Chapter 3 – The Beauty of Death
Along the way to his next destination, Daniel asks Azrael, “Do you know if I’ll ever see those people again? The people I judged?”
“You’ll know when you enter Heaven.”
“I’m honestly a little afraid of seeing them again.”
“Don’t be. Everyone in Heaven is friendly. They are saints after all.”
“Oh, that’s right. I don’t think I judged them rightly. All I knew was what I remembered of them. I don’t exactly have all the facts to make a good judgment of them.”
“At least you didn’t judge hypocritically, which is important. You judged your best based on what you knew. A lot of people judge others without thinking if they themselves are doing the things they are criticizing the other person for. At least you aren’t like them. Your past has humbled you and given you wisdom in judgment.”
Daniel can feel himself about to cry, but his new body is unable to shed tears.
“Oh, now look what you’ve done to the poor man,” Cherub says.
“I’m okay, Cherub. I just feel grateful that this is the way I am to you. Part of me felt like I didn’t deserve it.”
“You shouldn’t worry about your feelings as much as your reason,” Azrael says.
“I try not to. I try to control my reason, so it does not become madness and my faith does not become blind.”
“That’s very good of you and one of the reasons why you’re here.”
“Tell me, do you have any favorite people that you’ve guarded?”
“All of you are my favorites. I know that may sound like a cheap answer, but can you really value one saint over another? It’s similar to saying the color red is better than the color blue. You can only give personal reasons as to why you think this is true because there is nothing about the two colors that make one better than the other.”
“That makes sense.”
“Why? Would you get jealous if I said you weren’t my favorite? Would you feel some sense of being special of I said you were my absolute favorite?”
“No, no.”
Azrael and Cherub look at Daniel with a smirk on their faces, which gets Daniel to admit, “Ok, a little.”
The three share a little laugh before coming to the next place to turn in Daniel’s luggage. They’re at a hospital now. Azrael gives Daniel’s next piece of luggage to a nurse and Daniel enters a patient’s room.
Curious, Daniel says, “I thought I already dealt with death.”
“You dealt with the reality of the afterlife. Not death itself and how it acts on Earth.”
The walls, floor, and ceiling separate themselves from each other, which makes Daniel fall to the Earth below. He lands on a mountaintop that allows him to see all of the suffering in the world.
Azrael appears beside him and says, “Horrible, isn’t it?”
“It is.”
“You’re seeing how humanity hurts itself constantly every day. Men will blame God for the lack of good people and good things in the world when it is they who destroy them. You see how many people die in the conflict instead of finding ways to become neighborly with one another. Innocent lives are lost, and families are destroyed as a result.”
“Are you showing me the ugliness of death and war?”
“War is ugly since it consumes lives. Death, on the other hand, permanently separates the good people from evil. It is the only monster that deals justice. Death will eventually die itself, but until then, it will continue to plague mankind and be used by men who don’t fully comprehend its true power.”
“What about people who kill in self-defense or to protect a good cause or country?”
“They are granted mercy.”
“And yet I’m granted mercy as well?”
“You spent the rest of your life repenting for your sins. You are forgiven, obviously.”
As the war continues on Earth, Daniel can see angels aiding good people to defend them while others are used as puppets by demons.
“Your actions didn’t do much for this struggle on Earth. In Heaven, you will be more active just like the other saints.”
“How?”
“You are in the presence of God. How else do you think? People in Heaven are conduits for beings and the one above all who can enact actual change on Earth.”
“I can’t wait to be up there then.”
A rainstorm passes over Daniel, washing some of the stains off his body. The storm then passes over the people on Earth. The rain is refreshing to some people while it acts like acid to others. Daniel and Azrael are then lifted back into Purgatory and are back outside the hospital.
“I never thought I’d enjoy a rainstorm,” Daniel says.
“I, on the other hand, hate it,” Cherub says, “I’m always getting soaked while Azrael somehow manages to stay dry.”
“And I thank you for that, my friend,” Azrael says as he shakes off Cherub to get him dry.
Daniel laughs a bit as he feels his soul glowing brightly in the inside.
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