Hello, all! Yesterday, my husband and I visited some friends we had not seen since university days, and they had another Catholic couple with their children visiting, as well. As we chatted with the couple, we learned that the husband had been a seminarian for several years (in a very traditional seminary) before he discerned that he was being called to married life instead. One of the topics we discussed was our individual experiences with COVID: how ill we had been, how many times we had contracted it, etc. He shared that he had been on his deathbed (devastating for his young family at the time), and that it was only through Divine Providence that he survived the ordeal. There is something he explained, though, that stayed on my mind for the rest of the day. While deathly ill, he had a near-death experience where he described not being able to advocate for himself AT ALL. He said he was in such a state of delirium, he could not pray, could not think of God in that moment, could not defend himself from anything in the least. I likened it to the souls in Purgatory not being able to pray for themselves, but instead relying solely on our prayers to help bring them some relief and expedite their exit. He affirmed that comparison, but continued to stress that he was made aware of the fact that his entire faith life up to that point was completely moot because of the state he was in, this state of not being able to give his fiat if his soul depended on it. Until now, I had always heard that saints we are close to may actually assist us at the hour of our death (and Mary, of course, especially through the Brown Scapular promises), and perhaps even a family member who made it to Heaven. Since we are attacked at that crucial and vulnerable moment, it always made sense that we could receive some extra help in giving our final, definitive yes to Jesus then. But this person made it seem that unless your faith life is rock-solid, not a one of us stands a chance at death. This would contradict so much of what I have read and heard about, for instance, people going through life completely against Christ, only to have a genuine conversion experience at the end, or even dying while in a state of mortal sin but being saved through other people's constant prayers for them. I am curious about your thoughts on this. He made it seem so hopeless, and it surprised me, given how seriously faithful his family seems.
