He Thought It Was Just Art—Until Souls in Hell Cried for Justice

Have you ever caused someone to stumble—by something you said, did, or didn’t do?

In this sobering episode of Catholic Minute, we share a chilling story from Fr. Rossignoli Marvels of Purgatory—a tale of a gifted painter whose "innocent" immodest art led souls into sin… and whose judgment before God revealed the terrifying consequences of scandal. Some souls went to Purgatory. Others… to Hell. And they cried out for justice.

Transcript

Have you ever lead somebody into sin by something you said something you did something you wore or something that you didn't do now Jesus has some harsh warnings for those who cause other people to stumble it will be better for him to have a great Millstone fast around his neck and to be thrown down into the depths of the sea today we're going to look at a chilling story from the writings of father rosoli about a painter who thought his modest art was just that art until one day Souls cried out against them before the Judgment seat of God so as you watch this video ask yourself the question could the Scandal you cause Echo into someone else's eternity so this is our third story on purgatory and so we're glad that you're with us today Father rosoli recounts a chilling story in his which means marvels of Purgatory a painter of great talent yet misled by worldly influence once created an IM modest work that under the guise of art LED Souls astray one of the things that we should remember is that good art should lift our hearts and our minds to God uh but the opposite can happen as well a painter can use his artistic ability to detract from the glory of God and appeal to basically just the senses of the body well this young young man eventually realized his error he repented and he developed the rest of his life to doing religious works of art so one day towards the end of his his life he was working in a uh carlite Monastery working on this big beautiful painting but then he got sick and he felt like the end was getting near so he went to the head of the monastery and asked that when he died that he could be buried there and then he gave them a large sum of money he died in Pious sentiments and a few days passed when a religious who had stayed in the choir after matens which are morning prayers saw him appear in the midst of flames and sighing piously what said the religious have you endured such pain after leading so good a life and dying so holy a death alas replied he it is on account of the modest picture that I painted some years ago when I appeared before the tribunal of the sovereign judge a crowd of accusers came to give evidence against me they declared that they had been excited to improper thoughts and evil desires by a picture the work of my hand he continued saying that as a consequence of those thoughts those bad thoughts some people went to Purgatory where others went to hell and those in hell were crying out for vengeance saying that he deserved the same type of punishment then the Blessed ver virgin and the Saints whom I had glorified by my pictures took up my defense they represented to the judge that that unfortunate painting had been the work of Youth and of which I had repented that I had repaired it afterwards by religious objects which had been a source of edification to souls in consideration of these and other reasons The Sovereign judge declared that on account of my repentance and my good works I should be exempt from down ation but at the same time he condemned me to these Flames until that picture should be burned so that it could no longer scandalize anyone then that poor soul implored the religious to have that painting destroyed I beg of you he added go in my name to such a person proprietor of the picture tell him in what a condition I am for having yielded to his in treaties to paint it and conjure him to make a sacrifice of it if he refuses woe to him to prove that this is not an illusion and to punish him for his own fault tell him that before long he will lose his two children should he refuse to obey him who has created us both he will pay for it by a premature death the religious on hearing and seeing these words from this man immediately went to the owner of this painting the latter on hearing these things seized the painting and cast it into the fire nevertheless according to the words of the deceased he lost his two children in less than a month the remainder of his days he passed in Penance for having ordered and kept that immodest picture in his house the first time I read the story and considered presenting it to you it troubled me uh basically because I thought like could God would god really do something like that allow something like that to happen warn somebody that because of their actions your children are going to die I mean doesn't that seem a little harsh and we definitely don't talk like this anymore in the church and so that's why I'm like kind of Jarred me and then I thought well is there a precedence in scripture for this what does the holy word say well my mind immediately went to job who whose scriptures say he was an upright and blameless man he turned away from Evil and what happens to job well Satan goes to God and basically says I want to test him and so God allows ATT testing in job's life and what happens to job well he loses everything he loses his sheep he loses his camels he loses his servants he even loses his children and then he gets sick and he's covered with boils and when when I thought about job's experience who again scripture says is a blameless and upright man who feared God and turned away from Evil if God allowed him to be tested this way what would God allow for those of us who have committed mortal sin so I only share this for your consideration to do a deep examination of the heart and ask yourself the question have you committed the sin of Scandal this is this video is not intended to scare you but to motivate you to love Jesus to turn from sin to become maybe more is like is there areas in our life where we are actually causing other people to stumble because we don't want our Scandal to Echo in somebody else's eternity so how do we commit Scandal that means what are things that we're doing that cause other people to sin so here's just a little examination uh number one given a bad example can you think of an example of how we could give who who does this affect oh our children that like who do we spend the most time with it's our kids so are habits that are sinful how do they cause our children to sin well they gives them permission to do the same mhm especially if we don't acknowledge it's sinful MH so that's where the real serious thing is it's one thing they give a bad example which we do pretty consistently it's the other thing to say never go to children and say this is what you saw was wrong or for a child never to have a memory of their parent going to them and saying will you forgive me mhm the other way that we could cause as parents our children to stumble is not passing on the faith to them which would be a great sin of omission not forming them very serious we don't want our sin as parents to Echo in our children's eternity mhm so number two would be encouraging or proving someone else's sin example I think that happens often is When someone tells a joke that's inappropriate immodest and we just laugh at it we go along with it um I mean so how are we encouraging or proving other people's sins number two number three would be leading other people into sin into the occasion of sin so there's a variety of different ways that that could happen just check your conscience have you led somebody into sin uh number four public hi hypocrisy so we profess that we are Catholic but then we do something in a public manner that clearly is contrary to our faith and morals so then what happens is people see that and say well I guess you're a Catholic and you can do that and it's no big deal so so like for example like politicians who claim to be Catholic and then they're promoting oh that would be a great one which then leads one to another one abuse of Authority or influence so then in that position a bishop should use their authority to correct that person and when they don't it's their lack of exercise of authority that causes a scandal so for us a a lack of exercising of authority would be one of of our children do something that are clearly wrong it's our responsibility to correct them and we don't so that would be an example of Scandal this is why we have to pray for a priest and and Bishops because we can't always get the nice Catholicism in a culture that is called the culture of death by Pope John Paul II there's clearly things that need to be corrected in our culture and it it just can't be the church can't let it slide because what that does is it communicates to the faithful oh it's no big deal and then they adopt that behavior and that sin of omission echoes in people's eternity it's very serious very serious Matthew 18:6 whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin it would be better for him to have a great Millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea now you have to pardon my ignorance but I didn't know if that was an actual way that people were executed or not like did they actually tie millstones around people and throw them overboard uh for my research no Jesus was not speaking lit like literally they people would do that but what Jesus is warning us I think is there's clear consequences to people who cause others to stumble so we don't want that to be us and if we have and now we realize oh this is some of my sins wonderful because now we can go to confession and ask God's forgiveness because you can't change what you don't acknowledge so if this video is causing you to think about something in your life this is purpose is not to shame you but to raise you to the mercy of God but before we end One More Story to emphasize this point of Scandal so the second story is about father Zuki a Jesuit who died in Rome May 21st of 1670 an interesting point on History regarding father Zuki he was a Jesuit so he's a really educated man and it is thought he's the first person to recognize some belts around the planet Jupiter and regarding the the planet Mars to recognize some spots on it so interesting point of History here now to the story father Zuki helped these three young women discover their religious vocation and the one that was the youngest something interesting happened here one of them before leaving the world had been sought in by marriage by a young nobleman after she had entered the novicet this gentleman instead of respecting her holy vocation continued to address letters to her whom he wished to call his betrothed urging her to quit as he said the dull service of God to embrace again the joys of life the father father meeting him one day in the streets begged him to give up such conduct I assure you he said that before long you will appear before the tribunal of God and it is high time for you to prepare yourself by sincere Penance and in fact two weeks later this young man suddenly died and because his death was sudden there was some concern for the state of his soul when he passed a little while later one evening these three novices were speaking and the younger one was called to The Parlor there she found a man wrapped in a heavy cloak and with measured steps pacing the room sir she said who are you and why did you send for me the stranger without answering Drew near and threw aside the mysterious mantle which covered him the religious then recognized the unfortunate deceased and saw with horror that he was entirely surrounded by chains of fire that clasped his neck wrists knees and ankles pray for me he cried and disappeared the author notes regarding this story this is a point of God's mercy because God spared this man Eternal loss and allowed him purgatory and so with that consider yourself is there the sin of Scandal and of so let us seek the sacrament of reconciliation let's pray [Music] Eternal Father I offer Thee the most precious blood of thy Divine son Jesus in Union with the masses said throughout the world today for all the holy souls in purgatory for Sinners everywhere for sinners in The Universal Church those in my own home and within my family amen [Music]

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