"I feel sad for Protestants."

Yes, I actually said this about a half hour ago to my husband. We were just sitting down to dinner and he was asking how I was.

I had just come back home and heard very sad things on the radio. Christian radio. People actually called or e-mailed last week, upset that the afternoon drive hosts had said Whitney Houston could be in heaven.

Excuse me? Not only did she always state that she believed in Jesus, but even if she hadn't she could still be there! What kind of a merciless God do you think you serve? Certainly not the one I know and love.

The hosts were right---nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus. Except ourselves. The only unforgivable sin is to deny God's mercy, which He gives up to the moment of death.

That's right. The. Very. Last. Moment. Someone jumps off a bridge and repents on the way down? They get in.

St Faustina said there were moments of mercy those in heaven were astounded over, even past the point when someone is not conscious!

I guess the point these people were trying to make was that Whitney died in her sin. My husband came back with "We all die in our sin. Sin is the reason we die."

So who causes the greater scandal here? The star with a bio chemical addiction she just couldn't help? Or the people who through their own free will choose to judge the heart of another human being?

I'm gonna go with the radio host on this one. "I thought it wasn't our place to judge."

I may judge actions as evil (certain things, like abortion, are evil of themselves), but I never say the people who commit those actions are evil. The people who commit the evil may not even realize what they do is evil, but even if they do, it doesn't mean they are outside of God's mercy.

"Not even the person who designed this toy is in hell." (My joke about the noisy toy grandma and grandpa brought this weekend. Thanks guys!) "Heck, Hitler may not even be in hell." (Though I did state he could be spending a long, long time in purgatory right now. God's mercy balanced with God's justice only makes sense in the context of purgatory. More Catholic balancing for you...)

So, to the folks at Westboro Baptist (who sang "God will always hate you" in Whitney's honor) and those who called into the radio show--God's mercy is beyond no one. NO ONE!

God can not hate. He is love. He loves us all no matter what our sins. (And we all have them.) He just loves us all too much to keep us that way. He asks us to grow. He is ALWAYS calling us back to Himself.

So, yes, I feel sad for Protestants (and any Catholics or people of any other faith or no faith) who think they themselves or those they love never did/never will make it to Heaven.

God's love for you and His mercy are so far beyond anything you ever thought before. Once we all understand that maybe we can start offering that mercy to one another.