The Basics of Hell

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.