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Ask the Religion Experts: How does your faith conceive of hell?
Read the article / show / issue that provoked me to write a letter and my response below that or go straight to my response
Date Posted on this Site
November 12, 2006
Publication
Ottawa Citizen
Publication Date
November 11, 2006
Published Content
A: The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, as Paul VI wrote in the Credo of the People of God (12). In the Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 1035) we read that the chief punishment of hell is the person's eternal separation from God, in whom alone we can possess the life and happiness and life for which we were created and for which we all long.
It is very important for us to remember that God predestines no one to eternal damnation. The Church has always taught that one would have to wilfully turn away from God and persistently remain in a state of mortal sin to be among the "damned." In the second letter of Peter we are reminded that God wants none of us to perish "but that all come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). The Church prays that no one should be lost and reminds us that all things are possible for God who desires that "all people be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4).
As I researched this question and looked through so many documents and theological treatises, I was struck by one consistent thread: While hell is seen as our separation from God, I found no absolute damnation of any individual. The Lord came to call sinners, and everything points to the hope of our answering that call to conversion. We are called to make use of our freedom to choose in view of our eternal destiny. Damnation is always presented as a possibility. Yet that stands in sharp contrast to the definitive affirmation of the reality of heaven as the fulfilment of human history that has already been accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ.
Msgr. Pat Powers is the rector of Notre-Dame Cathedral.
My Response Letter
Msgr. Powers's statement that, although he "looked through so many documents and theological treatises", he "found no absolute damnation of any individual" is likely to lead many to believe that hell is empty and not a place anyone can really choose for themselves. How untrue!
The Catholic Church acknowledges that many people are already in hell.
In fact, Jesus said that Judas was destined for hell even before Judas died! "Those that thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition (hell), that the Scripture might be fulfilled." (John 17:12)
Many saints agree with Christ. For example, St. Ambrose, in his Concerning Repentance, said that "even Judas might through the exceeding mercy of God not have been shut out from forgiveness, if he had expressed his sorrow not before the Jews but before Christ." And St. Thomas Aquinas said in De Veritate that "in the case of Judas, the abuse of grace was the reason for his reprobation (loss of salvation), since he was made reprobate because he died without grace".
Of course, there are many others in hell besides Judas. In the Bible, in the letter of Jude, we also find that "Sodom and Gomorrah ... have been made an example, undergoing the punishment of eternal fire." (Jude 1:7)
Hell is not an easy doctrine to accept. Christ preached it because He loves us and does not want any of us to choose to be without God forever. But the choice is still there.
Jason Gennaro
Was my response published?
No
Did I get a response?
No