From time to time, people write to me asking me to re-send a special series to them. Some have even expressed a desire to have the collection of emails I send out on a daily basis. That is now possible.
There Sure as Hell Is
I do not recall many homilies from Masses I attended in my teenage years, but I recall that once an old, old priest was visiting and hobbled to the pulpit and began his teaching thus:
“Some people say there is no Hell anymore.” He looked around theatrically, with mocking disbelief for a moment, and then said, “Well, there sure as Hell is.”
I was reminded of that pithiness when I read the “Voices of Faith” column in The Kansas City Star today (apparently not available online). That weekly column presents questions from readers that are answered by clergy of different faiths from around town on a rotating basis. Each week at least two persons answer the given question. Today’s question read, “Is Hell a real place where people are sent?”
One clergyman that answered today is a well-known priest in the diocese. He is the pastor of what I would guess is one of the more well-to-do parishes around. In response to the question, he wrote, in part:
The Catholic Church teaches that hell indeed exists. The church does not teach, however, that anyone is necessarily in hell. This is due to the universality of salvation won for us in Christ and to God’s constant mercy, even at the moment of death.
I do not wish to argue publicly with priests. However, I dislike that the quote from the column above should go unanswered. Let us take the small paragraph sentence by sentence and see where it takes us.
Our local priest wrote:
The Catholic Church teaches that hell indeed exists.
Wolftracker (WT) says: No problem there. Holy Mother Church has always taught that. It comes straight from the mouth of the Son of God.
The church does not teach, however, that anyone is necessarily in hell.
WT says: This statement can be read two ways, one of which is completely wrong.
While Holy Mother Church may not teach that any particular person is in Hell, she does not teach that Hell is unpopulated.
This is due to the universality of salvation won for us in Christ and to God’s constant mercy, even at the moment of death.
WT says: Salvation is offered to all–in that sense alone is it universal.
Still, the dangerously false notion that all are saved no matter how they lived (universal salvation) seems hidden in this sentence and–if it is in there somewhere–it should remain hidden. As for the rest of the sentence, it is no doubt true that all salvation is won for us by Jesus and that God’s mercy is constant, even to the moment of death. One might add, however, that to live a life without care for God’s law while presuming for mercy at the moment of death is not how one exercises the cardinal virtue of prudence.
So, the question remains, does anyone go to Hell? Is Hell crowded like a Kansas City Chiefs game or is there ample space to move about and spend time alone like at a Kansas City Royals game on a Wednesday afternoon?
To answer that question, I take you to a piece that had a lot to do with my coming back to Holy Mother Church after my years in the wilderness.
Let me quote from a fine essay entitled “The Population of Hell,” written by His Eminence Avery Cardinal Dulles, the oldest Prince of the Church in our country (I think). In that piece, he wrote (in non-consecutive paragraphs):
As we know from the Gospels, Jesus spoke many times about hell [. . . .] In the parable of the sheep and the goats, Jesus indicates that some will be condemned. The Son of man says to the goats: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41). In the Gospel of John, which says comparatively little about hell, Jesus is quoted as saying: “The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Father’s] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29).
The Church continues to insist that explicit faith, reception of the sacraments, and obedience to the Church are the ordinary means to salvation. Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (1864) accordingly condemned the proposition: “We should at least have good hopes for the eternal salvation of those who are in no way in the true Church of Christ.” Pius XII in his encyclical on the Mystical Body of Christ (Mystici Corporis, 1943) taught that even those who are united to the Church by bonds of implicit desire-a state that can by no means be taken for granted-still lack many precious means that are available in the Church and therefore “cannot be sure of their salvation.” Vatican II said that anyone who knows that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ and refuses to enter her cannot be saved. If we accept these teachings, we will find it unlikely that everyone fulfills the conditions for salvation.
Today a kind of thoughtless optimism is the more prevalent error. Quite apart from what theologians teach, popular piety has become saccharine. Unable to grasp the rationale for eternal punishment, many Christians take it almost for granted that everyone, or practically everyone, must be saved. The Mass for the Dead has turned into a Mass of the Resurrection, which sometimes seems to celebrate not so much the resurrection of the Lord as the salvation of the deceased, without any reference to sin and punishment. More education is needed to convince people that they ought to fear God who, as Jesus taught, can punish soul and body together in hell (cf. Matthew 10:28).
Augustine may be taken as representative of the Western Fathers. In his controversy with the Donatist Cresconius, Augustine draws upon Matthew and the Book of Revelation to prove that the number of the elect is large, but he grants that their number is exceeded by that of the lost. In Book 21 of his City of God he rebuts first the idea that all human beings are saved, then that all the baptized are saved, then that all baptized Catholics are saved, and finally that all baptized Catholics who persevere in the faith are saved. He seems to limit salvation to baptized believers who refrain from serious sin or who, after sinning, repent and are reconciled with God.
The great Scholastics of the Middle Ages are not more sanguine. Thomas Aquinas, who may stand as the leading representative, teaches clearly in the Summa Theologiae that God reprobates some persons. A little later he declares that only God knows the number of the elect. But Thomas gives reasons for thinking that their number is relatively small. Since our human nature is fallen, and since eternal blessedness is a gift far beyond the powers and merits of every created nature, it is to be expected that most human beings fall short of achieving that goal.
The search for numbers in the demography of hell is futile. God in His wisdom has seen fit not to disclose any statistics. Several sayings of Jesus in the Gospels give the impression that the majority are lost. Paul, without denying the likelihood that some sinners will die without sufficient repentance, teaches that the grace of Christ is more powerful than sin: “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20). Passages such as these permit us to hope that very many, if not all, will be saved.
Alas, wolftracker is merely the grandson of a barber and the son of a public school teacher. What can he add? Yet, it seems to him that to teach that all are saved–no matter their deeds–presents wicked problems on how to encourage good works below the veil of Heaven.
But let us not forget what has not been mentioned thus far: God endowed each of us with a free will. It seemed this gift was so important that it was given simultaneous with our very creation–that our being cannot be separated from it.
Given that, do we not choose our eternal destination, to the extent that we cooperate with the grace offered to us?
And even if we chose correctly, we could not reach Heaven by our own merits. Heaven is an undeserved gift in every instance but the Blessed Virgin’s (and that was not achieved by her merit alone). Hell is a deserved destination for those who have pointed their free will in its direction. This is called justice, a word that is the opposite of mercy, and is not often used in its traditional sense anymore.
This small point is helpful when considering the opinion of the other clergyman who answered the question in today’s paper.
A Unitarian pastor, he stated: The stories of hell have been spun for thousands of years. They are many and varied, but all stories have one common element, one deeply premeditated objective, and that is to instill fear for the purpose of gaining power over people.
As any regular reader of the “Voices of Faith” column knows, the simple criterion for being able to contribute there is that one never speak of such things as judgment. Oh well. Some have the free will to write. Others have the free will to believe what is written.
But come hell or high water, we should never think Hell is empty or unable to receive us. It is pleasant to think otherwise, but sometimes pleasant thoughts make no sense in spite of their temporary comfort. Too many have given too much, often everything, to reach Heaven. Why should they have done so, why should they have been given the grace to do so, if that is where we all end up anyway?
This is a question, the answer of which, we will all know some day. And we shall know it no matter where we end up. Funny that the Gospel of Saint Luke begins with a census of the known world. There will be a census at the end of time as well, of that world that remains unknown to us now.
We’ll see how that goes. Until then, remember the Book of Philippians, chapter 2, verses 12-13: So then, my beloved, obedient as you have always been, not only when I am present but all the more now when I am absent, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For God is the one who, for his good purpose, works in you both to desire and to work.
Posted by wolftracker at 8/25/2007
this article discovered here
41Then he shall say to them also that shall be on his left hand: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.
28Wonder not at this; for the hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God.
29And they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.
28And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell.
20Now the law entered in, that sin might abound. And where sin abounded, grace did more abound.
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