Sts. Cletus and Marcellinus, Popes and Martyrs

In the face of death, Christians who unite their death to Jesus can view it as a step toward him and an entrance into everlasting life. Death brings earthly life, the time for accepting or rejecting God’s grace in Christ, to an end. At the moment of death, each person receives eternal retribution in a particular judgment that refers his or her life to Christ, according to faith and works. Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live forever with Christ in heaven. Heaven is perfect communion of life and love with the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, the angels, and all the blessed: the ultimate fulfillment of our deepest longings. There the blessed see God face to face in the beatific vision, rejoice in doing his will, and reign with Christ forever.

In Catholic teaching, those who die in God’s grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified undergo a final purification called Purgatory, so that they may attain the holiness needed to enter the joy of heaven (CCC 1030-1031). The Church’s teaching is joined to her longstanding practice of honoring the dead and praying for them, especially through the Eucharistic sacrifice; she also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance offered on their behalf (CCC 1032). Conversely, to die in mortal sin without repentance and acceptance of God’s merciful love is to remain separated from God forever by one’s own free choice; this definitive self-exclusion is called hell (CCC 1033, 1035). Jesus’ warnings about hell call us to use our freedom responsibly and to turn again to God in conversion (CCC 1034-1036). God predestines no one to hell, and the Church continually implores God’s mercy, praying that all may come to repentance (CCC 1037). As we reflect together, we can remember the dead in prayer and ask for the grace to choose love, repentance, and friendship with God.