The Four Last Things: Hell

Hell is clearly the biggest loser in the Four Last Things Popularity Poll. If there were anything in the Tradition we could get rid of, this would obviously be the thought of everlasting damnation.

The ancient Catholic truth about Hell should terrify us. But it should terrify us into our wits, not out of them. It should prompt us to ask “How do I avoid such a thing?” just as a grisly photograph of a car crash in driver’s ed should prompt us to pay attention. And that, in turn, should prompt us to ask “What exactly am I avoiding? What is Hell?”

The Church tells us that Hell is not something that simply happens to you by accident, like a car crash. People in Hell will not be there because they were minding their own business, being decent folk, when suddenly an arbitrary God just stuck them there upon their death. Rather, the Catechism tells us that hell is the “state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed” (CCC 1033).

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
dir="ltr">

Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
dir="ltr">

Sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
dir="ltr">

We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them.