← The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
The Fr. Mike Schmitz Catholic Podcast
What I’d Tell Someone on Their Deathbed
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What do you say to someone when they're at their last moment of life? Fr. Mike Schmitz shares what he would tell someone who's dying and it might be different than what you think.
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If you were with someone who was about to die and they didn't have any faith, and you had one thing to say to them, what would you say to them? Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension presents. I've been thinking about this a lot. You know, it's so funny. It made me think about how many times when I'm presenting Christianity, presenting the church, presenting Jesus, we talk about in not just me, but we kind of. We talk about the gifts that having a relationship with Jesus brings to your life. That there's a freedom, there's an inner peace, there's meaning, there's purpose. Like, there's all of these things. You have faith, hope and love, right? You have those gifts that come by God's grace. When we trust in Jesus, when we have. We walk every day, get up, you can get out of bed every single day. Again, with purpose, with meaning, with a mission. You get out, you live every single day knowing that, oh my gosh, the Lord is real. He's here with me. I know my identity in Christ, and now I can walk with more freedom. Like, all those things are really, really good. But what if there's none of that? What if there's no more life to be living? What if this is the end of someone's life and you get to tell them one last thing? I think I would be more direct because there's an urgency, right? There's an urgency. And so what would I say? Maybe something like this, if they gave me permission? Maybe something like this. Something like, you know that you are at the end of your life. In a moment, it's going to be no more moments. In a minute, there will be no more time. I need you to know that God is real. I need you to know that you have a soul. You will close your eyes and open them, and the truth of your life will. Will be revealed. And you will see what you've chosen. You will either have chosen life with God or life eternity without God. And if you haven't chosen God, the default choice is not God. The default is eternity without Him. You need to know that God is so good. He's just. If you don't want him, he will not force you to have Him. And so you can actually choose, not God. You can choose not God for eternity. You can choose that insanity, the isolation, the maddeningness, the sorrow, the grief, the envy, the pride of eternity without God. But if you want, actually because of Jesus, because there was a point in time when God himself became one of us, and he lived as one of us, and he died as one of us. He sent his Holy Spirit that if you want to, you actually can live with Him. So you have a choice now. Because of Jesus, you have a choice. Do you want eternity without God or do you want eternity with God? Essentially, God allows us to choose. If you want not God, you can have not God. But because of Jesus, if you want God, you can have him for eternity. Pure love for eternity. You can have pure joy for eternity. You can have pure freedom for eternity because of Jesus. But he's not going to make you choose Him. Because to choose him is to begin to say, at least to begin to say that you trust him and that you love Him. Now, you might not know him enough to trust Him. You might not know him enough to love Him. But to choose him or to say, but I want you, Lord, is to begin to trust. It is to begin to love. That's what faith is. It's just even the beginning of trust. It's the beginning of love. But once again, to not choose him is to choose not him by default. It is to choose hell by default. If you would like to choose the Lord God right now, if you want to choose Jesus right now, we can baptize you right now. If you want to choose Jesus right now, let's do that right now. I think I would say something like that. But also, I know that that's not necessarily. That's. I'm not trying to convince anyone. All I'm doing there is inviting them to walk through a door. All I'm inviting them to do is to have some kind of response. Again, I don't know if you know that. Realize this. I wasn't saying. Well, biblical evidence points to the fact that Jesus is real and that Jesus actually rose from the dead. Historical evidence points to the fact that Jesus claims are actually historically verifiable. Like all those things, like, I didn't make any arguments, I didn't make any polemic. Essentially, there was no apologetics there. There was simply an invitation. You know Jesus when he tells the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, there's a dialogue between the rich man and Abraham. The rich man says he's in a place of torment. And he says, father Abraham, send Lazarus back to my brothers, or let me go back to my brothers. Send Lazarus. So send someone back from the dead to warn my brothers lest they come to this place of torment, this horrible place of torment. And Jesus has Abraham say, no, they have Moses and the prophets. So, yeah, but. Yeah, but yeah, but Father Abraham, if someone from the dead, if someone were to rise from the dead, then they would change. And Abraham says if they won't listen to Moses and the prophets, like if they won't listen to God's word already, neither will they listen. Even if someone should rise from the dead, it's very possible that someone can hear the invitation, even they can hear the arguments and not respond. So here's what I would do last. I would ask them if I could pray. I mean, all of this, right, is predicated on the idea that they're allowing me to do this. I'm not barging into someone's room and trying to coerce them. If the door is opened and they want to hear what I have to say, this is what I would say. But if they're not interested, I would do this. I would pray the chaplet of divine mercy. Absolutely. I'd ask our ladies intercession, all the saints intercession. But then I prayed the chaplet of divine mercy. There are promises of Jesus to Saint Faustina, private revelation, but not contrary to the church. The church has like given some stamp approval there. They talk about the power of praying the chaplet of divine mercy in the presence of those who are dying. Even hardened sinners can repent. And there's stories upon stories of people who at the last moment of their life, because someone was praying, the chaplet of divine mercy chose God. So maybe this is a simplistic answer, but the question is if you only have a short window of time, what would you say? What would you do? And I guess in some levels, at least tonight, that's my answer. I think that's what I would say and that's what I would do. That moment is coming for every one of us. The fact of the matter is that moment is coming for each one of us where there will be no more moments, there will be no more opportunities in the future. There will be no more. Just give me one more chance. So why not right now? Why not either choose Jesus now or return to Jesus now? If you haven't been baptized yet, go to your local Catholic church and tell them I want to. I want to choose God. I want to have God. If you already Catholic, then go to confession, be healed, be forgiven, be restored. Wherever you are right now, just pray. We know that because of Jesus, if you choose God, you get God. So I guess choose God. Anyways, for all of us here at Ascension presents, my name is Father Mike. God bless.