Life After Death?

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
8 Nov 2009

Recently I was chatting with a couple of friends, all of us in our late sixties.

No one had too much to complain about except crook backs and knees.  All had played a lot of sport and the others had worked hard physically.  The verdict was that growing old is not easy.  "But it's better than the alternative" was one comment.

As I had heard that remark quite a few times, I had decided that I should say something in response to encourage a few distinctions.

"We might be surprised" I ventured, "Heaven should be much better".

Everyone laughed while the third member added that heaven would need to be better, "otherwise we could have lived quite differently!"

It wasn't the time to point out that the wages of sin begin in this life, because he would have agreed instantly.  But the conversation was an interesting example of how we run together death and dying, which we instinctively dislike and the hope of heaven, which we tend to ignore in everyday conversation.

November is the month the Catholic Church uses to remind us of the reality of life after death by urging us to pray for the "also rans" so they may be purified and so enter God's presence (the feast of All Souls) and by urging us to honour the model Christians on the feast of All Saints.

If we are too attached to the goods of this life, if our first priority is money or possessions, then we find it harder to believe in the reality of life after death.

If God is slipping, if his voice is receding, Christ's promises of reward and punishment also become more uncertain.

Among the minority who are atheists many object to the idea of a personal God who would judge our lives after death.  They need to be reminded gently that "the Great Escape" happened only once and that was in the Second World War, when allied prisoners of war broke out of Colditz castle.  Christians do not believe that anyone escapes judgement - from a just and merciful God.

When I go back to the chapel of my old school, a large 1950's building now beautifully restored, I always pray for the repose of the souls of the school's "old boys", especially those who studied with me who might need a prayer now.

We should not forget our family and friends who have gone ahead.