"Divine Mercy and Suicide" - Fr. Chris Alar, MIC

[Music] good morning it's funny because when I'm sure you've all been in this position before where you realize but all this time and effort on something in vain I go around the country I was supposed to go to turn a dad and tobago and that trip got canceled but anyway they start to blend together for me in places I've been in the past and then to I don't know probably 300 different locations and I can't remember that there was a screen here and I always wanted I always now have been doing PowerPoint presentations and I've been putting together all my talks and doing slideshows and videos and showing movies while I talk to keep you from falling asleep well anyway I ordered because these places that I go sometimes they don't have the right equipment so I found 120 inch screen 9 foot screen on eBay and a new projector a portable projector well I didn't think it'd get here in time for today's conference but lo and behold it arrived yesterday as I was sitting down to write this talk well easily as distracted as I can get sometimes I decided to try to set up that screen and get that projector working with my powerpoint slide so I could bring it today not remembering that there was a screen here so anyway I sat down and of course the thing didn't work and I didn't have this setting right Matt sitting right all of a sudden I get myself to realize it's 11 o'clock last night and I hadn't written this talk yet so I begged for your mercy and trying to get through this so I was up basically the most of the night trying to put together I've talked a little bit on suicide the second half of the talk I definitely done before because it's a personal experience of my grandmother but the first whole part of it is was doing research that I had done in college and updating it on suicide now most of us and probably I would venture to guess all of us in some way have been affected by suicide personally for myself my two very best friends growing up in grade school Steve Middleton and Troy do so please pray for them they both took their lives and at the time it was so devastating that I just it was such a struggle to cope with I'm currently seeing one woman for spiritual direction whose son was in the military and recently took his life it's such perpetuate such pain and suffering that she's been coming to me to counseling to help her from not taking her own life and so you can just you feel this pain even though you're not the victim but in some ways we are the victim because it is our loved ones as well it is the people that are closest to us and then my own family my father and I went to see my grandmother one day and this will be the second part of my talk and we found her she had taken her life so we've all been affected if if you haven't pray for those who have been it's very difficult but yet it's a very real topic and I'm gonna shed some light on it with you today some of these things you may already know obviously but there's some things that I think are kind of surprising you know suicide we we just accept as part of our culture but yet how many of us have really delved into it taking courses out of it obviously is this audience here today probably probably you have now what's interesting is and I'm sorry I forgot to click this button here that I was told to click okay so what's interesting is go back to first of all the root word suicide obviously as most of our words come is from Latin the Latin root Suey Cheatham and that means Suey means of oneself and she do means to kill or killing and so we have this here an impact that is like I said affects almost everyone Sigmund Freud Cleopatra Mark Antony Brutus Judith Hannibal Nero Virginia Woolf Adolf Hitler Ernest Hemingway Sylvia Plath van Gogh Jack London villain Thomas Robin Williams David purity Judy Garland punches pilot Socrates possibly Tchaikovsky otherwise Elvis and Marilyn Monroe all committed suicide those are just 1 1 millionth of one percent of the people in the world that have done this now 38,000 Americans every year take their life one every 16 minutes now attempted suicides are less than a minute apart in their country less than a minute every minute somebody attempts a suicide so it is a factor in our society now throughout the world every day 2,000 people take their lives and in in in in understanding the depth of this it goes and knows no cultural boundary here's an interesting stat for every two people that are killed by homicide three people are killed through suicide now suicide we think of the young do we not it's the second leading cause of death for all people age 24 to 35 but what popul don't really realize is that the elderly actually have the highest rate of suicide you guys might notice I don't think our society does now what about the gender difference well it's interesting because women attempt suicide three times more than men but men complete suicide three times more than women it's a cry for help now in every suicide that we know of there are 25 attempts so these are cries for help these are cries for help some experts even believe in claim that auto accidents up to 25 percent of auto accidents are actually subconscious attempts at suicide that's pretty scary and that what about the other stats divorce divorce people have three times likely the chance to commit suicide than married people and children of divorce couples are at a higher risk for committing suicide when they reach adulthood this is very very interesting now here's one of all the professional professions I guess you could call it the I consulted the encyclopedia of suicide this was Evans and Glen and of all the professional disciplines doctors lawyers engineers all kinds of professionals guess what the highest per suicide rate was amongst professional disciplines doctors doctors I was like wow it surprised me I was reading this well about 1:00 in the morning last night and it was interesting because they lifted scholars have identified psychiatry anesthesiology and ophthalmology as the most common I hope we don't have anybody here who's saying father don't pick on me like that that means you obviously have important work sometimes can be stressful what was the lowest what would you guess would be the lowest of the doctor discipline Pediatrics see the joy of the little children right seeing the joy of the little children and I thought that was interesting now here's another one for you of all the places in the world take a guess at what has the number one place number one location in the world to commit suicide the Golden Gate Bridge since it was built fifteen hundred people have killed themselves on the Golden Gate Bridge now what I found interesting is they have a letter that was left behind by one of the guys who committed suicide and you know what his letter said interesting he says I'm going to walk to the bridge today but if even one person smiles at me I will not jump if even one person smiles at me I will not jump they jumped not a single person on their entire walk up to that bridge smiled up this is the importance of what you're doing in your profession is that even a smile even a smile can make that kind of a difference what I also found interesting was the study they did on the days of the week that most of those suicides occurred because which day had the lowest rate in which they had the highest rate Saturday had the lowest rate and Monday had the highest rate what was interesting as they tied it as you would expect to depression now the majority of suicides are associated with some form of clinical depression and obviously leads to despair depression as you all know that affects probably conservatively about 25 percent of all Americans now the problem is about only half of those Americans actually who are experiencing major depression actually receive treatment now kudos to all of you here because the success rate was very surprising to me reading this encyclopedia last night it was talking about the success rate of treatment for those in depression is actually 80 to 90 percent I was very surprised by that I figured it would have been much lower god bless you for your work in what you are doing to contribute to that 89 to 90 percent those who are seeking treatment successfully using therapy and/or medication every Steve's health however the illness is complex it involves biological psychological social relational and in some cases behavioral and even spear factors spiritual factors are very important therefore the treatment is likewise also complex so in addition to meds medicine you have psychotherapy behavioral approaches social support and spiritual direction all being needed now that's why I'm here obviously a priest is not going to speak to a bunch of doctors and tell them about the medical profession that's not not needed but why would a priest be here speaking on this because of the spiritual side that links to this depression and leads to psychosomatic or whatever type of illness that might be occurring now the church what's interesting is not just about faith probably if they pull you know the Catholics that are in the country today and ask them what is the church about you probably would get an answer like 95% would say it's about faith the church is not just about faith of course it's the foundation theology and belief but Thomas Aquinas teaches us it's about faith and reason reason our intellectual process we are not just robots we have reason to logically make things and determine things but we're also emotionally built and we have a soul that is the inner life of our being now depression this is how it ties in if you try to separate the spiritual from the physical you're going to lose out an understanding fully the human being the human being is not just body not just soul it's a composite and depression is factored into both of those here's I think interesting depression affects not just a person's moods and emotions which most of us think well at least you guys don't but most of society does it also constricts a person thinking often to the point where that person feels entirely trap and cannot see any way out of their mental suffering depression can destroy a person's capacity to reason clearly it can severely impair judgment such that the suffering in this way causes the person to do things which they ordinarily would never have done and this is where we talk about it now the case that I was reading last night was interesting it was talking about adultery and it talked about the difference between men and women that men commit adultery most of the time because of the physical attraction of it but women were entirely different women that reported to commit adultery were more along the lines of feeling wanted because they were depressed that they felt rejection from their spouse that they felt not needed not wanted not appreciated and it formed and led to depression and therefore the act of adultery is something that they would not have done in any other circumstances but because the depression set in so much that was the end result of their action now how does this tie together well first of all those who are suffering from these kinds of depressant depression and in heavy burdens should not bear their cross alone okay Christ's ministry was one of healing was it not and an imitation of him we are also called to be healers as Christians we need to encounter them to understand them better and bear their burdens now this is the definition of mercy father Seraphim here worked a lot with father kiseki and father koseki who passed away God rest his soul used to describe mercy as having pains in your heart for the pains of another and doing something about their pain giving your pain to help their pain in other words you're taking them and their suffering on your own and that is the root word of mercy right Misericordia misery heart taking into your heart the misery of another and this is what the definition of mercy is now I think it's important because we should begin with the premise that science and religion faith and reason are in harmony you know when I grew up there was always that talk about well science and religion don't correspond science and religion do you know science is yet to disprove anything in the Bible fact there's a question for you are we to read the Bible literally is the Bible literally truth if I was to say to you do you read the Bible literally true yes now go home and cut off your right hand okay the word literally means that the message the author is trying to convey is true so yes we do read the Bible literally as true because the message the author is trying to convey is true but we don't read the Bible as literal lists in other words we don't go home and sawed off our right hand but the message is very true if something in your life is causing you to sin get rid of it that's the message Jesus was trying to convey so sawed off your right hand he meant literally true is get rid of whatever in your life is causing you to sin right now science has not proven the Bible at all as incorrect pick anything all right a lot of you are Catholics maybe not all I read ibly leave that Adam and Eve were really true to existing people yes how how could that be genetically how could this be well do you know and I learned this a long time ago and I should have looked up the stats I think it was a team at Cal State Berkeley working with a team out of the UK back in the 1990s proved genetically that every living person in the world today can be traced back to one woman this does not refute the Bible story unanimity okay what about Noah well there's all kinds of evidence in the sediment where they found in that region of Turkey that that whole area there is vast civilizations 5,000 years ago which had been around the time of Noah that is now underwater completely underwater what about Moses in the Red Sea that's just a fable isn't it no they have found chariots and actually complete in the sediment chariots and horses they're on the banks of the Red Sea you see there are so many things that science has not yet proven science or should say has not proven the Bible incorrect then go on and on there's many important things like that now we should see them in harmony your task as professionals is to integrate insights from all sources medicine first and foremost of course but also psychology but the Bible and theology why to understand the mental illness is more than just a medicine it is the whole being of the person and help others to recover from it we need all of those variables in cases where recovery proves impossible you can still pray you can pray for those people now nothing in the Bible specifically prohibits suicide believe it or not seven instances in the Bible refer to suicide everything from the evil of Judas to the what they call noble suicide of Samson you know Samson strong guy push the pillars up he committed suicide because it fell down on the enemies of Israel now why then do so many religions say that it's not a good thing and before I start I want to see the difference here is because a lot of the belief is that suicide is actually blasphemy where would that come from why would suicide be blasphemy well many religions believe because if you take your life you're basically saying God doesn't have the power to bring me out of this situation alas to me is where you do not believe God is truly God all right you're you're blaspheming so if we don't believe God has the power to bring us out of the situation we might be guilty but what I'm going to lead into here I'm going to start with the negative what the church used to teach then I want to tell you what does teach about suicide and how we deal with it now there's an unwillingness to suffer with Christ and many people who take their life but they don't know it those of us who do know it are more culpable of sharing with them the ability of Christ's redemptive power to help us in bad situations all right what about non-believers what about atheism do you know that the only logical consequence to atheism is suicide the only logical consequence to atheism is suicide if there is no heaven or no health how could there be true justice or mercy here thinks about this secular justice never is complete you think every murderer gets caught no way you know you ever hear the story of immaculee in the genocide in Rwanda anybody hear that story you know almost none of those people were caught and brought to justice many murders are never solved in many cases the innocent are put to death accused unfairly justice is never complete in a secular sense secular justice is not perfect because we can't read the minds in the hearts of people's intentions thus we can't make and take into account mitigating factors it would cause people to do certain things now only God can be truly just and merciful so he doesn't exist this life has no purpose y'all here is Jacques Maritain I don't know if they teach him in the secular sense but he's a great philosopher that was turned to atheism he was Protestant born and here was so disenchanted him and his wife this was around the turn of the century that in 1900 that his wife in him became so disenchanted with scientism that they said if they could not address and find a bigger meaning to the existential issues of life that they would commit suicide so basically they said it could not in their view this whole scientism approach address the larger existential issues of life and they said if we cannot find a stronger meaning to life we will commit suicide and they made a pact that they couldn't discover that in a year they gave themselves one year and they said if we don't one year discover this deeper meaning to these existential issues of life we will commit suicide and they signed a pact well they began to critique scientism and it dissolved their intellectual despair and they gained within themselves a sense of the absolute so you know what they did they converted to Catholicism and it changed their whole life well wait a minute father Chris doesn't the church teach that those who commit suicide will go to hell med what the Church teaches well let's look at this for a minute the answer is no and yet this is so misunderstood I was just online two days ago and there is a protestant website god bless them they're trying to bring people to Christ and that's a great thing and right under website it says we believe in praying for that you know these people who are suffering especially that have taken their lives unlike the Catholic Church we do not teach that the soul goes to hell is they commit suicide now with as much love as I could muster I responded the Church does not teach this but I can see where the confusion comes from we all probably were raised in hearing something like this some say we cannot repent from suicide because there's no chance to ask for forgiveness if you pull the trigger that's it there's no chance to repent most early theologians of the church did consider suicide as murder and a mortal sin this is where it comes from alright y'all heard of scene of Augustan right in his book the City of God that was the first condemnation of the church on suicide his biblical justification was the interpretation of the commandment thou shalt not kill now what's interesting is all the other Commandments said thy neighbor like you should not bear false witness against thy neighbor so when it said thou shalt not kill augusten said but it didn't say the high neighbor he took it to mean I can't kill myself either and if I do I have just violated the fifth commandment I've committed murder now that's where that comes from then in 1533 the church started to get even more they said those who commit suicide should be denied a Catholic burial so I can see where this comes from Thomas Aquinas said it goes against God there's no chance to repent then it got worse civil and criminal laws were enacted to discourage suicide in fact not only was the burial not allowed but the property and possession of the victims and their families were confiscated this is really something now according to the theology of the Catholic Church death by suicide is grave and it has the elements for a mortal sin this is the reason why one's life is the property of God and a gift to the world and to destroy that life is wrongly to assert dominion over what is God and held as despair over salvation so you can kind of see where the church comes from I'm going to finish with just a few more minutes of this and then get to the more positive pastoral part all right catechism catechism does say everyone is responsible for his life before God who has given it to him it is God who remains a sovereign master of life we are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for the honor and the salvation of our souls we are stewards not owners of the life God has entrusted to us it is not ours to dispose up in other words God owns it now y'all heard the term light you can sell your soul to the devil can you sell your soul to the devil no you don't own it God does God does and it's the same concept here now catechism goes on in paragraph 22 81 suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his life it is gravely contrary to the just love of self it is likewise offends the love of neighbor because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity with family nation in other human societies to which we have obligations we have family obligations suicide then is contrary to love for the Living God because suicides of 5 the love we owe God sure we all face hard times and sufferings and we are called to place ourselves in the hands of God he will never abandon us he will see us through this life but that's hard sometimes we don't see it the key is trust trust we have a brother father Thaddeus just finished his book it's please pick it up it'll be out in a few months it's about trust you know Jesus told st. Faustina the trust is the vessel by which all Grace's are received if we don't trust we don't receive grace that's difficult in the despair now yes suicide objectively is great all right because and if you help someone commit suicide you too could be in virtue of a mortal sin however we must remember that for a soul to be lost there's only one way that a soul is lost is to die in an unrepentant state of mortal sin but if all you remember your catechism in order for a sin to be mortal three things have to be present is one has to be great grave and serious well suicide is but what are the other two things that must be present in order for a sin to be mortal knowledge we have to know that is this in and what's the other one free will we have to freely choose it and want it now here's what's interesting the person must give full consent in intend to commit it in the case of suicide a person may not have been given full consent right fear force ignorant habit passion psychological problems these all impede the exercise of the will so that the person may not be fully responsible or even responsible at all for this action so over the years the church has turned now in a different direction the church is not changed or teaching Church to cannot do that but she can change her practice interdiscipline the church used to objectively not bury people and not have a Catholic funeral because objectively the sin was wrong and the church never wanted to give the impression that it's okay so objectively the sin is wrong and the church would not bury someone that committed suicide because they didn't want anybody to think it's okay however over the years the church has come to realize that the subjective nature of suicide is more pastoral therefore there may be mitigating circumstances to why a soul takes their life all right now there's this a lot of times mental illness a lack of free will do you know even demons don't laugh at this this is very serious exorcists tell us all the time that demons affect those who take their own life you know and many murder suicides the person who killed and then took their own life was reported to have been saying that they heard voices they heard voices now demons can do this with possession comes death and many of these murder suicide victims have said that they heard these voices now the Catechism addresses this they say those who commit suicide may not always be fully in the right mind and this not always always culpable paragraphs 22 82 in the Catechism grave psychological disturbances anguish gray fear or hardship suffering or even torture Candice minish the responsibility of one committing suicide the church then prays for those people knowing that Christ will judge them fairly and justly so the church prays for those who also are affected by suicide that God will comfort those torn apart from the suicide now the church offers hope believe it or not you know when you're in your thing I have a nurse who is a cousin and she said you know where the hardest parts of my ministry was when people would talk about suicide or there were victims that came in for treatment because their loved ones took their life she said I can never tell them to turn to the Catholic Church I said why barb she was my cousin she doesn't because the Catholic Church tells them they're going to hell so I have to deny my faith just to help these people get through it I said barb that's not what the church teaches the Church teaches hope she says but doesn't the church teach that if you take your life you go to hell a soul is lost right no paragraph 22 83 we should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who take their own life by ways known to God alone he can provide the opportunity for repentance the church prays for those person who have taken their own lives and the diary of st. Faustina paragraph 14 86 Faustina accounts and I can't read it I am running out of time already Jesus talks to Saint Faustina about a conversation with a despairing soul basically Jesus comes to every soul three times at the moment of death so if I pull this trigger in a worldly sense and I put the gun to my head and I pull the trigger we think instantaneously that's it there's no time to repent there's no time there and death is instantaneous Jesus tells st. Faustina otherwise he says in that split second between the choice of the person to take their life and the actual moment of death because remember death is not an obliteration it's just a change of state so the definition of death death is simply the soul separating from the body but we don't know when that is some people some theologians saying that the soul may not separate for the body for hours on a death now Jesus says at every moment of death I come to the soul three times and give the soul three chances to say yes no matter what that soul has done this gives great hope therefore we offer Mass for the repose of suicide victims of the souls we invoke God's love and mercy and his healing grace for the grieving we do that as priests even for those who commit suicide especially for those no one can appreciate the pain in the ultimate explanation of such a tragic event as suicide no one therefore can judge that person whose choice we can't even fathom or whose pain we cannot understand this is how the church looks upon suicide today do not let anybody tell you different pity not condemnation is the position of the church prayers are offered masses are done consecrated ground the burials are now happening in provided for this person who dies by suicide it didn't used to be that way didn't change their teaching just their focus there may have been a denial for us looking at why people took their lives and that might have been the greatest pain of all as us denying the people's pain right so for those of us the church offers us and encourages us to pay attention to those to look forward now backwards to the pain within ourselves and the pain and others especially where we see no signs or calls for help this is what we are to do in a pastoral sense all right now why do we avoid speaking to one another about inner pain we seem to neglect it do we not we're not why are we not more sensitive to the pain in other's hearts why are we not able to read the pain in people's eyes sometimes we do but we neglect it why do we spend millions maybe even billions of dollars on pain relief over-the-counter or by prescription but yet spend so little time that it takes to encourage those who might be hurting to open up to talk this kind of thinking is now all part of the church's pastoral response to the tragedy of suicide and should be yours as well you know the church still teaches there is a hell but it leaves it to God to decide who should go there all divine decisions are filtered through divine mercy tragedy at the end of this life does not mean tragedy in eternal life there is hope mental illness can affect anyone of any temperament or personality you know Robin Williams I was really surprised I think probably most you would have been when you heard he took his life right what I found strange about Robin Williams though is I used to be a Happy Days fan we all remember that show that's our generation right I'm older than I look a lot older you know somebody wrote a letter here last year kind of kind of kind of little nasty saying that I'm too young to know anything about what I'm talking about and and it's funny because I think prior to my mom's genes my mom is 76 years old and she doesn't have any gray hair or wrinkles and so I got good genes so I'm definitely older older than I look but I grew up with happy knees from the 70s and Robin Williams got his TV break on happy days he played Mork from ork okay if you remembered that but what I found interesting was Robin Williams came onto that first show and he was making these different noises as this alien from Earth and one of the time Richie Cunningham asked her he was in like three or four episodes in Richard Cunningham asked him where he gets the power for what he does and he says Beelzebul and everybody laughed they just thought he made up the word that actually means Satan that actually means Satan and they said that Robin Williams before he took his life claimed that he heard voices so we have to look at this but why you know Robin Williams I think if you look at his death and that the truth came to light in in spite of outward appearances which she appeared to be happy joyful you know that one may be afflicted by a devastating disorder that could be every bit as bad as a heart attack or blood clot or cancer he suffered in ways that are difficult for most of us to imagine why couldn't rub and William see himself as other saw him as a person of immense gifts talents a man who stood at the pinnacle of the achievement in the in comedy and entertainment industry why couldn't he see himself as God saw him as a beloved child a child of God a son of God a human soul with immense worth a person that Christ died for it's because our society is rejecting this today we don't see it we don't realize it this is the tragedy of depression which is most under misunderstood and we don't Brett I finish with an example that happened to me in my own personal life with depression and a loved one you see when I was in high school my grandmother was getting up there in age my father's mother and we we got to see that she was suffering she was greatly depressed but as a high school senior I was only focused on my appointment to the United States Air Force Academy I come from a military family I was groomed to be a pilot and I got the appointment to the United States Air Force Academy to go to Colorado Springs to fly and to be a military guy and God took that away I ended up getting a medical discharge but in the midst of all that I never saw the pain in stuff my grandmother for cry for help I was too busy with him all my other stuff and she took her life tragically my father walked into the house can you imagine walking into your house and seeing your own mother in a pool of blood and that's what my father walked in upon I was so selfish and self-centred at a time and we all struggle in some way that at the funeral I wasn't even really present I was there physically but I wasn't there emotionally or spiritually for her honestly I'm embarrassed to say I don't even remember praying for her and what happened was that the funeral went on and years went by and then I found my Catholic faith again I was living in Detroit I was an engineering manager I got my engineering degree and I went on to get my MBA at the University of Michigan and something in my life was missing I figured well I will get my MBA and climb this corporate ladder in the Detroit auto industry and I did it it was very beneficial to be in your 20s and making six figures was not really heard of got the NBA but yet I was lacking something something was missing and I decided to quit my dad about killed me it's kind of like when I announced to my family I was going to be a priest and when I announced to my family that I was going to enter seminary my mom cried for three days my dad said you'll never make it as a priest and my 82 year old aunt said I thought you like girls and so that was my family's reception to me announcing I was gonna be a priest but anyway at the time that priesthood wasn't even on my radar so I quit my job and I moved on to North Carolina and Charlotte to start my own business I think that's what's missing well I started my own business God had blessed us tremendously made tons of money I had a house on Lake Norman north of Charlotte my business was on the other side of the lake I would drive my boat to work and I was engaged the prettiest girl in North Carolina absolutely I mean you call her work she how may I help you you know that southern drawers is beautiful and and I'm paper nothing could be that I had everything God to give a guy yet something was missing couldn't figure out what it was so finally I started going back to church the car one day just turned together lose your power steering you know you can't turn the wheel I lost it was like I lost my power steering and that we all turned into this new church that they were building in the in the town I lived in it was amazing Church that Time magazine did an article on this parish and and they started with 12 families in a bowling alley in the 1990s and they called it our lady of the lanes and in this group - now 15,000 people and this church changed my life I started going to Eucharistic Adoration I started going to Bible study I started doing all these things and I started meeting with the priest and I said you know I want to go to confession I haven't been in a long long time decades I want to go to confession so he said why do you do a general confession so what's a general confession since either of these confesses in the past we'll make an appointment please don't do this on me to me on Saturday afternoon with 12 people in line but you make an appointment you meet with your priest and you basically walk through everything that you remember in your life from the very very beginning and you confess your sins as you go and as you confess your sins as you go you start to feel this weight being lifted off your shoulders and as I started doing that I started confessing from the earliest memories telling my life story to this priest and confessing Leeson as I go and as every sin I could test it was like you took another weight off my shoulder you know it was just like so beautiful and when when I did that I could just feel this lightness like like like your soul just rejuven eyes the year was 2003 and then in my general confession I got to the year 1993 and I said father this was a bad one he said what happened I said in 1993 my grandmother took her life and I said I was a knucklehead I wasn't there for her I didn't even remember praying for her and and you know um some of the Mystics accepted by the church like Maria Simmi she said when you go to funerals your tears mean nothing your tears mean nothing what really matters of that soul is your prayers because your tears are about you your tears are about your set your prayers are about them so anyway I said father I don't remember praying for my grandmother she said is this you know it's a this is okay he said um you can do something now about I said well father she's she's already passed away I feel bad that I didn't even pray for and I could add a chance to help her at the moment of her death as I knew she was in a bad state she was dying I could have done something and he said you know what go home tonight and pray the chaplet of divine mercy for the salvation of your grandmother's soul and I said father she died 10 years ago my prayer is not going to do anything now I mean maybe a little time out of purgatory but that's about it when she was dying and I had a chance to pray for her at the mold before her judgment I could have done something and I was a knucklehead I really feel bad about cuz he said go home tonight and pray the chaplet of divine mercy for the salvation of your grandmother's soul I said father I'm an engineer I'm not getting this logically it doesn't make sense she's been just she's in heaven I hope hell I hope not but I wherever she was going she's there now he said look God is outside of time there is no time for God if you were to take salvation history and this is Adam and Eve and this is the end of the world from here to here God sees it all instantaneously he sees everything at if one instant for God there is no past for God there is no future there is only one big eternal now this is it so God is outside of time your time doesn't matter you can make this prayer tonight I'm sitting there going one he says yeah I said father I still don't get it finally lost his patience look think of it this way God is so merciful he will take your prayer tonight in 2003 and put it into the hands of the Blessed Mother and take it back to 1993 and shower it over the head of your grandmother at the moment of her judgment to help her during that time I said father but I can't make her decision of course not you can't make someone's decision to accept God but then why pray for anybody because you help them you see what he said was your grandmother is he started keep him talking it started to make a little bit more sense and I said father I says this is something that I can really do to help my grandmother 10 years later he said absolutely because God is outside of time I said father this is great he said look Jesus comes to every soul just as I said three times at the moment of death and your grandmother will have three chances to say yes to God if she says no the first time users will go away they'll come back and she says no he'll go away they'll come back a third time and she says no then the souls lost but that soul has three chances I said father we're good here there ain't no way my grandmother's not going to say yes to Jesus when he comes to her so we're good here thank you for a great discussion see you later he said hold on hold on you said your grandmother turned away yeah where's she going to church no you she received the sacraments before she died anointing dyadic whom I said actually I don't know said who here's a problem your grandmother turned her back on God and when you turn your back on God and he comes to you you may not recognize him you see if we do our whole life like this and I turn my back on you and I want nothing to do with you am I going to recognize you when you come up if I'm sitting here like this am I gonna recognize you when you're coming up from behind me no your grandmother may not recognize God and therefore may not be able to say yes Oh father he had me believe in all as well now it seems like she has no choice no early no hope she committed suicide she has no hope right he said no you didn't let me finish imagine that right you didn't let me finish without your prayers she may not recognize him but with your prayers your prayers can help lift that veil that she has put between God and her and lift that veil that she could recognize God when he comes to her that she may not have ordinarily recognized without your prayers you see a demon sometimes it's told by God he has to tell the truth and a demon once told jihad on DNA a great saint that 80 thousand souls avoided hell because of his prayers alone 80 thousand souls this is exactly what was happening as I was there with that priest that name that prayer of the Divine Mercy chaplet I was going to make that night was just like John Vianney praying for 80,000 souls to assist them at the moment of their judgement even though it was 10 15 20 50 years ago so this priest tells me look your Grace's from 2003 can come in like a squadron of dive bombers and be poured on the head of your grandmother at the moment of her judgement because God is outside of time now you can't say yes for her she has to say yes but all the grace of your prayers will help her see God and help her to say yes she has to say it she has to make the choice but you can help her through your prayers I said even though she's committed suicide yes guy there's no time for God there's an orphan amount of time for God to come to that soul between the time of the soul separates in the body and death at that moment you can do something free with her before her with your prayers even though she died 10 years ago absolutely you see this is what your grandmother needs she needs your prayers Mary told the children of Fatima that the reason most Souls go to hell is there's nobody to pray for them and so what you're doing is you're praying for that person and giving them the guidance and the gift and the grace to be able to say yes well the grace comes from God but it's giving them the opportunity to lift that veil see God for who he is and then make a choice you're helping them it's kind of like the soldier on the battlefield my father was a helicopter pilot in de neighing in Vietnam and I got one minute to finish and he was a Vietnam helicopter pilot and he said when you would watch those soldiers when they would land the helicopter the blades would be turning in the and the Swale grass from the rice paddies would be blowing and all of them you'd see you'd see 20 American heads pop up out of the rice paddies they were huddled down in there and he said they'd come run into the helicopter and half of them would be carrying injured soldiers if those soldiers were left in the rice paddy 100% they would die but because they put him on their shoulders and raised him to the helicopter they could get up to the medics and a lot of them were saved this is what we're doing our prayers you're like that soldiers throwing the other soldier on your shoulder to get them to the medic you see Mary is the nurse Divine Mercy is the penicillin she is the nurse Divine Mercy is the penicillin that administers to the sick and Jesus said the greater the sinner the greater right you have in my mercy so I said to this father I said this is unbelievable I said you know my grandmother didn't look like she repented at the moment of her death didn't she then get lost he says he pulled out this thing called the diary Faustina and I going to finish with this paragraph this paragraph changed my life and this paragraph is the reason I'm here in a collar Jesus says to st. Faustina about hope and things I've seen a wrote this in her diary god it's only about 30 seconds God's mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wondrous and mysterious way outwardly it seems as if everything we're lost as it does in the case of suicide but it is not so the soul illuminated by a ray of God's powerful final grace turns to God in the last moment with such a power of love that in an instant it receives from God forgiveness of sin and all punishment while outwardly it shows no sign either of repentance or of contrition because souls at that stage no longer react to external things this is what we see with suicide victims oh how beyond comprehension is God's mercy although a person is at the point of death the merciful God gives the soul that interior vivid moment so that if the soul is willing it has the possibility of returning to God I said father that's unbelievable that you mean we can actually help our grandmothers today that i years and years ago he said yes I said father I got to spend my life spreading this message now I had no idea he was going to make me a priest but I knew that this message had to be shared because this is the plague of our society today we are in depression we have no hope you know there's only one unforgivable sin what is the you know everything you've ever committed is forgivable adultery murder abortion lying stealing cheating every sin you have ever committed and father Anthony I heard is hear hearing confessions go get those wiped away everything you've ever committed is forgivable Jesus said all the sins ever committed in the history of the world if you add them together but are but a drop compared to my mercy but the Bible tells us there's one unforgivable sin what is it sin against the Holy Spirit all that basically is is final impenitence putting yourself outside the mercy of God it comes in three flavors I don't need God's mercy I'm fine I never killed anybody yeah you're fine if you're only comparing yourself to Hitler second flavor God can't forgive me he doesn't have the power I'm too wretched God has ultimate power even saints power is not equal to God in the opposite direction which most young people think today God has ultimate power he can forgive anybody anything third flavor God can forgive me but he won't he hates me ah you wouldn't exist if God hates you and hate is contrary to his nature God cannot hate God can only love God loves you no matter what you've done the only separation that you will ever have from God is if you turn away from him like my grandmother did but he's so merciful that you can turn back or you can help those that have turned away to turn back I left that day a changed man that was 13 14 years ago and it has never stopped the fire and flame in my heart to spread this important message of God's mercy especially of those who have taken their own lives in suicide please share this message on the back tables this talk about my grandmother I have on DVD and CD you know what whatever just get it spread the message please because God's mercy is greater than any sin thank you god bless you oh sorry Marie if I can announce one of the sisters handed us a great prayer card we're going to have them by the registration table it is the lifeline against the against suicide team they call it last and they say please join to pray daily for people who are tempted to commit suicide people who have committed suicide and grieving families and friends of those who committed suicide so please consider picking this up and being able to pray this important apostolate for those who have had done this god bless you and remember there is always hope ho ho ho [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Id: GJvepzcN9Zc

Length: 58min 1sec (3481 seconds)

Published: Thu May 04 2017