Author Topic: Not Catholic to hope for instant and painless death (Read 923 times)

Matthew · « **on:** October 15, 2016, 08:09:52 AM »

How many times have you heard this, when discussing the possibility of nuclear war, and how to deal with its aftermath:

"Huh. If nuclear war breaks out, I hope my house is Ground Zero."

I think this is classic psychology: everyone wants to be a winner. Everyone wants his own path to be the "smartest" or "best" path. If a person can't prep, then he promotes the idea that prepping is for losers. If a person is prepped to the max, he teaches that everyone should prep. In each case, it makes the person in question a "winner" by being the ideal.

Just remember it's the materialists and pagans who think a sudden, unprovided death is any kind of a blessing. People even debate about whether or not they'd want to be told if they were terminally ill! For a Catholic, that's insane. In the Litany of the Saints, one of the lines is, "From a sudden and unprovided death, Deliver us, O Lord". Catholics want as much time as possible, especially when death is near, to prepare our souls better to meet our Judge. So with this in mind, I think we can't join those negative, fatalist naysayers who grunt, "If nuclear war happens, I just hope my house is Ground Zero so I'm vaporized in a millisecond." Sure, if this life is all there is, then of course! Suffering has no meaning. Why suffer? Why not just cease to exist in the most quick and painless manner? Unfortunately for them, we don't cease to exist. And if we are part of the Mystical Body of Christ, suffering has meaning. We go on to the next life, where we are judged by Our Lord on the final state of our soul in THIS life.

Not to mention it's bad form to be more negative than the various survivalists and preppers who DO have the will to survive and rebuild after a nuclear war, MOST of whom don't have the Faith. So THEY have the desire and will to live on, but we Catholics want to throw in the towel? What, is it because it sounds so difficult and suffering is involved? How pathetic is that! Our Master went through his passion and death for us, but we shrink at the thought of suffering? We don't want our family (Catholics) to be part of those building up a new world? I don't think Jesus Christ would be proud of this batch of Christians.

I think we want as high a percentage of Catholics among those survivors as possible.

Also, some people think that nuclear war would be "the end of the world" or "the apocalypse". Again that is false. All we're looking at is a Chastisement, but we Catholics believe in a Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and a peaceful age of Mary, which will eventually be followed by a worse collapse into decadence, and then the ANTICHRIST who will be a man. It is only after the Antichrist that the world can END.

nctradcath · « **Reply #1 on:** October 15, 2016, 08:20:35 AM »

I have always thought that cancer would be a blessing because it could lead to final sacraments and preparing final things in the world.

Stubborn · « **Reply #2 on:** October 15, 2016, 10:05:06 AM »

Quote from: Matthew

Just remember it's the materialists and pagans who think a sudden, unprovided death is any kind of a blessing. People even debate about whether or not they'd want to be told if they were terminally ill! For a Catholic, that's insane. In the Litany of the Saints, one of the lines is, "From a sudden and unprovided death, Deliver us, O Lord".

I try to remember to say that little prayer from the Litany as an ejaculation as often during the day as I remember. Trent says of the sacrament: "It washes away the sins that remain to be atoned, and the vestiges of sin; it comforts and strengthens the soul of the sick person, arousing in him a great trust and confidence in the divine mercy. Thus strengthened, he bears the hardships and struggles of his illness more easily and resists the temptation of the devil and the heel of the deceiver more readily; and if it be advantageous to the welfare of his soul, he sometimes regains his bodily health."

So be it nuclear fallout or whatever the sickness, we are guaranteed by Trent to bear it more easily - whatever the suffering is that befalls us.

No, we don't want to be evaporated in an instant, we pray for the grace of a happy death.

Geremia · « **Reply #3 on:** October 18, 2016, 05:11:52 PM »

We should accept whatever death Divine Providence gives us.

mw2016 · « **Reply #4 on:** October 18, 2016, 06:40:26 PM »

Quote from: Matthew

All we're looking at is a Chastisement, but we Catholics believe in a Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and a peaceful age of Mary, which will eventually be followed by a worse collapse into decadence, and then the ANTICHRIST who will be a man. It is only after the Antichrist that the world can END.

I actually think the Consecration will happen AFTER the Great Chastisement/3 Days of Darkness, mostly because there would likely be very few bishops left, so the task could actually be accomplished.

I think it could also happen after the Warning, which would give a short period of peace before the Great Chastisement.

Neil Obstat · « **Reply #5 on:** October 18, 2016, 07:54:07 PM »

It should not surprise us that the great divide is widening, and true Catholicism stands alone (outside of which there is no salvation) in the Church's teaching of the value of suffering and the great benefit of offering penance for the remission of sins and freedom from the temporal punishment due to sin; while on the other side of the great divide is all non-Catholic ideology which abhors the mere thought of suffering at death, and proclaims it a great blessing to be able to say, "at least they didn't suffer" or "at least it was quick." The Freemason French revolutionaries said this about the guillotine, you know. This actually reduces man to the state of an animal, for we can't expect brute animals to gain anything by the suffering they endure when they die.

In 1517 Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg Chapel door. That was 500 years ago next year.

Among the heresies of Lutheranism is that there is no spiritual value in "works" - which is essentially the denial of our ability to share in Our Lord's suffering for the benefit of our souls or souls of the Faithful Departed.

Today there was a memorial service for the two law enforcement officers who were shot to death by a gang member low-life in Palm Springs, CA, about a week ago. One of the speakers at the service was quipped on the news saying these two officers died doing what they loved; and how many of us might hope to have the blessing of dying in the act of doing the thing we love to do?

While I can understand that this thought might bring some transitory consolation to a few on a natural level, I can't help but wonder what real, enduring consolation it could evoke. For example, the qualifier of "doing what we love to do" can in no way be definitive, since a mass murderer may love to kill lots of people, so is it a blessing for him to die in the act of multiple murder? Or a drug addict might love to shoot up heroin, so is it a blessing for him or her to die of an overdose? Someone habituated to adultery might lay claim to a lot of enjoyment in his (or her) mortal sins, but is dying in the act a cause for feeling good about death?

It's rather a shame that at services such as this, they are afraid or else forbidden to make statements or say prayers that refer to what Catholics always do on such occasions, namely, pray for the repose of the soul(s) of the deceased, and offer our penances and sacrifices for their relief in Purgatory.

What's even worse, it seems to me, is that in their hunger to discover something novel to say at these eulogies, they come up with morally bankrupt platitudes, the value of which they assess by how well received they are among listeners who have practically NO CLUE as to what's important at a time like this. And the more the conciliar Novus Ordo church goes along with this neo-paganism, the less modern Catholics will be able to keep their heads wrapped around what the Church truly teaches for our universal edification.

There is another thread where RC1953 links to a Tradition in Action page which covers Pope Francis at Paul VI Hall making overtures of unity with Lutherans.

Alexandria · « **Reply #6 on:** October 19, 2016, 11:40:33 AM »

Quote from: Geremia

We should accept whatever death Divine Providence gives us.

You have the Catholic answer.