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The Basics of Hell

3/29/2014

Unfortunately, many groups that come to "evangelize" on UC's campus usually have big signs with the word "Hell" on them. There's an unfortunate idea going around that Christians "spreading the Gospel" consists of Christians telling other people they're going to Hell. There's a lot of misunderstanding surrounding Hell, and a large misunderstanding of what it is, what it's for, and who goes there. I'll attempt to clear some of this up.

The problem arises when we start using Hell in a way that makes God look like this:

And not this:

You see, God, the literal embodiment, source, and summit of Love, mourns in ways we could never know over our sins.

This all goes back to what love is defined as:

To will the good of another, for their own good.

This means that Love is NOT a feeling (I direct you to my previous blog, “More than a Feeling”) but a choice made. Love cannot exist without free will. If we HAD to love God, or God only created those he knew would love him, that’s not free will, and therefore not love. And with the ability to choose “yes” there is also the ability to choose “no.”

So we have established that God gives us the freedom to love him, or to not. So let’s take a moment to step back and realize what Heaven is.

So, for the sake of example, what if you’re this guy:

And you’re all:

The result isn’t going to be this:

This is how Heaven is defined by the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.”(CCC 1024)

So essentially, if you’re not very into the whole “God” and “Good-will” thing, God won’t force you to spend eternity basking in his presence. And this is where Hell comes in. Hell is a choice. A stupid choice that every single one of us can make and that God MUST leave as an option for us if Love is to exist.

And the “fire” of Hell everybody always talks about is actually a metaphor for what I’ve just written about. As an old Theology teacher put it, “The fire of Hell is God’s Love burning for you.” As in, if you’re in Hell, you’re there because the one thing you didn’t want to be around was God and God’s Love. And the only reason you’re in Hell, away from his Love, is because you chose to be and he let you. You are away from God because he loved you enough to let you be.

(Note: this is why the Catholic Church does not say they know who is in Hell. The Catholic Church DOES proclaim some as Saints (those who are definitely in Heaven) due to several miracles being associated with them – miracles that could only be possible if that person was in the presence of God.)

Onto the next part: Who Goes to Heaven and Hell?

And let me first start off by saying that if any of my other Christian friends (or friends of another religion that have a “hell”) haven’t already noticed, the two approaches of

· Convert, or you’re going to Hell
and
· You’re going to Hell anyway. Just fyi.

are not effective methods of evangelization, and really aren’t even evangelizing at all. (I’m looking at you, guys who stormed the UC Students for Life Group last week.)

I will turn to the Catechism on this (after all, I’m not smarter than 2,000 years of the Church’s best scholars and theologians.)

So first of all, we see this heading: “Outside the Church there is no salvation”.

OK NOW WAIT – Don’t close the book here (everybody seems to close the book here.)

The next paragraph states the following:

Basing itself on Scripture and Tradition, the Council teaches that the Church, a pilgrim now on earth, is necessary for salvation: the one Christ is the mediator and the way of salvation; he is present to us in his body which is the Church. He himself explicitly asserted the necessity of faith and Baptism, and thereby affirmed at the same time the necessity of the Church which men enter through Baptism as through a door. Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it. (CCC 846)

BUT WAIT, CATHOLIC CHURCH. What if I’m not a part of the Church! Am I screwed? Read on, friends. The next paragraph states the following:

This affirmation is not aimed at those who, through no fault of their own, do not know Christ and his Church:

Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation. (CCC 847)

Well that clears things up. And the next thought you may have may be “Ok cool, so I don’t have to worry about my non-Catholic friends who are still good people” But then the Catechism wags it’s finger at you with the next paragraph:

Although in ways known to himself God can lead those who, through no fault of their own, are ignorant of the Gospel, to that faith without which it is impossible to please him, the Church still has the obligation and also the sacred right to evangelize all men. (CCC 848)

So there you have it. It is true for even those who have never heard the word of God that Natural Law still applies to them. Natural Law is God written on the heart of all mankind. It is the reason that murder is viewed as wrong in most every society. Conscience can be formed and malformed, but the whisper of “this is not right” that fills minds around the world when an immorality is displayed is God written on the heart of that person. He who follows that voice does God’s will.

Let us all remember that God is Love, and Christ is Love incarnate. God is the shepherd of his flock, and a merciful caretaker. Let us be mindful of this as we evangelize others – we must evangelize with a spirit of Joy, rejoicing that Love is Lord of Heaven and Earth, and not evangelize out of a spirit of fear and despair.

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On the Literal Reading of Genesis

3/10/2014

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Once upon a time,

STOP

I say that, what do you think? Fairy tale? Fable? Myth? This is common way of starting off a fantasy – often times a mystical adventure that didn’t actually happen, but still conveys real truths.

Take Lord of the Rings for example. Author J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote the series specifically to echo Catholicism, never once mentions the name Jesus throughout any of the three books. Tolkien does however split the three Persons of Jesus into the 3 main characters, Frodo (Priest), Gandalf (Prophet), and Aragorn (King). And there are obviously religious tie-ins. Frodo takes the burden of the world and makes the sacrifice, Gandalf dies, is resurrected in a glorified body (not to mention the whole “In 3 days, look east” part), and Aragorn battles evil and temptation to become King. My point in all of this being: Tolkien conveyed a real truth with a “fake” story (in the sense that the characters are fictional) in a way that really hit them home.

So, back to the book at hand – Genesis. Genesis is a word meaning source, root, and beginning.

Now the Bible is a book that is meant to be understood by every nation and people in every age. It also isn’t meant to be scientifically literate, as I mentioned in my past blog “Science is Cool (And the Creation Museum Isn't)”. It becomes preposterous to expect a book that’s been around for a millennium to use language that would be understood in 2014, when a great deal of the scientific words and terminologies we use today would have been complete gibberish to even Einstein himself. For as much as we know about science and how things work, there’s also infinitely more we do not know. The point is, a word has no meaning if you don’t know what it represents. This is why it didn’t help me in Freshman Chem Lab when my TA told me to put the cuvet into the spectrophotometer.

Jesus told parables for the same reason. These stories are and will be forever relevant, even more so when one has an understanding of the cultures they came from. Jesus’s parables can still be told today and people will still be like “Hmmm. Son #2 is now eating pig food and is broke. That is a step down from his home life. Oh hey, his dad was nice.” They understand the message. Was there really a prodigal son? Were there really 10 virgins who did a 50/50 split on preparing their oil lamps? Probably not in the literal sense, but the truths these stories convey are real.

Now let’s take a moment to look at what’s actually written down in Genesis – and I mean the original writings. The difference between the New Testament and many of the Old Testament writings is historical basis. I mean this in the sense that the New Testament was written by eye-witnesses to events unfolding. Genesis was written about events that would have happened thousands of years prior, which would have been handed down by oral tradition. So, to all those who say oral tradition has no room in the Christianity, and the Bible is all you should go off of, please realize that oral tradition is responsible for that book as well.

Bl. Pope John Paul II had this to say about the story of Adam and Eve:

Following the contemporary philosophy of religion and that of language, it can be said that the language in question is a mythical one. In this case, the term “myth” does not designate a fabulous content, but merely an archaic way of expressing a deeper content.

And Pope Pius XII had this to say:

“…the first eleven chapters of Genesis, although properly speaking not conforming to the historical method used by the best Greek and Latin writers or by competent authors of our time, do nevertheless pertain to history in a true sense, which however must be further studied and determined by exegetes; the same chapters, (the Letter points out), in simple and metaphorical language adapted to the mentality of a people but little cultured, both state the principal truths which are fundamental for our salvation, and also give a popular description of the origin of the human race and the chosen people. If, however, the ancient sacred writers have taken anything from popular narrations (and this may be conceded), it must never be forgotten that they did so with the help of divine inspiration, through which they were rendered immune from any error in selecting and evaluating those documents.”

Another key part of Genesis often unnoticed is its inconsistencies. If Genesis is literal, God wasn’t almighty and omnipotent until about halfway through the Bible. That doesn’t sound like the God of all ages to me. For instance, in Genesis 18: 20-21, God is shown as not knowing about something, and setting out to investigate it. It’s like Sherlock Holmes, except Sherlock is played by God and Benedict Cumberbatch won’t exist for thousands of years.

Finally, an argument often brought up in conjunction with this topic is “If humans weren't created as in the creation story, and maybe even evolved as you are suggesting, when did humans become ‘human’ and receive a soul?”

And the paraphrased answer of the Catholic Church is:

The Church reinforces the point that the HOW does not matter. It’s important to realize that just because Genesis might not be 100% factual, that doesn’t mean it isn’t a true story.

For further research on the topic, check out this video from Fr. Barron, who is smarter than me.

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Searching for the God of Flowers and Spring

3/5/2014

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“…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious…” (Matt 6:28-31)

I have a problem with anxiety. Basically, everything can be a cause of worry in life if you look at it the right way. Sunday morning, I was caught up in all of my homework and clarinet practicing (or lack thereof) and wondering how I was going to survive another week. Then at Mass, God sent all of us this beautiful message in the Gospel.

Isn’t it a kind of strange Gospel to read the Sunday before Lent? This is the season which causes every Catholic at some point to wonder, “WHAT ON EARTH AM I GOING TO GIVE UP FOR LENT?!?” As the date draws nearer and nearer to Ash Wednesday, my worry increases exponentially over the fact that I STILL haven’t come up with a Lenten resolution. What if I never think of something to do for Lent? What if I come up with penances that are too hard, and I crash and burn after the first week? What if I’m not being hard enough on myself? What if…

...this isn’t what Lent is about at all?

It’s easy to get caught up in the mindset of penance, suffering, and general unhappiness during Lent. Our discussion after Sunday’s Mass gave me a different perspective on these forty days, however. I think that this viewpoint can make Lent a spiritually refreshing time for us rather than one of apprehension. It can be summed up in three steps: ordering one’s life around God; becoming a trusting person; and living a joyful, loving life.

The first step evolved out of our thoughts on the passage that states, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matt 6:24) These harsh words boil down to this: God is the ultimate authority in our lives. Yes we have managers, teachers, and parents that we should honor, but this respect stems from an overarching desire to give glory to God, who placed these people above us. A memorable image presented by an SSP member was a rose window in a cathedral: God is the center, and all the people we serve in life are the pieces of glass radiating out from it. Our lives must be ordered with God at the core, nothing else.

How do we accomplish this? We cultivate trust in God in our everyday lives. The Gospel passage quoted at the beginning of this blog helps me a lot with this. The beauty of flowers (something it seems we’ll never see again after this winter) places a gentle reminder in my heart that God is Goodness, Beauty, and Truth itself. When I consider flowers, I want to center my life around God. They are a reminder that, just as spring will always follow winter, God remains unchanging and constant, always seeking to fill us with new life in Him

Finally, with trust comes joy, because trust lifts the weight of doubt off of our shoulders. Joy in Lent? Of course! Remember the other Gospel passage when Christ rebukes the Pharisees for making a show of their penances? The same applies to us. Fasting is a difficult thing and involves material discomfort, but it is also very liberating. Fasting diminishes worry, because it removes things in our lives that are not essential but still take up space, thought, and time. With this new free time, we can become closer to God and the people He created us to be. Also, we will have more of ourselves to give to others, thus passing on our trust in God so that other people can rely on us as well. It’s always a good feeling to know that you have people in your life to rely on.

So strive to be a light this Lent! Forget about looking frail and faint because you’re working so hard at fasting. Instead, be full of joy! We are in the care of the God of flowers and new life Who is seeking to grow closer to us each day. Remove some of the excess in your life, and fill that empty space with love and virtue this Lent.

Written by: Rosemary Bullock

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The Whisper: Following God's Call

3/1/2014

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If you had asked me five years ago what I'd be doing today, my guess would not even have come close! My guess would certainly not have been that I, a vegetarian of nearly ten years, would be cooking chicken liver for dozens of strangers, preparing to teach them about unique methods for using and preserving their excess produce. I DEFINITELY would not have guessed that these chicken livers would come from chickens that my hands would help feed, raise, butcher, de-feather, and gut. I could not have imagined that these chickens would come from a small sustainable farm in Dickerson, Maryland, where this born-and-raised Ohio gal would become the newest member of the Calleva family.

But, alas! Here I am today, standing in my kitchen, watching in admiration and a little bit of horror as Farmer Ben instructs me in the ways of gourmet chicken liver. I trade him one for one with my favorite lettuce soup recipe – made extra delicious with the fresh greens we harvested from our greenhouse only days ago. The adventure has been well worth the ride.

And so this is how it occurs to me: God has a funny way of leading us down the path he has laid out for us. For some the path may be straight and clear (I have never met these people, but I believe they exist... somewhere...). But for the rest of us, the path is like a meandering dirt trail that twists and turns and seems to almost disappear at times – a path that almost never ever ever ever seems to go the way we think it will go.

If God had told me five years ago, “I want you to be a farmer,” I would have said, “Are you serious, God? I mean... okay, but... really? I don't think you got that right... maybe you meant to talk to the girl praying next door... I'll call again tomorrow.”

Perhaps God knew this about me, because five years ago God did not tell me, “I want you to be a farmer.” Instead God called out to me in small decisions daily, urging me to walk with him, though I did not always understand. He led my heart slowly, gently, even playfully toward each next stop on my path. Some days his calls were grand: calls to mission trips or internships or relationships. Some days his calls were but a whisper: walk the long way to class, finish this book, wake up early tomorrow and be with me.

And I began to find that every time I ignored God's call, large or small, the trail seemed to disappear and I was left spinning, searching all around, wondering, “Where?? Where do you want me to go God?” But the days when I could find the strength within me to instead say, “Yes,” - oh, those were the best days. It was not as though the trail suddenly appeared, but rather that I closed my eyes and held out my hand and God said, “Here. Here is the way, my love.”

So here I sit, a daughter of Cleveland suburbia, newlywed and trying to make my way as a Maryland farmer and educator, wondering what surprises God has in store for my next five years.

But this I know: today I felt the whisper. An urge to tell you all that vocation is not a “YES!” yelled from the rooftops, but an embrace within the heart. Resist the luring temptation to strain your neck, squinting, searching for the trail. Try if you can to close your eyes and reach out your hand and wait for your Maker to whisper to you. Trust the desires he has placed in your heart and he will fill your cup.

Written by: Shayn Gangidine

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SSP Blog

The Basics of Hell

On the Literal Reading of Genesis

Searching for the God of Flowers and Spring

The Whisper: Following God's Call

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