We saw last week that we should imitate Christ in order to avoid punishment. This week we will see what reward we receive for loving Christ.
    Little Marie once took a walk with her father through the country. In the afternoon the sky was a deep blue, flecked with white clouds that glided gracefully across it like swans on a lake. Toward evening as the sun began to set the sky changed to  green, purple, yellow, and then red. After the sunset of the sky was filled with gleaming stars- millions of them shining and twinkling. Marie began to ask questions. "Is the sky the floor of heaven, Daddy?" "Yes," replied her father. "Why is it so beautiful to us who are underneath it?" "Because God mad it that way, child." "If the underside of heaven is so beautiful," said Marie "The other side of heaven must be very, very wonderful." Her father smiled proudly at her and answered, "Yes, Marie, that is right."
    Was Marie right? she was, if the underside of heaven is so beautiful what must the other side be like? Heaven is a place and a state of being, in which we are just as happy as can be. We are happy there without worrying about when things are going to end. We are happy in the movies, but we know that they will be over in an hour or so. We are happy at a birthday party but we know that we will soon go home. It is not this way in Heaven. Nothing ever ends there. We are always happy.
    Have you ever wished you could see our Lord? You will see Him in heaven. Or Mary, His Mother? She will be there. Your parents your friends will all be there just as happy as they can be. Most of all, we will see God face to face. That is something that we will never fully understand until it happens.
    There was a man once who used to say, "My wife says enough prayers for both of us." He died and asked admission to heaven. St. Peter told him, "Your wife went in for both of you." What a shame to miss the joys of heaven because we are too lazy to pray on earth.
    Marie was right when she said, "If the underside of heaven is so beautiful what must the other side be like." Isn't that just the same as the Scripture quotation, "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entered into the heart of man what things God hath prepared for those that love him.
                                          Source; Heaven Words~ Imprimatur 1941  

"Stand fast thus in the Lord."
    We are coming to the end of the Church's year. These words of St. Peter are chosen to remind us of a virtue the virtue of final perseverance. These are big words, but all they mean is that you must finish what you have begun.
    You may have heard in your history classes about the city of Pompeii. It stood at the foot of the volcano which is called Mount Vesuvius in the southern part of Italy. Suddenly without any warning the volcano erupted and buried the city in lava and ashes. In recent years scientists began to dig down into the ruins of Pompeii to find out how people lived int the days of the Roman empire. They found all sorts of curious things. They came to the gate of one building and saw a strange sight. They saw a skeleton, still dressed in the armor of a Roman soldier standing at attention. For two thousand years that soldier had been at his post. He was steadfast to the end. No wonder Rome could conquer the world with men like that.
    St. Paul would tell us, "Stand fast thus in the Lord." Many children have a fault which can be overcome by standing fast until the end. They begin a thing well, and go most of the way through it, and then toward the end they quit. It is the finish line that decides a race and the final whistle that decides a game. A baseball team can get all the runners it wants on third base, but it will not win a came unless they cross the home plate. Final perseverance simply means: do not quit on third. The "Swallow" was a steamer that sailed the Great Lakes. It caught fire once near Buffalo. Most people were saved through the bravery of the helmsman, John Maynard, who stayed at the helm and brought the ship to shore. He stayed to the end until the ship was safe even though his hands were burned and blistered by the flames and his lungs choked smoke. "Stand fast thus in the Lord."
    Stonewall Jackson goo his unusual nickname because he would never budge an inch in battle. He believed in fighting to the end. One o his soldiers during battle looked up at him and was inspired by his bravery to say, There stands Jackson like a stone wall." That is how he got his name.
    St. Peter would look at these examples of bravery and final perseverance and tell us not to quit, not to die on third base, to "stand fast thus in the Lord."
    Source: Heirs of The Kingdom- Imprimatur

     If it were not for hell, the two things about which we have been speaking, death and judgement, would not be important. Hell, as you know, is a state and a place in which we are punished forever. There are two kinds of pain in hell. Who can name them for me? The first is the pain of fire. The second is the pain of loss.
    Think for a moment what the pain of fire means. A missionary in New York once said in his sermon on hell, "I will give five dollars to anyone in the church who will hold his finger in the flame of this candle for five minutes." Suddenly a lad jumped out of his seat and came trotting down the isle. He wanted to try it. It was a children's mission and the others began to egg him on. They were interested too. The missionary was so very surprised that he stopped his sermon. He took the boy into the sacristy and lit a candle. "All right, let's go," he said. Then the youngster changed his mind. "Do you mean all the way in." "Sure," said the priest with mock severity. "I guess not," said the boy, and withdrew his finger. And that, remember, would have been for five minutes only.
    Now about the pain of loss. Perhaps this will give you and idea about it. A mother was once waiting in the anteroom of a hospital. Her child was inside on the operating table. The mother was waiting anxiously for the decision. The door opened and a doctor stepped out and beckoned her. Suppose now that the women, somehow or other, were held back, so that forever and ever she is forced to try to find out what happened to her child and cannot. That should give you and idea of the pain of a soul in hell trying to tell God that he is loved and being unable to do so.
    Here is another example about the pain of loss. One summer evening there was a bright light burning inside the room of a house. Because it was summer the windows all had screens on them to keep the insects out. A moth, drawn by the light, came flying toward it and went smack against the screen. He tried again and again, struggling to reach the light, but the screen kept him back. How like a soul in hell struggling to reach God but being held back for all eternity.
    These examples may explain the pains of hell. There is the pain of fire which torments the body and pain of loss which torments the soul. Only a foolish person would cast aside the love of God and the joys of heaven just for the sake of being punished. But but that is really what the sinner does. Nothing is worth the pains of hell.
    King Henry VIII of England once asked the saintly Cardinal Fisher to leave the Church of Christ and follow the King's own church. Cardinal Fisher said, "I will do so if your majesty will answer me one question. "What question is that?" said the King. The Cardinal replied, knowing that to say so meant his death, "What doth it prophet a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soul?"
                                             Source: "Heavenwords," Imprimatur 1941