Fr. JC Maximilian

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.”