 | |
| Carry Our Hardened Shell and Transform It into Love |
.
TODAY WE CELEBRATE Christmas, the birthday of our Lord Jesus. We see the love of God in the image of baby Jesus lying down in a manger with his mother, our Mother Mary. Let me share with you an article I came across with, which is about purgatory and the love of God in this light. It says:A person dies with only the same amount of love for God which he possesses on earth. His eternal reward is based upon this amount of love. His eternal treasures are given according to this love and what this love prompted him to do for God, for others and for his own soul while on earth. Sometimes nothing, sometimes a great deal.
St. John of the Cross tells us, in the evening of your life, you will be examined as to your love. God looks for love and love alone. And more often than not this love becomes encased in a shell of selflove and selfishness. When the person takes this love to purgatory to have this shell removed, the way this is done is through fire of longing and enlightenment. This fire of longing and enlightenment must not be confused with a fire of flame and smoke. The fire of purgatory is a burning desire of longing to be with God, longing to offer Him pure love. Although this fire may not be flame and smoke, the sufferings caused by it are far greater than a fire in flame which burns our material body. Even on earth, the spiritual torments of a broken heart are far worse than the material pain of a broken leg. And so it is with the soul in purgatory. With no distractions whatsoever, the soul desires only one thing, to be eternally united with God, to love Him with a pure love for all eternity. Yet when the soul still sees that the hard shell surrounding its love is still there, the soul can only suffer and lament and feel a torture beyond describing. The worse part of this torture is the soul’s knowledge that such separation could have been avoided. If only the hard shell or selflove had been destroyed on earth to pure love for God, prayer, penance, suffering, the sacraments, charity and the practice of virtue. The fire that torments the souls in purgatory was created by himself. They alone formed the torture. They alone decided their own sufferings because they alone built the shell of selflove around their love for God. They alone provided their own purgatory and this is one of the greatest sufferings because it could have been avoided. They did not have to go to purgatory if they had lived holy and saintly lives themselves. Daily, even hourly, they fashioned their place in purgatory by refusing the graces of God which they could have used to live a holy and saintly life. Each time they said no to God’s graces, they built a little bit more of the place in purgatory where they would suffer to destroy the shell that surrounded their love for God when his grace was refused and sin took its place.
There’s a beautiful Christmas song that says: "Masdan ninyo ang kanyang mata, larawan ng pagibig, pang-akit siya ng puso at ng taong lumilihis." The song tells about the infant lying in a manger, the Son of God and of Mary who is inviting us to come to Him, to love Him with pure love. In this day and age, there are so many distractions all around us to the point that we are kept our attention in this season from focusing on the pure love of God manifested in the birth of Jesus. We are so distracted with the things around us that we fail to give the Lord our fullest attention during this season. But you see, in purgatory, there are no distractions. In purgatory, we shall one day long to be with Jesus, and long to love Him with our pure love. In purgatory we shall spend our time being cleansed of the self-love that distracted us, kept us, from loving Jesus with pure love.
I hope we always remember the article saying: "If only we use the grace of God to live a holy and saintly life then we would avoid purgatory. Every time we say no to God’s grace, every time we say no to God’s love, we build a little bit more of the place in purgatory where we would suffer, to destroy the shell that surrounded our love for God when His grace was refused and sin took its place."
Source:- http://www.pwhs-mfi.org/newsletter/news30/love_encased.htm
