What Happens to People After They Die?

May 19

May 21, 2023

“I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Jesus Christ ~ John 14:6

This Sunday we celebrate the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ into Heaven. Forty days after Jesus’ Resurrection, He ascended into heavenly glory where He is exalted at the right hand of His Father. The Ascension of Christ into heaven is as important to us as His Resurrection. Our Lord’s Resurrection makes it possible for us to rise from the dead, but to what end? So we can haunt the earth? Christ’s Ascension matters to us because it makes our own ascension into heaven possible. While the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead gives us the faith we need to unite ourselves to Him in baptism and discipleship, His Ascension is the event that makes heaven possible for us. Our Lord’s Ascension into heaven gives us an opportunity to reflect upon where we will go after death, and what we can do now to prepare for it, hence the title of this pastor’s column.

We should all have the Four Last Things memorized: death, judgement, heaven or hell. While everyone will eventually end up in one of these two places, getting to either one isn’t necessarily an immediate event. In fact, there are six possible places a soul can immediately go to after death; one of them even before judgement, here they are: Hell, Haunting, Purgatory of Limbo, Limbo, Purgatory of Heaven, the Beatific Vision of Heaven.

Hell. Souls who are bound for hell go there immediately after their judgement, and their judgement is a quick one. There is no appeal, no attempt at one. People who go to hell know they deserve it and belong there for eternity. Enough said.

Hauntings of a place or persons can either come from demons (fallen angels) or people. A person in hell can haunt people and places on earth in much the same way a demon does. What is less understood are the people who are not in hell, yet haunt a place or persons. It turns out, that in some rare cases, a deceased person doesn’t immediately stand before God for judgement; rather they stay in the place where they died, or remain attached to someone for a period of time before moving on to their judgement before God. This period of time can last days, weeks, months, years, even generations. When this does happen, it is usually because that person’s death was sudden, without time for reflection, such as a car accident, drowning, etc.; or their death involved some kind of violence or injustice; murder, death in battle, suicide, or a life of torment by another. The soul that haunts remains fixed on their death or the circumstances around it, not proceeding yet to their judgment before God. After they have processed their death enough, they move onto their final judgment before God. Our prayers of the dead include these unfortunate souls who haunt, helping them to move onto God and their final judgment.

Limbo. “I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” ~ Jesus ~ Jn 3:5. We don’t hear much about Limbo anymore, and the current catechism doesn’t directly address it, yet the Fathers of the Church did. The Church Fathers are those saints from the first six centuries. Where they taught on a subject with uniformity, we know what they taught was true and remains true for all time. Where they were divided on a teaching, the Church remains uncertain along the lines they were divided on. On the issue of salvation for the unbaptized: some Church Fathers taught that people who died without baptism were damned to hell; while others held that righteous people who died without baptism couldn’t go to heaven, yet they also didn’t believe that all of them were damned to hell either. Thus the theory of a state of existence outside of heaven or hell was hypothesized. This state is called Limbo. While this subject is worthy of a pastor’s column in itself, for now I’ll say that people who die without baptism either: haunt (see above), go immediately to hell (see above), go into a purgatory (purification) for Limbo, or in extremely rare cases go directly into Limbo.

One possible outcome for those in Limbo is ultimately entry into the beatific vision of heaven. Just as Jesus Christ liberated the souls of the righteous in Sheol at His death (the abode of the dead), so too is there a belief that Jesus Christ will liberate the souls in Limbo at His Second Coming, when He comes to judge the living and the dead. These souls naturally need to be free of sin and its consequences before they can enter heaven, hence their own purgatory in Limbo. Those souls who aren’t baptized who have completed their purgatory, enter Limbo proper where they are free of all suffering, but don’t enjoy the beatific vision of heaven yet. Both Blessed Ann Catherine Emmerich and Venerable Mary Agreda saw both states in their mystical revelations; those suffering in Limbo’s purgatory, and those whose purification was complete and no longer suffering in Limbo proper awaiting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

Now we move into more familiar territory, the Purgatory of Heaven and the Beatific Vision of Heaven.

The purgatory (or purification) of heaven, is for those who were baptized and are not damned. These people suffer purification for what they were responsible for on earth; what evil (even venial) they did in thought, word and deed; and what they failed to do in thought, word and deed that God wanted them to do. After these sins have been paid for through the remorse of purgatory (in many cases, very painful and very long) then the Lord lifts them into the beatific vision of heaven. “I tell you solemnly, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.” Jesus ~ Mt. 5:26.

Finally, there are those very rare souls who go immediately into the beatific vision of heaven upon their deaths. These are the saints. This is what Our Lord wants all of us to strive for. Even if we should try and fall short, it will still be worth it for all the good we did in this life for God’s glory, and the salvation of souls; as well as the lessoning of our purification through remorse in Purgatory.

So there are two places all people will ultimately spend eternity in, heaven or hell; but six “places” that a person can go to immediately after death: Hell, Haunting, Purgatory of Limbo, Limbo, Purgatory of Heaven, and the Beatific Vision of Heaven.

All of this raises some important points for us to consider. The first is the importance of baptism. Jesus (God) commanded us to be baptized. Failure to do so has consequences in this life; loss of the grace of God to lead a holy life; and in the next life, an increased chance of Hell, and if not that, then Limbo at least until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

The second important take away for us is intercession for the dead. Our prayers and penances for the deceased do great good for them either in helping them to move on from haunting to their final judgement, or from the purgatory of Limbo into Limbo proper, or from the purgatory of heaven into the Beatific Vision of Heaven. In this regard great graces are released from God for those souls who have a funeral. Catholic Funerals are probably the single most efficacious thing we can do for a soul that is not already in the Beatific Vision of Heaven or in Hell. So make sure there is a Catholic funeral for you upon your death and encourage the same for your loved ones. “What you did for the least of these you did for Me.” Jesus ~ Mt. 25:40.

Finally this. It is very important to permanently inter the remains of the deceased. We bury bodies and ashes of the deceased in cemeteries. This “final resting place” does their soul great good. None of us would put a corpse in our home, or throw a corpse into a river, or dole out parts of it to family members. Yet people do that to the ashes of the deceased all the time. Remember, that a deceased person might be haunting, either because they haven’t gone onto their final judgement yet, or because they are in Hell. You don’t want them haunting you through the remains of their body. There is a special connection even after death between a soul and their body, it’s why the Church uses relics of Saints to intercede for us from Heaven. So make sure all the remains of the deceased are permanently interred in a cemetery.

My pastor’s column next week will be on Funerals, their importance and how to go about having one for yourself or others.

May the Exalted and Glorious Christ Bless You,