Padre Pio’s letter to Raffaelina Cerase, 1914: Baptism is said to be a copy of the death of Jesus. St. Paul says we are baptized “into his death” [Romans 6:3], in imitation of the death of our Redeemer. What the cross was to Jesus, then, baptism is for us. Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross to die in his flesh. We are baptized to die to sin, to die to ourselves. On the cross Jesus Christ had all his senses put to death, so we through baptism should carry the death of Jesus in all our senses. This is precisely what St. Paul says in his second letter to the faithful in Corinth: “[We are] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” [2 Corinthians 4:10].
—from the book Padre Pio’s Spiritual Direction for Every Day
by Gianluigi Pasquale and Marsha Daigle-Williamson Ph.D
1 thought on “Dying to Self”
Jesus never died and we won’t die too soulwise. My numerous exorcising experience proves that to me. Even on the funeral pyre the soul of the deceased can possess some weak souls.
But our souls can die by soul-disintegration in madness. When one becomes mad due to much anti love sin, his personality had already died even in this life. Then law won’t catch him for breaking
law, but may be kept in captivity.
But soul-parts of saints become strongly bonded by love-bond, as their internal spiritual love increases by their constant love-exercise. Therefore no tribulations even demise of their body can damage their souls. So Jesus and saints’ disfiguration or destruction of body didn’t affect their souls.
But weak believers like us can’t cross over to enternal heaven immediately after death but have to pass through purgatory. That purifies and strengthen our faith to make us love-heaven worthy.
Ofcourse our material body dies in time. Still we’ve not found a way to live eternally in this body. But they’re so many lasting people crossing century. Still they would die.
If we don’t have real connection with Jesus, the eternal life, our soul would can’t enter love-heaven.