Death is inevitable, but damnation is not

Death is inevitable, but damnation is not

In a world that often seeks to distract us from life's ultimate questions, the Church this week offers a bracing and merciful truth: death is inevitable, but damnation is not.

Drawing from the Sunday readings, we are reminded of the words of St. Paul in Romans: "Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death." Yet the Apostle immediately points to the greater reality of grace. Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more.

The Gospel from Matthew echoes this hope with a call to holy fearlessness. "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul," Christ teaches. The one we are to fear is not the world, but the One who has power over both body and soul in Gehenna.

Yet this fear is not the terror of a slave, but the reverence of a child. For as the Psalmist proclaims, "The Lord hears the poor, and does not spurn those in bondage." The message is clear: our eternal destiny is not a matter of fate, but of choice. We are called not to despair over the inevitability of death, but to embrace the mercy that makes damnation avoidable.