THE GREATEST EXPERIENCE OF
LOVE
Mini Judgment Experience
As told to Attorney Kevin McCarthy
Guest speaker Attorney Kevin
McCarthy, Indianapolis,
IN, addressed a
Marian group at the Salesian House in
Maynooth,
Ireland. In his talk he
described a profound experience of
the mini judgment
by his friend
Gary. Gary (not his real
name) is of the
Anglican faith.
In his introduction Salesian
Father Michael Ross
explained the attitude of
the Church regarding the mini
judgment.
The Church is very slow and
careful in its
determination. We are free
to use our own discernment.
He quoted the following
October 2, 1992, message
of Our Lady to Father
Gobbi, which speaks of a mini
judgment.
“Your liberation will coincide
with the termination of iniquity,
with the complete
liberation of all creation
from the slavery of sin and
evil. What will
come to pass is something so
very great that it will exceed
anything that has
taken place since the
beginning of the world. It
will be like
a judgment in miniature, and each
one will see his own life and all he
has done,
in the very light of God.” The
speech given by Kevin McCarthy
follows:
“I don’t know if what I am
about to tell you was
the mini judgment, but I’ll
let you decide for yourself.”
“This friend of mine, Gary
became interested in
the Rosary. He attended
the Anglican Society of
Mary. The Society
in the United States advocates
everything that Marian Catholics
believe.
They pray the rosary, are
against artificial birth control,
participate
in Marian devotions, etc. My first
reaction to Gary was, Why do you stay
in the Anglican
community? He said,
“We ask ourselves the same question.”
It’s a great miracle that
the Blessed Virgin has
become the great star of this
nation. Since the Second
Vatican Council
in the Catholic Church many priests
look upon the doctrine of the Blessed
Virgin Mary
as an impediment to
unification. It has been my
belief that
Mary leads the way to unity in bringing
Protestants back to the feet of Jesus
and to the
chair of Peter.
An interesting thing about
Gary’s experience is
that he wanted to come to
Mass in the Catholic
Church. After I had
gone to his Episcopalian service
one Sunday, he attended our Catholic
Mass and
went
up and received
Communion. Afterward I very
gently explained
to him the guidelines, that
since he was not a member of the
Church, he should
not receive
Communion. I later told him
that they were
starting a Perpetual Adoration
Chapel at the parish of St. Louis de
Montfort.
He could go there and
participate in the Eucharist as a
Protestant by
worshiping Jesus present
in the Sacrament even though he could
not consume
the Body of Christ.
“So he started to go to the
Chapel. About
six months later he called me
and said, “I began to go
there. I don’t
know why, but I feel I am called to
go on Saturdays. I thought
that was beautiful
because Saturdays are
dedicated as a day of Our Lady.
“After about a year of
worshiping the Eucharist
at the Chapel, he called
me one day and said. “I need to go to
confession
to a Catholic priest.” I told
him that under normal circumstances
one had to
be a member of the Church in
order to go to confession to a
Catholic priest.
Then I asked him if Jesus was
calling him to become a
Catholic. He had
said all along that he felt Jesus wanted
him to remain in the Anglican
community long enough
to bring other souls with
him when he became Catholic.
“Gary repeated, “I am not
going to join the church,
but I must go to
confession.” Two days later
I talked to
him and said that we must get
together but that I was unable to do
so that day.
The following day, a
Tuesday, I called again. His wife
said, “He’s
gone to St. Louis de Montfort
to the Eucharistic Chapel.”
I thought this
was most unusual on a
workday. I met Gary there
and he said he
was up all night and that he
had this call to go before the
Eucharist.
Then he said, “I’ve had the
warning.” I asked him what
he meant by saying
I’ve had the warning? He
replied, “I’ve had the great
purification as I
prayed before the Eucharist, and I
need to go to confession very badly.”
We then talked about a
priest I knew who would
hear his confession at
the end of the week. He was
a priest who
would be in town, and I felt he
would be understanding.
“The next time I saw Gary
was Thursday. He
came to the door of my
office. I saw he had been
weeping.
This is a guy who was not
emotional.”
He played baseball in
college and played golf on
a regular basis. He
never got excited about much of
anything.
I had never seen him this
emotional. He said, “We’re
going to have
to do something. I need your
help. I have to have this
thing called absolution.
I just attended a meeting in
the largest boardroom in the city and
every ten
minutes I was crying. “He
continued, “Look I am a miserable
wreck.
I have seen my soul. God has
shown me my soul as He sees
it. It was the
worst experience I have ever had
in my life, but at the same time it
was the greatest
experience of Love I’ve
ever had. I’m not worthy to
even know God,
but I love God so much that I
want to do this.”
“So I planned to make
arrangements with a priest
for the next day, but he
said, “No, no, no! It’s got
to be today.
I don’t deserve Purgatory until the
end of time. The way it
stands now, if I
don’t get absolution, I will go to
Purgatory until the end of time.”
“I told him that I would
cancel my appointments
for the day and take him
to a priest. But I asked
him to tell me
more about this experience. He
explained, “It comes in three
waves. The
first thing I began to see was every
instance in my life that I committed
a serious
sin since the time I was about 7 or 8
years old. Very vividly I
remembered all
the people who were there, the room,
the scene, everything. It flashed
before my eyes.”
I asked him if it was like a
vision. He said, “No it was
like a reawaking
of a very vivid memory, switching
from each instance to the
next. That’s what
Catholics call mortal sins.” I asked
him how he knew that. He
answered, “Because
part of the experience is
infused knowledge. I was
given a teaching
on the Catholic Church-the one
true Church- the only true Church,
that the other
churches are mistaken.
But this Church has much evil in its
structure
right now. Notwithstanding, it
is the only place that I can receive
this thing
called absolution other than
from a Greek priest – an Orthodox
priest.”
“So, I said, tell me more
about this. He
continued, “Well, I saw all the
deadly sins I committed.
Then it started
all over again, and I saw all of
the intentional sins that are not
deadly.
There were occasions where I
knew better than to say something bad
about a
person, but I was in a
group and people were making negative
comments
about a person and
putting someone down. I
just went ahead
and joined the conversation.
Although I had a little twinge of
conscience,
I went ahead because
everyone else was doing it.
I saw every
instance of that in my entire life.”
“Gary continued, “Now I will
tell you the bad news
and the good news.
The good news for you is that you
will not get
wave one and wave two. You
go to Mass and communion every day
and confession
often. But you will get
wave three.” I asked him,
“What is wave
three?” He said, “I saw every time
that I went into a Catholic Church
and did not
genuflect and give
reverence in front of the tabernacle
of the Blessed
Sacrament. I
would rather experience anything than
what I experienced
in that
third wave, let alone the first two
waves.
No one is going to be
prepared for this.”
“I finally got the car and
asked him, do we really
have to go today?” Gary
said, “Look, I believe that if I
don’t go and
get this thing called absolution
from a Catholic priest today, that I
will be dead
tonight.” I said, Gary,
you’re not going suicidal on
me. He replied,
“Oh, absolutely not! I
couldn’t do anything that is
sinful. I would
have the most terrible pain in
my heart and the most terrible sense
of offending
the Love of God. For
the last few days I couldn’t do
anything wrong
even if I wanted to.
“Well, that ‘s very
interesting, I said, but what
do you mean you will die
tonight. He said, “Well I
am going to die
of a broken heart. My heart is
breaking. This is the
greatest grief that
you could ever imagine. I don’t
know if my soul can stay in my body
anymore.
It’s the greatest experience
of love.”
“So we went to the chapel.
And I knelt in front
of the tabernacle and
prayed. I asked God, Please
let this man
make a perfect confession. He
made a 1-1/2 hour confession, and he
came back
and is the most well balanced
happiest man I know. He is
now in the process
of becoming Catholic.”
“As a footnote,
the next day one of the things
I investigated as a lawyer in
regard to the laws of the Church, I
looked up
the Canon law. I
questioned how a priest could give
absolution
to someone who is not a
member of the Catholic
Church. The rule
says that a baptized non-catholic
may receive absolution from a priest
if they are
in danger of death, or they
may receive absolution for another
grave reason
as approved by the bishop.
Gary later told me that if he had not
been baptized,
all he would have needed was
baptism.”
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