Man Can Become The Author And Maker Of His Own Everlasting Bliss

The Lord's promise registered in the Apocalypse (11,10), '' Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life," points out to us all our sublime earthly task in the clearest language.

Whoever fails to merit God's remunerative crown will fall into the hands of His punitive justice, the awful lot which the sinner himself freely and deliberately chooses. 

As it is stated in several parts of this work, the final decision as to the place where eternity is to be spent lies in the power and will of man himself—either eternal happiness or eternal misery, either heaven or hell. Such is the choice which he must make before departing from this world. With the help of divine grace, which is granted to all in answer to prayer, man can become the author and maker of his own everlasting bliss. No one will be reckoned among the elect unless he deserves this lot by his own earnest efforts. On the other hand, no one will be counted among the reprobates unless he brought upon himself that greatest of evils, the loss of celestial bliss. In the light of eternity our temporal life acquires a value and a significance which are truly astounding, nay, overwhelming.

Either man chooses the arduous and steep path of virtue, which leads to heavenly happiness, or runs headlong on the broad way of sin, which brings him to perdition, that is, everlasting misery. 

This is the alternative presented to all by Jesus Christ in His Gospel. Here there is no neutral ground for us to stand upon, for He tells us: "He that is not with Me is against Me." No mortal that has reached the use of reason can evade this dreadful alter

Link (here) to the position of the book entitled, The Future Life by the one time Superior of the California Mission Fr. Joseph Casimir Sasia, S.J.