November is a month we focus on the last things, death, judgment, heaven, and hell. So many people today would like to ignore this aspect of our faith. We don't want to hear any hell fire and brimstone homilies any more.

One of the little read chapters of Vatican II, is Lumen Gentium's chapter 7. "The Church, to which we are all called in Christ Jesus, and in which we acquire sanctity through the grace of God, will attain its full perfection only in the glory of heaven, ...".
Further, "Since however we know not the day nor the hour, on Our Lord's advice we must be constantly vigilant so that, having finished the course of our earthly life, we may merit to enter into the marriage feast with Him and to be numbered among the blessed and that we may not be ordered to go into eternal fire like the wicked and slothful servant, into the exterior darkness where "there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth"....

But at the same time, we must remember that the unity of the Church makes our lives here on earth a part of heaven. "Our union with the Church in heaven is put into effect in its noblest manner especially in the sacred Liturgy, wherein the power of the Holy Spirit acts upon us through sacramental signs. Then, with combined rejoicing we celebrate together the praise of the divine majesty; then all those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and gathered together into one Church, with one song of praise magnify the one and triune God. Celebrating the Eucharistic sacrifice therefore, we are most closely united to the Church in heaven in communion with and venerating the memory first of all of the glorious ever-Virgin Mary, of Blessed Joseph and the blessed apostles and martyrs and of all the saints."

This Sacred Council accepts with great devotion this venerable faith of our ancestors regarding this vital fellowship with our brethren who are in heavenly glory or who having died are still being purified; and it proposes again the decrees of the Second Council of Nicea, the Council of Florence and the Council of Trent. And at For all of us, who are sons of God and constitute one family in Christ. as long as we remain in communion with one another in mutual charity and in one praise of the most holy Trinity, are corresponding with the intimate vocation of the Church and partaking in foretaste the liturgy of consummate glory.

Every Sunday we pray that we believe in the Communion of Saints. This communion is our tie to all those who have gone before and are here on earth. We are a family in this life and in the next. Our challenge today is to live so to claim our destiny after we die. In the meantime, the saints in the fullness of heaven, pray for us daily before the throne of our heavenly Father.

Let's take this month and concentrate on the final things, death, judgment, heaven, and hell. These last things are reality. If we put them off too long, it will be too late. Neither of us knows that day or the hour. Let us be prepared.