(this card is published by Dayspring Cards, Siloam Springs Arkansas, www.dayspring.com)
A priest friend of mine sent me this belated birthday card, and I just thought it was so funny. It even beats out the other funny one I received which shows a former First Lady, current NY Senator sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office with the inside reading, “See, there are worse things than getting a year older.”
As the Church year comes to an end the readings at Mass start to focus on the end times. In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus speaks about a time of tribulation, and the “Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory,” sending out the angels to gather the elect, those who have been found worthy of eternity in Heaven.
In today’s first reading, from the Book of Daniel, we hear about another possible way for spending eternity, in “everlasting horror and disgrace.” This other possibility is Hell. Hell is a reality, one that the Church has constantly taught about. Sadly, today many people no longer believe in Hell.
For many people today, Hell is seen as an old-fashioned idea, used just to frighten people into doing what the Church tells them to do. They do not see Hell as compatible with Jesus, whom they see as their friend who just talks about love. What they fail to remember is that Jesus is also our Savior. And what did Jesus come to save us from? Jesus came to save us from sin and death, and by death we mean the eternal death of being eternally separated from the love of God which is Hell.
In fact, throughout His preaching, Jesus spoke often about Hell. “If your eye is your downfall, tear it out! Better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to be thrown with both eyes into Gehenna, where the ‘worm dies not and the fire is never extinguished’” (Mark 9: 47), and in speaking about the Last Judgment (Matt. 25:31-46) Jesus says of those who do not show Him love by their charity to those in need “These will go off to eternal punishment and the just to eternal life.” Clearly Jesus spoke about the reality of Hell.
Hell is the place where the fallen angels and all who rebel against God, through their disobedience to His Divine Will, are. It is NOT a happy place. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that, “the chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs” (CCC #1035). Blessed Columba Marmion describes the pains of Hell as the souls of the damned being in contact with only “the nothingness of their own souls stripped of love and deprived forever of their supreme good” (Blessed Columba Marmion, Christ – The Ideal of the Priest, Ignatius Press, p. 110). Blessed Marmion describes another terrifying aspect of the pains of hell, “the lost soul is given over to the power of demons,” who are spirits that are so utterly deformed by evil that their only occupation is to hate and to injure (Ibid., p. 111).
This talk of Hell is not merely to create fear and trembling, but rather to remind us of the basic truths about Hell. First we must always recall that God does not predestine anyone for Hell. As the old Baltimore Catechism taught, God created us “to love and serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him in the next.” God created us to spend eternity with Him in Heaven. We messed things up through Original Sin, which stains all the children of Adam and Eve. Secondly we must keep in mind that Jesus Christ died for the redemption of all people. As Jesus Himself says, He did not come just for the righteous but for the sinner as well. This is how much God our Father loves us; He sent His only-begotten Son to save us through His Passion, Death and Resurrection. Thirdly, the graces necessary for salvation are given to all people. So, if all this is true, how is it that Hell is still a very real eternal possibility for us? Is it that God is not all powerful? Of course not! God is all-powerful love. Yet, the very nature of love is to be given as a gift, and not forced on the beloved. God loves us, and the great sign of His love is that He has given us free will. Without free will we could not truly share in Divine love. We would be forced to receive God’s love, and forced to love God; but there in lies the rub – love cannot be forced, either in its reception nor in being given. Love is a free gift.
This brings us to the fourth basic truth in the Church’s teaching about Hell, “Damnation is the work of man alone who refuses obstinately to accept the divine dispensation and prefers to turn away from God for ever, rather than submit himself to Him in the spirit of hope and love” (Marmion, p. 108).
Many saints have said that one of the worst things people can do is fail to acknowledge the reality of hell and the devil. This is because once we begin to think that everyone is going to heaven, that we are not fallen and that we do not have a mortal enemy, then we will begin to live like animals and call evil good. It certainly seems that our modern society has fallen into this trap of Satan.
This trap of Satan is called tepidity or lukewarmness. The most common effect of this lukewarmness is a blinding of the conscience; we start to make excuses for our faults, and dismiss sins as not being sins. We also start to lose our focus on our supreme good, eternal union with God in Heaven, and focus more on the things of this world. Instead of adhering to God, we start to adhere to creatures. The best remedy for lukewarmness or tepidity is frequent celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where we humbly acknowledge our sins and gratefully receive God’s loving mercy. We should also be more fervent in our life of prayer. This means giving our whole self to daily prayer, and to full, active participation in the Mass.
St. Benedict wrote in his Rule for his monks, “Fear the day of judgment. Dread hell. Desire eternal life with all your soul. Keep the memory of death daily before your eyes” (Rule of St. Benedict, Chapter 4). This is good advice for all of us. It is not meant to make us morbid, but so that we can keep us on the right path. Our goal should be to love God and fear doing evil because it will separate us from God. We must be vigilant, for as Jesus says about the Day of Judgment in today’s Gospel, “But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
One day an old professor was asked to speak as an expert to some large North American corporations on personal time management. He decided to try an experiment. Standing before a group ready to take notes, he pulled out from under the table a large, empty glass vase. He placed a dozen tennis-ball-size rocks in the vase until it was full. When he was not able to add more rocks he asked those present: “Does the vase seem full to you?” and they all answered “Yes!” He waited a moment and then asked: “Are you sure?”
He again bent down and pulled a box full of pebbles from under the table and carefully poured the pebbles into the vase, moving the vase a little so that the pebbles could reach the rocks at the very bottom. He asked: “Is the vase full this time?”
His audience, having become more prudent, began to understand and said: “Perhaps not yet.” “Very good!” the old professor replied. Again he bent down and this time picked up a bag of sand and poured it into the vase with care. The sand filled all the spaces between the rocks and the pebbles.
He then asked again: “Is the vase full now?” And they all answered without hesitation: “No!” “Indeed,” the old professor said and, as they expected, took the pitcher of water from the table and poured it into the vase up to the brim.
At this point he looked up at his audience and asked: “What great truth does this experiment show us?” The bravest of the group, reflecting on the theme of the course — time management — replied: “This shows us that even when our schedule is full, with a little effort we can always add some other task, some other thing to do.”
“No,” the professor answered, “It’s not that. The experiment shows us something else. If you don’t put the big rocks in the vase first, then you will never be able to put them in afterward.”
There was a moment of silence and everyone took in the evidence for this affirmation.
The professor continued: “What are the big rocks, the priorities, in your life? Health? Family? Friends? Defending a cause? Accomplishing something that is close to your heart?
“The important thing is to put these big rocks on your agenda first. If you give priority to a thousand other little things — the pebbles, the sand — your life will be filled with the meaninglessness and you will never find time to dedicate yourself to the truly important things.
“So, never forget to pose this question to yourself: ‘What are the important things in my life?’ Put these things at the head of your agenda.” Then, with a friendly gesture the old professor bid farewell to his audience and left the room.
To the “big rocks” mentioned by the professor — health, family, friends — we need to add two others, which are the biggest of all, the two greatest commandments: love God and your neighbor. [I am borrowing this story from Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, Preacher to the Papal Household]
The two commandments, to love God and to love our neighbor, seem so very easy, but they are so very challenging for many of us. The main reason we struggle so much in loving as God calls us to love is because God does not call us to love with merely human love. Rather, God calls us to love with Divine love. Human love is tainted with pride and self-interest. Divine love is selfless and sacrificial. Human love is too often limited by our own prejudices. Divine love is universal.
Of course we cannot give what we have not first received. In St. John’s First Letter we are reminded that the source of all love is God. This is why the first commandment that Jesus cites in today’s Gospel is to love God with all one’s heart, all one’s mind, and all one’s soul. We must first open ourselves up to the love of God, and in return totally love Him. Loving God is not nebulous. It places demands on us. Loving God means that we are in a relationship with Him and desire to do all that He has told us to do for our happiness. With love comes responsibility and the necessity of making sacrifices for the other. Pope John Paul I, in an imaginary letter to St. Francis de Sales, define love of God this way, “…the man who loves God must board the ship of God, determined to accept the course set by his commandments, by the guidance of those who represent Him, and by the situations and circumstances of life that he permits” (A. Luciani, Illustrissimi, pp. 106-107). Divine love unites us to God and makes us abide in Him as He abides in us. The principle ways for us to participate in the divine love that God gives us is by receiving those gifts which Jesus has given His Church that enables us to keep in a loving relationship with God, namely, the sacraments. How can we say that we love God if we do not worthily receive Holy Communion frequently, and experience God’s mercy in the sacrament of Reconciliation?
The first fruit of this divine love, our abiding in God and He in us, is charity towards others. St. Thomas Aquinas says, “Love of neighbor is not meritorious if the neighbor is not loved because of God” (S. Th. II-II, q.27, a. 8). We must love our neighbor because they are made in the image and likeness of God, just as we are. We must love them as God loves them; in fact, in loving our neighbor it really should be God’s love shining through us. Christian love is not just “being nice,” or philanthropy. Without God’s grace, our philanthropy is limited and will only sacrifice so much. In order for us to love our brothers and sisters in a divine way, we must have a conscious love for God foremost in our minds.
The key is to keep our priorities straight. First we must love God with all our being, then our love for all people will be pure. We would do well to follow the counsel of St. Teresa of Avila who wrote this lovely poem:
Let nothing disturb thee;
let nothing dismay thee:
All things pass;
God never changes.
Patience attains
All that it strives for.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing:
God alone suffices.
[St. Teresa of Avila, Complete Works, III, Poem IX]
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