The after life – the art of dying well

Apr 18, 2025

PETALING JAYA: The process of life after death remains largely shrouded in uncertainty, mystery and, occasionally, disbelief among the faithful who, despite coming to the faith as adults proclaiming it as the eternal life they seek.

What then is the cause of this disconnect? Seems like there are two reasons here. The first being there is little clarity in this area unless one has been formed according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) that provides the definitive Church teachings to the faithful. The second being the influence of non-Catholic assumptions that faith in Jesus Christ will suffice for salvation.

The Augustine Institute in the United States has produced a four-part video series on Eternal Rest, with the second installment titled The Afterlife. Building on this, the Grief Ministry of the Church of St Francis Xavier — whose mission includes supporting those in grief and providing psychosocial education to the bereaved — organised an event on March 20. The event began with a screening of the video, followed by a post-screening commentary from the parish priest, Fr Alvin Ng, SJ.

The topics covered in The After Life segment includes the particular judgement, an event at the entry to death where our friendship with God, or one lacking, becomes material to our journey of life.

Hell, which is the eternal separation from God, is brought into perspective. We are told that, when measures are not taken to avoid hell, with a life that is contrary to God, such a choice becomes ours alone.

While purgatory is often largely misunderstood, it is still good news — as one who died in the favour of God albeit with stains of sins, where the soul undergoes cleansing and purification to reunite with God thereafter.

Heaven is described as the entrance to a divine life of love with the Triune God where love is perfected and our hearts align with the Sacred Heart of Jesus

There is also the General Judgement at the end of time. While the Particular Judgement identifies with the individual, the General Judgement at the end of time will reveal how our lives affect others. Ultimately, it also discloses God’s providence, His love and mercy for His created beings.

The second part of the evening continued when Fr Alvin unpacked and reaffirmed the authenticity of the video segment shown as conforming to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Fr Alvin started by pointing to a faith truism that God, in His goodness, will not direct us to eternal damnation. It is the choices we make that lead us down such a path. In response to a related question on why a good God would see fit to create hell, the blanket reply is that creation or the attributed state of hell is not the creation of God but of sinners. In this regard, he also pointed out that heaven and hell are not places as commonly believed but states of being.

There was a query as to how the Church jubilee acts in penitence. Fr Alvin mentioned that the jubilee, as narrated from Old Testament times, is a reset of the wrongs committed. Such resets require that conditions must be fulfilled that include performing the sacrament of reconciliation and pilgrimage through the Holy Doors of designated churches. From Old Testament Scripture, we see that without a reset, the aggregate of sins can be overbearing and overwhelming, thus alluding to the mercy of God.

Something more profound that Fr Alvin shared is that at the point of passing from life to death, time as defined chronologically no longer surrounds the soul. Instead, we are governed by an attribute called Kairos that defers to moment and eternity but is outside the realm of time and space.

On a question concerning our preparedness for death, Fr Alvin reminded us of the parable of the ten virgins from the Gospel of Matthew, living each day as our last. Living to be more detached from this world and more attached to God helps us in our preparations.

The responses above were a small selection of a large sample of questions that were mostly addressed and responded. Feedback received from several participants indicated that they were better informed and formed from this event. --YC Hwang