NEVER has Twitter overflowed with anguish over the deaths of so many people succumbing to Covid-19. There is a continuing flow of tweets for prayers for loved ones who have died while waiting for space in hospital rooms, of bursts of anger over such deaths as government bungles, of desperation over a fatal fate that the bereaved hold as preventable.
"It's getting nearer," now goes that already hackneyed Covid-19 epithet being traded more and more on Facebook as the virus stalks nearer. And, with the word death still being avoided, it's really stark death, one that could be made so solitary and isolated in a hospital room, that terrorizes.
But the inevitability of crossing the veil (such euphemism to ease terror) is there and, especially if one is Catholic, must be faced in the light of the many revelations from Heaven of what surrounds death. Already, I have shared information on this in my series based on the Unpublished Manuscript of Purgatory, among other information culled from various apparitions of Our Lord Jesus and the Blessed Mother, mostly in our urgent days.
Knowing more about what happens during and after death should ease the pain of separation.
Let me thus share what Jesus said about dying in his own words conveyed to and put on record by mystic Maria Valtorta whose work, initially titled Poem of the Man-God, was endorsed by St. Padre Pio and guaranteed as truthful by the Blessed Mother in her Medjugorje apparitions.
Jesus said:
"I, I who had to die, who understood what it is to die, after having taught men to live calling the Most High Yahweh 'Father', see then that I have taught you to die without terror, calling 'Father' the God who rises again or makes Himself more present to the spirit of him who is dying amidst the spasms of agony.
"'Father!' Do not fear. You who are dying, do not fear this God who is Father! He does not approach as a judge, armed with judgment book and axe. He does not approach as a cynic, snatching you away from life and loves. He comes opening His arms to you, saying: 'Come back to your home. Come to rest. I will pay you back with interest for what you are leaving here behind. And I promise you this: on behalf of those you are leaving behind, in My bosom you will be more active than if you remain here below in a struggle which is frenzied, and not always rewarded with success.'
"But death is always sorrow. Sorrow by virtue of the physical suffering, sorrow by virtue of the moral suffering, sorrow by virtue of the spiritual suffering. Here is something I already said: death must be sorrow for there to be a means of ultimate expiation in time. And in a swirl of mists, which through alternating events, blot out and reveal what in life has been cherished and what in life made us fearful of the realities beyond, the soul, the mind, and the heart, like a ship seized in a great tempest, pass from calm areas -- already in the peace of the imminent port now close at hand, within sight, and so serene that it already gives a blessed tranquility and a sense of repose like that of one who, having come almost to the end of a wearisome labor, anticipates the joy of the rest which is at hand -- they pass into a zone where the tempest buffets them, strikes them and causes them to suffer, to fear, to groan. It is again the world, the frenzied world with all its tentacles: the family, the business. It is the anguish of the death struggle. It is the fear of the final step... And then? And then....? Darkness overruns and suffocates the light; it hisses its terrors.... Where any longer is heaven? Why death? Why must one die? And a death rattle is already in the throat: 'I don't want to die!'
"No, My dying brothers, you die because to die is just, to die is holy, being the will of God. No. Do not cry out so! This shout does not come from your soul. It is the Enemy who influences your weakness to make you say this. Change the rebellious and cowardly shout into a cry of love and trust: 'Father, if it is possible, let this chalice pass from me.' Like the rainbow after the storm, look how this cry brings back the light, the calm. See heaven once again, the holy reasons for dying, the reward of dying, that is, the return to the Father. Understand that the spirit, too, the spirit indeed has greater rights than the flesh because it is immortal and supernatural in nature, and therefore has precedence over the flesh. Then speak the word which is absolution for all your sins of rebellion: 'Nevertheless, not my will but Yours be done.'
"This, then, is peace: this, then, is victory. The angel of God draws close to you, and comforts you because you have won the battle that makes you ready to turn your death into a triumph." (End of quote.)
And now, more information on the spectacular and believable Garabandal, Spain Marian apparitions in the 1960s. Again from Glenn Hudson, administrator of the Facebook group The Message of Garabandal, this quote from seer Conchita Gonzalez, who is his friend, in an interview last March 19. . The quote from Conchita is interesting as she, now already senior, comments on our apparently apocalyptic times.
Mr. Hudson: "I asked Conchita if she would be kind enough to offer some words of advice to all of us, in these troubling times. Here are her words."
Conchita: "God is detaching us from the securities of this world. In the silence of the Church or in our house, we are now able to make an examination of conscience so we can clean what prevents us from hearing the Voice of God clearly. With sincerity we can ask God to tell us what He wants of us today, and continue to do that every day. And spend as much time as possible with God at church or somewhere in your home or where you find the silence. He is all we need."
And then more from St. Michael the Archangel in his message via Luz de Maria de Bonilla on April 6, 2021. Excerpts:
"Children of the Most High: I come to call you to conversion. Conversion is personal... Decision is personal... The will to give up acts contrary to the good of the soul is personal... Attitude and disposition are personal... The willpower to cut out negative thoughts, laziness, tiredness, routine, as well as the willpower for obedience, is personal...
"....You have already been warned about what is to come, yet even so, you are not reacting according to the urgency of the moment. The great powers are moving towards participation in a confrontation that will culminate in the Third World War, which is why personal peace is so necessary, so that you would make a difference by being people who are bearers of Divine Love."