Are sudden and unprepared deaths acts of Gods justice or of His mercy?
Such deaths are sometimes an act of justice, sometimes one of mercy. When a soul is timid and God knows it is well prepared to appear before Him, He takes it out of this world suddenly to spare it the terrors it might experience at the last moment. Sometimes, also, God takes souls in His justice. They are not for this reason eternally lost, but their Purgatory is much more severe and prolonged than it would otherwise have been, since they were either deprived of the Last Sacraments or received them hastily and so were unprepared for their passage into eternity. Others having filled up the measure of their crimes and having remained deaf to all inspirations of Divine Grace are taken by God out of this world so that they may not excite His vengeance still more. Is the fire of Purgatory like that of earth? Yes, with this difference, that the fire of Purgatory is a purification prescribed by God’s justice and that of earth is very mild compared to that of Purgatory. It is a shadow compared
