Answers to God's Mysteries
By Cicily Sunny
(Continued)

Purgatory, Saints, and Martyrs

At Caesarea Jesus answers the questions of his disciples and apostles about going to heaven. He says, "And you will be more and more. But not everyone will be faithful until the end. But many will be with me in Paradise. Some will have their reward after expiation, some immediately after their death, but the reward will be such that, as you forget the earth and its sorrows, so you will forget Purgatory with its penitential longing for love…..Owing to your human weakness you could not suffer martyrdom with resignation. But supernatural assistance will be instilled by the Lord into the great spirits who must bear witness to the Lord….They will achieve such complete love that torture, accusations from relatives, from life, from everything, will no longer be depressing matters, on the contrary they will become the base to rise to Heaven, to receive it, to see it and therefore to stretch arms and hearts towards tortures, in order to go where their hearts already are: to Heaven." (V. 4, Ch. 422, P. 59). 

When a man named Papias asked Jesus how much he would forgive a martyr, Jesus said, "Not much, but completely forgiven because love is absolution, and heroic confession of faith is absolution. You can thus see that martyrs will have treble purification." For his further questions Jesus answered, "The life of man is in the hands of my Father….And do you not think that it is martyrdom to live when the world has lost all attraction and the heart yearns for Heaven, and to live to teach other people to love and to become acquainted with the disappointments of the Master and to persevere tirelessly to give souls to the Master? Always do the will of God, even if your own should appear to you to be more heroic, and you will be holy."

After the vision of the conversion of Zacchaeus, Jesus says to Maria Valtorta, "It is not only in evil that man's heart is where his treasure is but also in good. Did saints perhaps during their lifetime not have their hearts where their treasure was: in God? Yes, they did. And that is why, looking only at God, they passed on the earth, without contaminating their souls with the mud of the earth." (V. 4, Ch. 415, P. 17).

Jesus compares Zacchaeus to the rich man. His research for God detached him from the mean gods of richness and sensuality and made him a hero of renunciation. Jesus asked the rich man to sell everything and follow him, but he did not do that. 

Next Topic: The Importance of Death and Praying for the Dead

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