Looking forward to Heaven with great joy

By Wendy Shaw

There IS life after death, and it is something to look forward to.

That was the key message from Fr John Flader, who gave a presentation entitled ‘Dying To Live: Preparing For Life After Death’ at St Peter’s Catholic Church Hall, Youngtown, on 15 October.

About 60 people of all ages, from parishes throughout the North, attended the talk.

Fr Flader, 85, was born in Wisconsin, USA and studied chemistry at Harvard, theology at the Roman College of the Holy Cross in Rome and Canon Law in Pamplona, Spain. He was ordained a priest of Opus Dei in Spain in 1967.

He is a Catholic newspaper columnist and blogger and has penned a number of books, including Dying To Live; The Final Exam; From Time to Eternity; and Life After Death.

He spent five ‘happy’ years as chaplain of the University of Tasmania from 1992 to ’97.

“In addition to Heaven, which we have to look forward to, people … should be aware that there is a Hell too, so that we can help people we might know, who seem hell-bent on going there, to avoid it; to change their lives,” Fr Flader said as he outlined his presentation.

“Purgatory is the big reality that most people tend to ignore, and it is probably the state that most of us will go to for some time. Purgatory is a happy place too, but it is a place of purification, suffering, and joy.

“And Heaven is, well it can’t be described as St Paul wrote, ‘What the eye has not seen nor the ear heard …’

“People who have been there in near-death experiences can’t describe it, but when they come back to life, they don’t fear death anymore and they are just longing for Heaven, and they all come back transformed for the better.

“One of the common experiences is they get to love more. They experience love in Heaven and they come back to Earth and having experienced love, they want to live love more – love for others and so on.

“And then the Judgement … Based on the Parable of the Talents, we can expect that we will be judged in accordance with the talents we have been given so God will ask more of people like me, who have been given so much, than He will of so many other people.

“He has given us the grace, and as long as we use that grace well, we don’t have to fear the Judgement.” 

The presentation was organised by Fr Damien Sladen, administrator of the Kings Meadows Parish, and a hard-working team of parishioners, together with the Archdiocese of Hobart’s Director of the Office of Life, Marriage and Family, Mark Griffin.

Fr Sladen said he was keen to provide both practical and spiritual support to parishioners and made the presentation available to the wider Catholic community. The event had been months in the planning, with the help of a parish team who focus on spiritual and pastoral matters.

“I knew this would be helpful to my parish,” Fr Sladen added.

Mr Griffin said the presentation aimed to “provide clarity on the Christian understanding of life, death and eternal destiny”.

“The hope is that participants take away a deeper understanding of what the Church teaches on this important topic,” Mr Griffin said.

“Death is confronting, but when considered in the context of being an essential stage in our journey towards our Lord in eternity, we, as Catholics, have so much incentive to live our lives well, and with great hope, in preparation for when our time comes.”

Mr Griffin said Fr Flader’s four books on this topic can be ordered via the Office of Life, Marriage and Family (email: mark.griffin@aohtas.org.au).