Two men went up to the temple to pray: The Pharisee said, “God … I am not like the other men — robbers, evildoers, adulterers: I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get. “The other man said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” God said, “The one who praised himself will be humbled and the one who humbled himself will be admired” (Lk.18:14).
Likewise many people call themselves “Good Catholics”. They enter the Church to pray like the Pharisee and say, ‘I am not like the other men — evil planners, exhibiting anger towards others and destroying nature in the name of development.
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I go to Church every day, I visit Shrines and give donations to repair Churches and charitable institutions, and I abstain from drinking ‘feni’ every year during Lent.
This in God’s sight is, “counter witness” of Christ; because it does not reflect the love and respect demanded by Jesus of his disciples. When mind, body and emotion, are without control it goes astray like a car moving on the road without brakes. God appreciates humility therefore prayers should be free from pride.
We all are the eternal Soul because it is the breath of God into our nostrils.
We are not the temporary body formed from the dust of the ground, which is the outer cover of the inner person (soul) that dwells in the body. The mind is a gift of God. Everyone who passes by, throw some ideas into our head. We have the choice to accept what is good and reject what is bad. Otherwise, we become prisoners of the trash collected in the mind — prisoners of superstitions, worry, anger and various other harmful wants.
The soul with its brief stay inside the body gets influenced by the thoughts in the head and thus gets stained. Just like the pure water in the clouds when it falls on the ground as rain, it mixes with mud and gathers impurities. The thoughts in the mind forces the action of the body towards the wrong desires of the heart; and then the result is as what Milton wrote: “The mind …can create a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.”
Jesus says, “Love one another as I have loved you and people will know you as my disciples.” (John 13:34-35). We are witnesses of Jesus Christ when we live and reflect His teachings and help others to learn of and follow Him. We believe that those in Heaven bore witness to Christ; which does not mean that they were perfect or sinless. They did not allow their mind to control their soul. They aggressively worked to improve themselves spiritually and tried to be better and grow in holiness by living up to His teachings. Their soul protected their body to be strong, healthy with food and exercise. Thus they gained their place in Heaven after purification in purgatory.
On November 2nd; on All Souls’ Day, the Church prays for the souls of the faithful who are still suffering in purgatory; who, it is understood, cannot immediately attain Heaven but can be helped by people on earth, to do their purification with prayer, alms, fasting, sacrifices and Requiem masses, so that they may soon go to heaven. So, on this “All Souls Day”, let us pray for all those who are suffering in purgatory.
