From John 3: “… the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”
Judas betrayed Jesus, and Peter denied Jesus. They both experienced the darkness and deep despair over their actions. However, Peter went to Jesus and asked for His forgiveness and came back to the light, while Judas did not believe that he deserved to be forgiven for what he had done, and remained in despair and darkness. To keep Judas into the darkness, we know that Satan got into his head to tell him that he didn’t deserve to be forgiven for the wicked act he had done. So Judas hung himself without asking for forgiveness.
We see how the Devil works when we read what Sr. Josepha Menendez writes in her book, The Way of Divine Love, describing what she heard when she had been taken to Hell to suffer for Jesus:
“The evil one was bewailing the escape of a soul: ‘Fill her soul with fear, drive her to despair. All will not be lost if she puts her trust in the mercy of that …’ (here they used blasphemous words of Our Lord). ‘I am lost; but no, drive her to despair; do not leave her for an instant; above all, make her despair.’ 1
“I heard a demon, from whom a soul had escaped, forced to confess his powerlessness. ‘Confound it all … how do so many manage to escape me? They were mine.’ (and he rattled off their sins) … ‘I work hard enough, yet they slip through my fingers … Someone must be suffering and repairing for them’ ” 2
After hearing the words of this demon, we really know that we can save our family and friends from darkness and Hell by our prayers, sacrifices (sufferings) and reparations for them. In Luke 14:27, Our Lord tell us, “Whoever does not take up his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” Our suffering is the greatest prayer that we can offer to Jesus. Part of our mission on earth is to pray and make sacrifices, joyfully carrying the crosses that we receive, for all of our family and friends to get them into the Kingdom, especially those who have turned their back on God and don’t go to Church any longer.
Occasionally, we will meet Jesus’ Cross in some painful illness, an economic disaster, the death of a loved one, … , but more often our crosses are less severe, such as loneliness, ridicule, opposition, unkind words, and malicious gossip. Those are all crosses that are not our choice, but like St. Therese of Lisieux, we can choose little crosses ourselves that we want to offer to Jesus out of our great love for Him. Some examples of these efforts would be: skip a dessert tonight, don’t take that second helping at the dinner table, spend an hour at Adoration, visit a sick parishioner, pray a rosary or offer a plenary indulgence for the souls in Purgatory, assist in preparing or serving a meal at a soup kitchen, place additional funds in the Sunday collection for a worthy cause or something as small as saying a kind word or doing a small act of kindness towards someone when we don’t want to. We must remember that those acts of kindness that we do for others while on our earthly journey will benefit us the most at our judgment before Jesus.
We don’t ever suffer alone, Jesus is always within us, encouraging us to help Him save the souls of our families and friends. We have a merciful Jesus, Who hears our every prayer. Call upon His grace to help us through difficulties, which we certainly can expect as one of His disciples. Prayer group leaders that I have talked to, often tell me that they are immediately under attack whenever they do something good for the Lord. So we can expect to be under attack, either directly or through someone else, when we pull souls from Satan’s clutches by our efforts to save them. It is important to remember that the greater the cross that we carry for Jesus, the greater will be the strength that He gives us to carry it.
We also remember to pray a Chaplet of Divine Mercy for all our family and friends who have been called from this short pilgrimage of life. We read in St. Faustina’s Diary of Divine Mercy:
“At the hour of their death, I defend as My own glory every soul that will say this chaplet; or when others say it for a dying person, the indulgence is the same. When this chaplet is said by the bedside of a dying person, God’s anger is placated, and unfathomable mercy envelops the soul, and the very depths of My tender mercy will be moved for the sake of the sorrowful Passion of My son.” 3
1 Sr. Josepha Menendez, “The Way of Divine Love,” Tan Books, 1981, 475
2 Ibid 474
3 Sr. Faustina, “Divine Mercy In My Soul – The Diary of Sister M. Faustina Kowalska,” Marian Press, 1987, [811]