Hell: Is it real?
Of all the theological errors commonly held today, the most popular is surely the denial of the doctrine of hell. Even among the more devout, such as those who go to daily Mass, the teaching that God would send or consign anyone to hell is routinely dismissed. If it exists at all, for many, it is largely empty, except perhaps for a few serial killers or genocidal maniacs like Hitler. But for the vast majority—Catholic, non-Catholic, and atheist—hell is a very remote possibility. Never mind that Jesus taught just the opposite, say that “few” are on the narrow road of Salvation and that “many” prefer the darkness (Jn 3:19) and are on the wide road that leads to hell (see Mt 7:13; Lk 13:24).
Never mind that twenty-one of Jesus’s thirty-eight parables feature scenes of judgment where some are saved and others are lost. There are sheep and goats, wheat and tares, those on the right, those on the left, wise virgins and foolish virgins,and so forth. Indeed, most of the teachings on hell come right from the mouth of Jesus. But for most people, none of this matters…In the past, imagining your own God and worshiping it was called idolatry. Today, most people think they have a perfect right to imagine a god of their own, the “god within” who almost always happens to agree with them. This refashioned “god”is a benign sort of fellow or power who isn’t too worked up about the things said by the God of Scripture or the God described by the Church. Hence, at best, God is trivialized and His revealed word is set aside. At worst, God is wholly replaced by another self-fabricated god. In addition, we have underestimated the seriousness of sin and what it does to harden our hearts against the True God, His kingdom, and its realities and virtues.
The Hell There Is: An Exploration of an Often-Rejected Doctrine of the Church
Logically, a belief in heaven necessitates a corresponding belief in hell. But that is apparently not the case. For increasing numbers of us believers, the notion even of purgatory- does not conform to their notion of a loving God. Despite our weekly recitation of the Apostle’s Creed.
Curious, isn’t it?
A 2021 Pew Research study surveyed more than 6,000 Americans on their views of the afterlife. While over 90 percent of Catholics believe in heaven, less than 60 percent think there’s a place for the damned.
Why?
Russ Douthat, in an interesting piece called, A Case For Hell writes:
But the more important factor in hell’s eclipse, perhaps, is a peculiar paradox of modernity. As our lives have grown longer and more comfortable, our sense of outrage at human suffering — its scope, and its apparent randomness — has grown sharper as well. The argument that a good deity couldn’t have made a world so rife with cruelty is a staple of atheist polemic, and every natural disaster inspires a round of soul-searching over how to reconcile God’s omnipotence with human anguish.
Dismissing a Catholic priest’s account
of hearing himself judged and sentenced to hell by Jesus, however, is trickier than that of the medieval Saints Teresa of Avila, John Bosco, and the three Fatima children from 100 years ago. In 1985, Father Frances Schier miraculously survived mortal injuries from a car accident. The priest recounts his illumination of conscience and subsequent condemnation in a piece titled “God’s Merciful Judgment.” In his testimony, he writes,
I was saved from physical and spiritual death for two reasons. The first reason is: hell exists; and secondly, and just as important is the fact that: priests are liable to hell also! In this age, a lot of people tend to dismiss the fact that God is all- just. They think, and wrongly so, that God is love and that He wouldn’t punish anyone for eternity. This is a fallacy! We are, all of us, liable to keeping God’s Commandments and making use of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to have our sins forgiven. If we think we don’t sin, then maybe we had better do more complete examination of conscience. One of the truths that I learned in my experience is the fact that God doesn’t send anyone to Heaven or Hell, we choose that, we make that decision; He merely honors and confirms our choice.
In his riveting testimony, Father Schier writes of the devastating effects of modern psychiatry and psychology on the human soul.
Devastating?
Isn’t that a colossal overstatement? Not if we briefly scan the over 200 psychiatric diagnoses that includes “impulse disorder, caffeine disorder, morbid jealousy, partner relational problem, and oppositional defiant disorder.” Peeling back the labels reveals that a lack of self-control is being treated as a mental rather than a moral health problem. The decline at the confessionals relates directly to our culture of victimhood. “It’s not my fault that I steal, overeat, overspend, or am promiscuous.” So, of course, I don’t need confession.
Father Schier also blames his fellow priests who shy away from preaching about the “four last things” because they fear negative reactions from his parishioners.
One of the greatest omissions in parish life the past twenty-five or twenty-six years, is the fact that priests have not mentioned or directed in their homilies the subjects of “hell” and “eternal damnation.” If this is the fact, and it is, then the idea of a parishioner feeling or coming to terms with the fact that they should go to confession is totally missing. We have not wanted to upset parishioners! We especially do not want to upset wealthy parishioners who write large checks to the parish and are “good givers.” Consequently, what has been addressed in sermons has been peace, love, and joy;…
It’s the fifth Sunday in Lent
It’s the fifth Sunday in Lent so past week, a friend asked how my Lent is going. And I’m still thinking of her question because I don’t know. Certainly, I’ve worked at penances, more so than in previous Lents. The fasts have been arduous at times. Like my overwhelming pile of spiritual reading. However, I feel no sense of accomplishment; it’s more like, “It needs to be hard!”
But it’s never enough. I can always do more, and that won’t be enough either.
Ever. Alone, I must keep repeating, I can do nothing…am nothing.
I always associated Lent with a melancholic focus on penance.
Listening to the Church’s Lenten prayers this year, I’ve had to reconsider. On Ash Wednesday, we prayed that “as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.” The first Sunday of Lent, we prayed: “Grant, almighty God, through the yearly observances of holy Lent, that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in Christ.”Last Sunday’s collect expanded on this theme: “Nourish us inwardly by your word, that, with spiritual sight made pure, we may rejoice to behold your glory.” When we put these together, we get a different picture of Lent. Penance is not our goal or even our focus—it is our “weapon.” We embrace the “observances of holy Lent” in order that, with “understanding” and “spiritual sight made pure,” “we may rejoice to behold [Christ’s] glory.”
In these prayers, the Church teaches us the proper order of penance, purity of heart, and vision. Penance is a tool for gaining purity of heart; temporary abstinence from lower goods lets us hold higher ones more closely. Purity of heart, in its turn, disposes us to the vision of God. Seeing Jesus is the purpose of Lent—penance is not.
We’re entering into the pulse
‘ Of Lent, ‘ said Father John Paul Mary as he celebrated EWTN’s daily television Mass on Saturday, April 5. “The pulse,” he mused,”is the way the doctor checks to see that we’re alive. Indeed, we see the opposition to Jesus growing and will continue as we head into Passiontide.” Segueing into the parable of the prodigal son, Father John Paul revealed that he is one of the over 1000 “Missionaries of Mercy” commissioned by Pope Francis during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2016. That commission was to end with the new year of 2017, but Pope Francis extended it indefinitely.
Last week, Pope Francis wrote a message to the Missionaries of Mercy:
“Through your service,” he said, “you bear witness to the paternal face of God, infinitely great in love, who calls everyone to conversion and constantly renews us with His forgiveness.” Pope Francis said Jesus opens the path in every sinner’s heart to walk with the Church toward reconciliation.“Conversion and forgiveness are the two caresses with which the Lord wipes every tear from our eyes,” he said. “They are the hands with which the Church embraces us sinners; they are the feet on which we walk in our earthly pilgrimage.”
The Pope encouraged Missionaries of Mercy to be “attentive in listening, ready in welcoming, and steadfast in accompanying those who desire to renew their lives and return to the Lord.” God’s mercy, he added, changes our hearts and can reach us in every situation, since we can always trust in God. “I wholeheartedly bless your apostolate, asking Mary Immaculate to watch over you as Mother of Mercy,” he concluded. “Please, do not forget to pray for me.”
Looking straight at you and me, Father John Paul Mary asked in his Saturday morning homily, “Has it been more than a few months since your last confession? Ten Years? Twenty?
Fifty?
Seventy?
When the father sees his prodigal son in the distance, he doesn’t wait on the porch, he runs to meet his son.
“He runs!”
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman
who had been caught in adultery
and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him,
“Teacher, this woman was caught
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”
They said this to test him,
so that they could have some charge to bring against him.
Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger.
But when they continued asking him,
he straightened up and said to them,
“Let the one among you who is without sin
be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one,
beginning with the elders.
So he was left alone with the woman before him.
Then Jesus straightened up and said to her,
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
