Catholic by Design > Living right can be costly

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As many publications and organizations don't always publish or respond to pro-Catholic / pro-Life / pro-values letters, Catholic by Design is my attempt to better disseminate some of the letters I have written. All of the letters defend Catholics, the Catholic faith, and Catholic values.

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Lumen Gentium, one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council, best explains...

"All men are called to be part of this catholic unity of the people of God... And there belong to or are related to it in various ways, the Catholic faithful, all who believe in Christ, and indeed the whole of mankind, for all men are called by the grace of God to salvation."

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Jason Gennaro, a Catholic husband and father of four living near Toronto, Canada.

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Living right can be costly

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

April 15, 2007

Publication

Brampton Expositor

Publication Date

April 14, 2007

Published Content

Though few educated people today trouble their heads about everlasting damnation or the fires of hell, Pope Benedict XVl tells his Roman Catholic followers that hell is a real place where sinners burn in an everlasting fire. Reported in the Catholic News Service, the Pope stressed that hell "exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much any more." He plays with this hopelessly mixed metaphor from the Bible, giving it a literalism that would surprise even those who invented the term centuries ago.

None of the medieval accounts of the fires of hell and the tortures of the damned at death can be found in the Bible at all. It does refer in places to eternal punishment but nowhere reveals what that punishment is. No such thinking is consistent with the concept of God as eternal love and grace.

The idea of sin as a blot that can be burned out is itself a mistake, based on a misleading metaphor. Sin and wrongdoing is not something to be washed or burned away, but a disease of the will which can be cured only by restoration to health and wholeness. The whole medieval concept of hell as an everlasting place of torment and punishment is wicked, shocking, and monstrous, and has no place in Christian theology and belief.

In turn, to attempt to spiritualize this notion to try to justify the cruel idea of a revengeful deity who inflicts pain for wrongs done are heathenish and cannot be made morally or psychologically possible by any process of refinement.

The biblical hell is reference to the world of mental pain and anguish that humankind goes on making for themselves all the time. Heaven and hell are within you. Like the biblical term "eternity," which isn't some later time, but is the length, width, and depth of here and now. We create our own hells in our own lives and world. Hell is a metaphor that only you can make real. As deeds replace creeds may you embody Jesus' certain spirit of love, forgiveness, and justice. As Jesus taught that is the path to true life.

Ross Readhead is a United Church of Canada minister who has a bachelor of divinity degree from McMaster University.

My Response Letter

It is disgraceful Mr. Readhead chooses to disparage Pope Benedict XVI and his comments on hell by suggesting that the Holy Father is twisting Scripture and adopting "medieval" notions.

Mr. Readhead's states that "none of the medieval accounts of the fires of hell and the tortures of the damned at death can be found in the Bible at all" and that hell is "the world of mental pain and anguish that humankind goes on making for themselves" in the "here and now".

Unfortunately, it is Mr. Readhead's comments that conflict with both Scripture and church history, which speak explicitly of a hell that possesses locality and results in much suffering.

According to Christ's own words, our whole body can be thrown into hell (Matt. 5:29), an eternally fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 13:41-42, 25:41). St. Paul writes that those who disobey God can expect everlasting destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9), which, according to St. John, is a fiery lake of burning sulphur - a second death (Revelation 21:8).

The early Christian fathers - including those who were taught by the apostles - are unanimous in this true depiction of hell. St. Ignatius, a disciple of the Apostle St. John, wrote that anyone who corrupts the faith "shall go away into everlasting fire" (Chp. 16, Epistle to the Ephesians, around AD 110). Justin Martyr, writing around AD 150, said there is "punishment in eternal fire" for those who serve the fallen angels (Chp. 8, Second Apology).

We know that God, who has written the commandments on our hearts (Romans 2:15), does not pervert justice (Job 34:12). Therefore, even mere reason leads us to believe that God must acknowledge and make right any violation of the moral order in order to preserve the proportion between the gravity of sin and the severity of punishment.

In truth, if there is no real hell, it should be simple to get to heaven. Yet there is a broad road that leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13).

Jason Gennaro

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