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It seems quite common these days to hear of Near Death Experiences (NDE’s), one type is where the person sees Jesus and feels the bliss of heaven and the other where a great sinner is reprimanded and given a second chance and sent back with a warning for humanity.
The other day I found a German Catholic pamphlet from the 1930’s with something a bit different. It was called ‘A Soul in Hell … the story of Annette’ .
Annette, who had died in her twenties, was (and therefore still is) in hell. Her testimony was given (by God’s command) to a friend who had been praying for her since her untimely death in a car crash. First she told her not to pray for her as there was no point. Then she told her about her life; her father and mother didn’t go to church more than twice a year, nor taught her to pray. She narrated how she had ignored the many opportunities of grace or conversion that were offered her by God even to the day of her death including the many admonishments given by her friend.
What I found most astonishing was that there was nothing startlingly evil in her lifestyle. She was charitable and served her mother during her illness. She was not a murderer, nor an adulterer nor thief or anything out of the ordinary; she was happily married, liked going out for the day or to the movies. She probably had a pleasant enough eulogy at her funeral.
But her heart rejected God. It was full of earthly desires, pleasures and strong attachment to creatures. The habit of prayer never formed in her, no meaningful communication with God nor desire to be reconciled and united with Him. And so at the moment of death as she was shown her life, through His eyes, she hurled herself directly into hell, having by then, no desire to repent nor change. Her indifference and coldness to all things holy was the reason for her loss. How many people do we all know who are just like her.
As to the torments of hell, apparently no one has ever exaggerated them.
The one thing that could have saved her was much prayer and sacrifice, her own and that of others on her behalf. As Annette put it “especially prayer to Her who is Christ’s Mother, and whose Name we never speak here (in hell).”
It’s a stern lesson.
