Created to Fear God

At death a person is cut off from the world entirely. There is no coming back to finish what was left undone, and nothing more that can be done for one’s family. Beast and human alike draw breath and return to the dust, but they differ in this: the spirit of a person goes up to God, while the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth.

If someone who bears a holy spirit lives like a beast, that sin will be judged when they meet God. Hezekiah was given fifteen more years after a mortal illness, and the son born to him in that time was Manasseh, who set up idols in the temple and committed the evil of making his children pass through the fire. In the story of the rich man and Lazarus, too, the rich man who had lived in luxury on earth begged in hell for a single drop of water, while Lazarus, who had gone hungry, forgot every earthly sorrow in Abraham’s bosom.

Since no one knows what tomorrow will bring, all a person can do is live today in goodness and honesty. No one should wound those close to them for the sake of their own feelings and pride; while there is still life, they must love, forgive and share. Whoever fills today with faith in this way has no fear of death, and even on this earth tastes beforehand the peace of heaven.