“He has risen, He is not here; see the place where they laid Him.’” (Mark 16:6).
I have been reflecting on a story about Saint Padre Pio…
Saint Padre Pio experienced many visions and visitations of Holy Souls from Purgatory. Once, Saint Padre Pio had an apparition of a Holy Soul from Purgatory, who was suffering. The soul asked the Saint for prayers. Saint Padre Pio offered to offer the Sacred Mass for the Holy Soul the following day. When the Soul heard that it would have to wait until the next day to receive the Graces of those prayers, it cried, “Cruel!” and then, weeping, the soul disappeared…Saint Padre Pio said, “That complaint produced in me a wound to the heart that I have felt and I will feel my whole life. In fact I would have been able to immediately send that soul to Heaven but I condemned him to remain another night in the flames of Purgatory.”
And I have been thinking about this Holy Soul and other Holy Souls as I have been going about my day. You see, if a dog was suffering, I would have the dog put down so that it would be put out of its misery. I would not want the dog to suffer, because it would be painful to me to see an animal suffering. And yet, there are thousands – perhaps millions – of Holy Souls suffering in Purgatory, and I barely flick an eye towards them.
Saint Jacinta of Fatima was granted a vision of Hell by the Blessed Virgin. She later said that is people could only see Hell they would do everything in their power to avoid going to Hell…
And we have a way out of these things – we have the resurrected Christ… Christ suffered and died for love of us…
“And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus... uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last... And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen... And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, ‘Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, He is not here; see the place where they laid Him.’” (Mark 15:33-39, 16:1-6).
And I have been thinking about this today as I have been going about my day. For it seems that I have made myself deaf and dumb and blind to the complaints of the Holy Souls in Purgatory. And because of that, they are suffering on and on and on as I continue to live my life free and happy, without a care in the world, when in fact, I could release them from their suffering, with just a few small prayers… Shame on me…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Comments