On the Question of Hell.

Hell is in the news because of something Pope Frances is alleged to have said.   Now Hell is a very unpopular subject.   Fire, Devils, pain and suffering it is all there.   We have Dante's Inferno with people suffering in different ways and it is all gruesome.    There is only one priest I have heard preach on Hell over the past forty year and he was denying its existence.   It is certainly not something we want to hear about.

I remember the story of Monsgnor Ronald Knox who in his first Anglican Parish gave a sermon on Hell only to be warned by the elders afterwards that he must not speak of such things for people come to church to be comforted.   I know at school there was mention of Hell and there are cases where some teachers were forever talking about it but really it was never a major issue as the Reformers made it out to be.   I remember we had Parish retreats where missionary priests every night of a week would give talks on the many teachings of the Catholic Faith, the Blessed  Sacraments, Our Lady, the Forgiveness of Jesus,  the love of Jesus, the saints and how they responded to God, really there was so much in our Catholic Faith to discuss and Hell was just one topic and not the most important.   Nevertheless people looked forward to the night on Hell and it was always the best attended and people would flood into the Confessionals afterwards to receive forgiveness and be told again that Jesus loved them.   That is the point.   People who live as Christ wants the to live can never really fear Hell, he is so much a part of their lives.

But we cannot just dismiss Hell.   Jesus throurghout his ministry constantly warned us there would be a judgement and some would go to Heaven and the other Hell.     He also warned us that Hell was a place of pain and suffering.   Was he really lying to us?  No matter how we feel about it as human beings Jesus said there is a Hell and there are souls in Hell and it is foolish indeed to cry out that there is no such thing.   It was only because the early sinners were worse than the sinners of Today.   Really!

Now despite Dante and others I do not have the slightest idea what Hell is like and I do not want to go there to find out.   Hell us living for eternity seperated  from the God whom we were meant to be with and I believe that it is not God that causes our suffering if we end up there.    I believe that wheo Jesus spoke of Hell  he was giving us an idea of just how miserable and painful this separation would be.    But of this I am sure that Hell is something we can bring upon  ourselves if we do not develop the love for God and others that he constantly directs us to by his teachings.   The proper robe for the Wedding Feast is goodness and love and if we come  to the Feast dressed in the garments of indifference and hate we will not be welcome.  But if we are on God's side we need not worry.

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