Hitler is on the History Channel nearly every day. Historians are trying to still figure him out. How could a loving little baby Adolf become an evil dictator who killed millions? After he died, did he go immediately to hell? It is a truth of the Catholic Church that many people are declared Saints by a process called canonization. But the Church in two thousand years has never declared any person to be in hell. Why is that. If we can make Saints, why can't we declare those who are in hell, too. Firstly, the Church needs to help people to get to heaven. So, by holding up Saints as models of living the Christian life in the time of their day, then we can be encouraged to become Saints, too. We are all called to be Saints. Scripture has it that "God wills that all men be saved and none be lost." If it is God's will that all be saved, then how can we encourage others by focusing on those who did not make. Not one person has ever been declared to be in hell. That does not mean that the Church believes that all people are saved. The Church believes Jesus who said that the wide road to destruction has many upon it. Jesus saw Lucifer fall from heaven like lightning. So, we know Lucifer is in hell. In a vision of Our Lady of Fatima, she showed to the three little children a vision of hell with all those human souls suffering there. Children were scared and asked Our Lady of Fatima; "Why don't they repent?" Mary said: "They do not wish to." Unrepentance is a sin against the Holy Spirit. It refuses the forgiveness of God. Those in hell do not wish to repent. I personally believe that God would forgive them even now. But they have a free will. God cannot force them to repent. He only invites lovingly as a Father would. The Prodigal Son story is the most loving image of God the Father's forgiveness of all of us, His prodigal sons and daughters. We can always go home to Our Father and ask for forgiveness. He will hug and kiss us...eternally!
St. Anthony of Padua came upon a wake of a very wealthy man. Coffers of gold and silver were all around his casket. Some people were praying for him. But St. Anthony told those people to stop. He said, "Where a man's treasure is, there is his heart also." He told the mourners to open one of the coffers of gold. They did and found the man's human heart in it. St. Anthony said to them: "He is lost." Now, that is the only account I heard of where a person was declared lost. St. Anthony knows that to pray for a person who is lost is to add to his sufferings. It is like throwing holy water on the devil. It hurts him. But the Catholic Church did not declare that person in hell. It is just that St. Anthony knew deep secrets of the heart. The fact that the man's heart was in the gold coffer seems alarming and proof of the man's love for money. I tell this story to show that hell is a place for those who do not wish to love God, for those who refuse God's forgiveness.
But the theologians of today say it is good to pray for Saddam and Bin Laden because these prayers may help those men at the moment of their death. They could accept God at the last moment.
Maybe "out of the body and present to the Lord" means that a person can accept Jesus just before he leaves the body. That person will see Christ. Could not Jesus say to that soul: "Will you accept me as Your Lord and Savior and accept my forgiveness." We do not know that precise moment. But many people who have "died" but then revived in a few hours have seen heaven...have encountered God. So, we cannot be sure that Hitler did not accept Jesus just as he saw Jesus at his death. I heard a priest in a sermon say: "Do be surprised to find Hitler in heaven!"
If that is true, then all those Jews who were killed by Hitler and went to heaven as martyrs, would have forgiven him and would then pray for him. Six million souls praying for one man is a lot of prayers. But not only the Jews but all the people of the Faterland need to forgive Hitler, too, because he led the whole country into destruction and devated Europe. Forgiveness is not to erase all the evil he has done to millions; but forgiveness means to wish him salvation; to wish him to repent and accept Jesus. He may have died hating God; but when he encountered Christ -- "out of the body and present to the Lord" - the grace of God could work in his soul since God's will is clear: "I wish all men to be saved and none to be lost." Still, there are those who do reject Christ and reject His offer of Mercy...reject the Holy Spirit's forgiveness. But these theological truth is this: Christ died for all of Hitler's and our sins. Christ wants every one of us to come home like the prodigal son came home. The mystery of God's mercy is deeper than our little minds can grasp. "As high as the heavens ar above the earth, so are my thoughts above your thoughts." says the Lord.
Therefore, it is possible that Hitler -- when he saw Christ -- could have repented and accepted Christ's mercy. Nothing is impossible with God. God's love for Hitler is real. Christ already has suffered for Hitler's sins. Christ is full of mercy, therefore, having already purchased us all at a great price!
"O blood and water that flows from the heart of Christ as a fountain of mercy for us, we trust in you!" [prayer for divine mercy.]
Therefore, maybe we should not be "surprised to find Hitler in heaven!"
Peace and Love, Pio
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