be described as the state of mortal sin rendered eternal.

You may read the Gospels for yourself, my dear convert, and see how often Christ clearly spoke of the eternity of hell.

 WHAT IS HEAVEN?

Heaven is the state or abode of eternal blessedness. It consists essentially in the everlasting face to face vision of God, the eternal rapturous or ecstatic love of God, and the endless enjoyment of God. In a word, it consists in the beatific vision-the clear, immediate, face to face vision of God as God sees Himself. As a result of that vision the soul is borne to God by the irresistible impulse of ecstatic love (known as beatific love), and in that vision and love it eternally enjoys God as He enjoys Himself.

Heaven means the absence of all pain and sorrow and the presence of all good. The soul is literally deluged with delight. It is free from all care and anxiety, all suffering and sorrow; it enjoys perennial peace, "the peace which surpasseth all understanding"; it is no longer subject to labor or toil, but enjoys sweet, "eternal rest"; it is united inseparably with the glorified souls of loved ones who have gone before it into the vision of the Godhead; on the redeemed soul is shed the inexpressible ardor of myriads of saints and angels; it basks beneath the everlasting smile of Mary, the Mother of God ' and our Mother; it is unceasingly thrilled beyond expression by the loving presence and companionship of our glorified Divine Redeemer; it sees God as God sees Himself, loves God as God loves Himself, enjoys God as God enjoys Himself, and in that vision and love and enjoyment perennially experiences a happiness, an ecstasy, a beatific union with God, of which we can, in this life, where we see through a glass dimly," form but a very feeble conception. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive what things God hath prepared for those who love Him."

PURGATORY

Although each soul is irrevocably judged the moment it leaves the body and is thus put at once and for ever in a state of damnation or salvation, it does not follow that a soul that is saved must be admitted at once into the beatific vision. When we consider the dazzling holiness of God, before whom the choirs of Angels ever sing, "Holy, Holy, Holy," and into whose unveiled presence "there shall not enter anything defiled," and when we remember that even a just man may be stained with blemishes, we are not surprised that God requires of many a soul in the state of grace that it should be purified, -or should expiate fully its every fault, before being admitted into His beatific presence.

TEMPORAL PUNISHMENT DUE TO VENIAL SIN

St. John writes: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John I:8). And St. James writes: "In many things we all offend" (James 3:2). It is evident that the sin spoken of by these two Apostles is not necessarily grave sin, for it is not true that all the faithful, even the Apostles, are guilty of mortal sin. There must, therefore, be lesser sins-those faults into which even a just man may fall. Yet such faults defile or stain the soul, which is accordingly not pure enough, while tarnished with such stains, to be admitted to the eternal embrace of God. Now, if such a soul has not fully expiated such sins (or even had them forgiven) before it passed out of the body, what will be its fate? God cannot in justice condemn it to hell, for the soul is in the state of grace-is in God's friendship. Yet such a soul is not pure or holy enough to be admitted at once to heaven to the face to f ace vision of God. Hence there must be a third state after death, where such souls are purified from these lesser sins.

Our Lord alluded to the remission of such sins "in the world to come" (Matt. XII., 32). The fact that He spoke of a certain sin not being forgiven "either in this world or in the world to come" implies, as St. Augustine and St. Gregory show, that there are some sins (venial sins) which may be remitted in the world to come, and that there must, therefore, be an intermediate state of purification or expiation, which we call purgatory.

TEMPORAL PUNISHMENT DUE TO FORGIVEN MORTAL SIN

When God forgives sin, He does not always acquit the sinner of all debt to His offended Majesty. In the case of mortal sin, He forgives the guilt of the sin and the eternal punishment due to it; but He often requires a temporal debt (a debt of temporal punishment-temporal expiation) to be paid. We see this in the case of David. Although God forgave David his heinous sin (his double mortal sin), yet He exacted of this king a severe temporal punishment-the death of his child.

Now, it may be that a sinner has not completely expiated his forgiven mortal (or even venial) sins in this life, and that his soul appears before the Eternal Judge, justified indeed, but laden with the full debt of temporal punishment which it had not paid in this life. Such a soul cannot be condemned to hell, for it is in God's friendship, nor can it be admitted at once to the everlasting vision of God; hence it must be detained for a time in a third or intermediate state where it may expiate its forgiven sins. Of this state or abode Christ spoke when He called it a prison in which the soul is detained until it pays the last farthing-until it completely satisfies God's justice. "Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing." The prison He here speaks of cannot be hell, for hell is eternal-there is no such thing as merely remaining there until the soul pays the last farthing.

St. Paul also alludes to Purgatory when he states that some "shall be saved, yet so as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:15). Eleven centuries before Protestantism arose to deny Purgatory, which had been taught as a Christian truth from apostolic times, St. Augustine, commenting on this text of St. Paul, explains this fire as distinct from that of hell and as purifying or cleansing those souls which are saved by fire.

PRAYER FOR THE DEAD IS BASED ON THE DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY

If there were no purgatory, prayers for the dead would be worse than useless. We cannot help the blessed, for they are already enjoying the vision of God. Nor can our prayers assist the reprobate or damned, for their lot is irremediable: "Too late, too late! Ye cannot enter now." For what souls, then, do we pray? For those who are undergoing their period of expiation prior to their admission into the vision of God-that is, for the souls in Purgatory.

The practice of praying for the dead is, in fact, older than Christianity. We find that God's chosen people in the Old Testament prayed for the dead. This is recorded clearly in the second Book of Machabees, whose genuine historical authority, even though they unreasonably reject its inspired character, non-Catholics cannot deny. I draw your attention, my dear friend, to the following striking passage:

"And making a gathering, he (Judas Machabeus) sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection.

(For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead.)

"And because he considered that they who had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid up for them.

"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from their sins" (2 Mach. 12: 43-46).

In the Christian Church prayer and sacrifice have been offered up for the dead from the earliest times. You will recall the beautiful passage I quoted for you from the writings of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who wrote as early as the middle half of the fourth century. The passage referred to the Sacrifice of the Mass, but I now draw your attention particularly to this sentence:

"For all amongst us who have already departed this life we pray, since we believe that it will be of the greatest benefit to them if, in the presence of this holy and tremendous sacrifice, we make our petitions for them."

I could give you, my dear convert, many quotations from the early Fathers and the ancient Liturgies to show that the Church has ever prayed for the dead. But I shall conclude with a striking passage from the great Doctor, St. Augustine of Hippo, who died in the year 430:

"Some (of the faithful) are relieved by the piety of their living friends, when the sacrifice of the Mediator is offered for them, or alms are distributed; but these suffrages benefit those who, while they were living, merited that these helps should later be of avail to them: for there is a certain way of living which is not so good as not to require these helps after death, nor so bad as not to be assisted by them after death." 

The following words of Augustine are equally clear and explicitly mention purgatory:

"The more or less they have been attached to earthly things, the more slowly or more speedily are they saved by a certain purgatorial fire."

In concluding this chat, my dear friend, I wish to stress the truth that the Catholic doctrine of purgatory shows that the Catholic Church has a more exalted conception of God's holiness and justice and the malice of sin than has any non-Catholic denomination which rejects this doctrine.