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Saving Dying Sinners

Author: Jan Bilewicz,
"Love One Another!" 39/2017
Divine Mercy

St. Faustina wrote in her Diary: “Oh, dying souls are in such great need of prayer! Oh Jesus, inspire souls to pray often for the dying” (Diary 1015).

In the Jubilee Year of Mercy we have thought more about what divine mercy is. Beyond that, we would like to receive it in the greatest possible abundance. No one can live without it. But we must also learn to display it. Blessed are the merciful! There is no less happiness in giving than in receiving. Even more! Beyond that, whoever gives also receives. Is St. Faustina’s request that the Lord Jesus inspire “souls” to pray for dying sinners still applicable? Of course – completely applicable!

There are more than seven billion people living in the world today. During the course of one day, around 160,000 of them will die (assuming there is no great catastrophe, such as an earthquake or tsunami, etc.). During the time that it takes you to recite The Lord’s Prayer, approximately 50 people depart this earthly existence; during the recitation of a decade of the rosary – around 500.

“Depart” is a better word than “die”, since it is only the physical body that dies, while the spiritual soul (ego, self-awareness) lives on after the death of the body. The Lord Jesus Himself teaches us the correct terms. In His farewell discourse shortly before His crucifixion He says “I am going to the Father” (J 16:10). Earlier Peter asked: “»Lord, where are you going?« Jesus answered, »Where I am going, you cannot follow me now; but you will follow afterward«” (John 13:36).

The final battle

All the great religions teach that human life continues after death, and that the quality of that life depends on the quality of earthly life. Eternal happiness is connected with the good performed, while eternal suffering is associated with evil actions. There is salvation and condemnation, heaven and hell. In order not to confuse good and evil, we received the Ten Commandments and Jesus’ teaching. Jesus is the Savior. The Savior tells us how to attain salvation. St. Peter says to Jesus: “You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). A dying Catholic avails himself of the sacraments (penance, anointing of the sick, the Eucharist), because he wishes for Jesus to be with him at the final moments of his earthly pilgrimage, and in the final battle.

To the last moment of one’s earthly pilgrimage a person has the opportunity to repent for any evil previously committed, and to turn to God, who wishes to save all His children. However, our eternal enemy – Satan – also understands this. This is why the final moments of the temporal life, which are decisive regarding eternity, can also be a dramatic battle especially for the sinner. On the one hand, he hears the last call to conversion, but on the other, the devil, to whom he had up to then been obedient, doesn’t want to release him from his grasp.

At Fatima, the Blessed Virgin said that many people are condemned because no one prays for them, nor does anyone offer up their suffering asking for graces required for their salvation. The children at Fatima were supposed to do this, and thereby deliver souls from hell. The Lord Jesus called St. Faustina to something similar. First He said: “I want to instruct you on how you are to rescue souls through sacrifice and prayer. You will save more souls through prayer and suffering than will a missionary through his teachings and sermons alone” (Diary 1767). And Further: “Pray as much as you can for the dying. […] Be assured that the grace of eternal salvation for certain souls in their final moment depends on your prayer” (Diary 1777). These calls from the Blessed Virgin and the Lord Jesus are also directed to each of us… The eternal fate of some people depends on our actions. We face a great assignment.

A television show recently showed a man who grabbed a mother and her small child out of a car as it was about to plunge into a river. Saving someone’s temporal life (which actually means to extend it for a certain time) is a great thing. How much greater a thing it is to save someone from damnation, that is, to save his life for eternity… We can do this! We can do these unimaginably great things!

Our prayers are always heard

St. Faustina writes: “The Lord came to me today and said: »My daughter, help me to save souls. You will go to a dying sinner, and you will continue to recite the chaplet«. […] Suddenly I found myself in a strange cottage where an elderly man was dying amidst great torments. All about the bed was a multitude of demons, and the family, who were crying. When I began to pray, the spirits of darkness fled with hissing and threats directed at me. The soul became calm, and, filled with trust, rested in the Lord” (Diary 1797-8). There’s an old saying that “As you live, so you’ll die”. In the spiritual sphere, there are no voids. If someone turns away from God by acceding to indifference, omission, ideologies which are hostile to religion, or by dwelling in sin, he thereby opens himself up to the operation of demons. This is what the person chose, and the Lord God honors our free choices, even though they will have the most tragic results. He loves us and suffers because of our wrong choices: He told St. Faustina: “The loss of each soul plunges me into mortal sadness”. And he added: “You always console Me when you pray for sinners. The prayer most pleasing to me is prayer for the conversion of sinners. Know, My daughter, that this prayer is always heard and answered” (Diary 1397).

St. Faustina’s vision makes us aware of what a great role prayer plays for dying sinners. It can save them, disperse demons, and introduce graces, thanks to which sinners can more easily return ack to God. Do they really turn back? With God’s help will they be in a state to overcome the effects of their ignoring of the Gospel – or even hostility to it – over the course of years or decades? We don’t know. However, St. Faustina encourages us to never lose hope, and to strenuously ask the Father for help. She writes: “God’s mercy sometimes touches the sinner at the last moment in a wondrous and mysterious way. Outwardly, it seems as if everything were lost, but it is not so” (Diary 1698).

However these words should not lull our vigilance. Many think that since God is “boundlessly merciful”, a person doesn’t have to make any special effort. It’s a fatal mistake! Of course the Lord God is merciful, but He also expects us to be responsible for our own fates, and those of our neighbors. We have freedom, hence, we have responsibility. St. John Paul II said: “God entrusted to men their own salvation […] He entrusted all to one and one to all” (Crossing the Threshold of Hope).

Tend to the dying

St. Faustina often “tended to dying souls”, begging for such grace “which is always victorious” (Diary 1698). Over what does it gain victory? Demonic enslavement, the consequences of sin and neglect, weakness. The saint tended the dying not so much by her physical presence, watching over dying sisters in her convent, but rather spiritually, praying for those dying at any given moment anywhere in the world. We can do the same.

The Lord Jesus emphasized that the Chaplet of Divine Mercy is particularly efficacious in saving dying sinners. “At the hour of death I defend as my own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or when others say it for a dying person” (Diary 811). In another place He says: “When they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between my Father and the dying person not as the just Judge, but as the merciful Savior” (Diary 1541).

We receive a simple instruction and encouragement. Praying the chaplet takes about 6 minutes, so in the time that it takes us to pray, somewhere in the world around 700 people (that’s equivalent to 14 full tour buses) will depart for eternity. Among them will be a wide variety of people: some prepared for the departure by the sacraments, and others who never even heard of the sacraments.

We invoke the intention: “I pray for all who will die in the time that I pray this chaplet, and especially for those whose salvation is threatened. Lord Jesus, stand between the Father and those souls as a merciful Savior, and do not let them be lost forever”.

Perhaps some will ask: “Should we pray for various strident atheists, terrorists, abortionists, drug dealers, and the like at all? They deserve hell, and they’ll get it. There must be justice!”… When a doctor receives a seriously ill patient in a hospital, he doesn’t need to consider whether the person deserves to be cured. If we succeed in snatching the devil’s victim away from him at the last moment, praise the Lord! Be joyful! And where is the justice? There is no justice on earth (as we well know from our own observations), but it does exist. There is justice and “a just Judge, who rewards good and punishes evil”. If they didn’t convert on earth, they will have to do penance in Purgatory. Purgatory is not a joke, there is suffering there. This painful (the saints tell us that it is sometimes as painful as hell) process rectifies those things that they hadn’t wanted to fix by their own will. It provides simultaneously a just punishment for unrepented sins as well as a 100 percent effective resocialization and spiritual renewal. Even though the stint in Purgatory might have to last a long time, in the end it transforms the greatest reprobates into saints. As long as they make it as far as Purgatory!

“The Lord came to me today and said: »My daughter, help me to save souls. You will go to a dying sinner, and you will continue to recite the chaplet«” (Diary 1797)

The next question that can come up in this context is the following: “Should we pray for adherents of other religions: Buddhists, Hindus, Moslems, etc.? They have their »gods«, their way, their means of salvation, so they don’t need our help”. Some even think and say that all religions are equally good in this regard. It would be very strange for a Christian to think this way. A Christian who doesn’t believe in what God says? Because God’s word explicitly establishes that Jesus is the only Savior of the world: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Prayer works

Do we know what effect prayer has on the dying? Andrzej Duffek offers an interesting testimony in his recently published book and DVD: On the Other Side of Life. Duffek suffered a serious accident. For almost two months he was on the edge of life or death. His life functions were artificially maintained by medical equipment. Many people were praying for him. In the book he tells about how he experienced their prayers: “It was as though someone assembled several hundred people and had them recite poetry all together but from different texts. It ends up sounding like one great »bzzz«. And from this din particular voices began to emerge. I heard »Hail Mary, full of grace…«, »Our Father who art in heaven…«, etc. individually. I heard my wife, I heard my sister. […] Then, in this »spiritual state« I managed to see myself simultaneously in the places where they were praying for me. This all happened at the speed of thought […]. I heard prayers which were being said for me during the mass. I don’t know from where, but I had the impression that it was celebrated in Cracow. […] Only after a few years did I find out that there was a mass celebrated for me in Cracow…”.

The rosary of the BVM

The Blessed Virgin asks us to pray the rosary for sinners. Let us fulfill her request. In the time it takes to pray the rosary – five full decades – around 3000 persons depart earthly life (that’s like three large churches filled to overflowing). We want to accompany them in these most important moments of their lives. Our prayer brings each of them beneficial results. Let’s humbly beg great graces for them. This is what St. Faustina did.

It would be essential to lift these people up to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, since as she herself said, victory comes through her heart: “Mother of God, I offer and entrust to your Immaculate Heart these who die during the recitation of this rosary. I entreat you to protect them from all influences of evil spirits, and ask for them the graces necessary for salvation”. It would be helpful to begin the prayer with a known exorcism: “August Queen of Heaven! Sovereign Mistress of the angels! Thou who from the beginning hast received from God the power and mission to crush the head of Satan, we humbly beseech thee to send thy holy Legions, that, under thy command and by thy power, they may pursue the evil spirits, encounter them on every side, resist their bold attacks and drive them hence into the abyss of eternal woe. Holy Angels and Archangels, defend us, guard us. Amen”.

After every Hail Mary we can repeat silently the act of entrusting the dying to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We can renew the act of committing them again to Her care, before whom the demons tremble, and who is the Mediator of Every Grace. What better thing could we possibly do for these brothers and sisters?!

After praying it is a good thing to remember what happened during the time that transpired. In the course of 30 minutes several thousand people departed into eternity. They are no longer among us. They were with us, and you accompanied them in those final moments. Your prayer helped all of them, and perhaps was even the instrument of their salvation from eternal damnation… No one is going to put you on television for this, or give you an award or recognition. So much the better. In this case “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14:14). It’s the best time and the best place for receiving an award!

Our crosses can have great meaning for the salvation of sinners, if we consciously offer them up to God

Only at this point do the rescued realize what their lives were like. They see how they harmed themselves and others. They also see hell, from which they were rescued at the last moment. This in turn will fill them with enormous gratitude towards God and towards you. The truth of the communion of saints makes us aware that the connection to these departed will not be broken. The souls in Purgatory cannot help themselves, but they can pray for the Church on earth. For whom will they be praying? Obviously, first of all, for those who helped rescue their eternal lives. Gratitude will link them to their benefactors with the most powerful connection which lasts forever. We shall have gained reliable friends and intercessors. And we can help them further.

Prayer for the dying may take different forms. Let’s find our own ways, not forgetting, however, that the Lord Jesus specifically recommends the chaplet, and the Blessed Virgin recommends the rosary.

Offering up suffering

We can also rescue souls by offering our difficulties, work, suffering, and free-will sacrifices so that by these offerings we may request the necessary graces for them. “I offered the whole day for dying sinners”, (Diary 873) St. Faustina wrote in the Diary. In another place: “Christ give me souls. Let anything you like happen to me, but give me souls in return. I want the salvation of souls…” (Diary 1426).

Our daily crosses are inevitable. Greater or lesser physical and moral suffering will accompany us for as long as we live on earth. Good is still mixed with evil, and joy with sadness and suffering. We are, after all, exiles from the heavenly garden. Suffering will end only when we return there.

Our crosses can have great meaning for the salvation of sinners, if we consciously offer them up to God. It’s best to do this during the mass, and specifically at the moment of transubstantiation, that is, when the unseeable Sacrificial Christ on the cross makes Himself present: “Father, I unite all my work, difficulties, and suffering of the past week (or day) with the suffering of Christ and offer them to You for dying sinners. Please grant the necessary graces to those who will depart mortal life today (in the course of the coming week), and whose salvation is threatened, that they may not be lost forever”.

“Oh how incomprehensible is God’s mercy that the Lord allows me by my unworthy prayer to come to the aid of the dying” (Diary 880). St. Faustina writes this time about herself. Why does she feel that God has conferred these graces on her so lavishly? Because the Lord invites her to an astonishingly important work – the salvation of the lives of others. And eternal lives at that! So He also gives her the opportunity to attain great, incomprehensible merit. Because the life of any person has immeasurable worth. These who are rescued will be a source of pride for her on the day of judgement, and of joy forever. Happy are the merciful!

And the Lord God wants to show us His “incomprehensible mercy” in exactly the same way. And we can respond to His invitation and rescue dying sinners. The person who wishes to respond will reap an exceptionally bountiful harvest, as per the word of God: “let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all” (Gal. 6:9-10).

Source: https://loamagazine.org/archive/2017/2017-39/saving-dying-sinners

The article was published with the permission from "Love One Another!" in April 2021.

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