By Father Rich Tomkosky
This past Sunday’s Gospel was frightening! If it didn’t wake us up to the reality of Heaven and Hell, I don’t know what will!
We live in an age that doesn’t like to think that Hell is real, but Jesus tells us repeatedly that it is and we need to be on guard not to go there! His message is: our moral and spiritual choices in life either open us up to God and draw us closer to Him, our fellow humans, and eternal salvation; or conversely they dull us to Him and others to the point that even if we experienced someone who came back to life from the dead, i.e., Jesus’s Resurrection as proclaimed by the Catholic Church for 21 centuries, we wouldn’t repent or change our lives! A scary reality! Prayer and Penance.
God has warned us about the reality of Hell in different ways. There are six main ways (see the book Hell by Fr. F.X. Schouppe, S.J., TAN books, pp 123-26).
First through our unaided reason – we know deep down our moral choices have consequences, the human notion, even of the unreligious but thoughtful: that you are going to pay for your sins. This is because God has made us in His image and likeness with a mind that comprehends good and evil.
Secondly, He has given us the Sacred Scriptures, i.e., “Moses and the prophets,” to warn us about the meaning and value of life and the rewards and punishments that are to follow after death.
Thirdly, He has given us His eternal Son Jesus to teach us, suffer and die to redeem us and reveal to us the true price of sin (death on the Cross), and rise from the dead Himself to tangibly show us that human life doesn’t end at earthly death, but we do indeed have an eternal destiny!
Fourthly, He has given us the Catholic Church, spread throughout the entire world, to teach all the nations about the truth of the Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell and Purgatory.
Fifthly, He has given us saints and holy people down through the ages to warn us of the reality of Heaven and Hell, through their writings and mystical visions, e.g., see the apparition of our Lady to the saintly visionaries of Fatima, Portugal in 1917 in which she showed them the reality of Hell, and told them that more souls go to Hell for sins against the 6th commandment (i.e., sexual sins – because that area is so sacred to God as it is involved in bringing new human beings with immortal souls into the world) than for any other reason, also Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Faustina and other saints taken on a mystical journey by God through Heaven, Hell and Purgatory.
Finally, the sixth way God has shown us the reality of Hell is to individual people through near death experiences (15-20% reported back “Hellish” experiences of the afterlife: not foolproof because recall distortions possible – but powerful nonetheless when numerous people give the same testimony).
All this is given to us as a warning by the Lord who truly loves each of us beyond our imagining. This is so we do not get complacent in our spiritual life and to realize that our choices now have eternal consequences. God doesn’t want anyone to end up in Hell; if we end up there, it is our own fault: we freely chose to go there.
The reality of Hell should not frighten us in a paralyzing way, but rather wake us up to the need for ongoing conversion to holiness in our lives. The Church teaches that you don’t accidentally end up in Hell – it is the result of deliberate choices, i.e., mortal sins that are unrepented (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, par 1033).
To commit a mortal sin, we must meet three conditions, if any of these are missing it is NOT a mortal sin:
1. It is objectively serious matter as defined by the 10 commandments and the teaching of the Church.
2. We know that it is a serious matter (God expects us to learn the difference between mortal & venial sins – ignorance in this regard is NOT bliss contrary to what some ppl think, for only the Truth of God will set us free!
3. We freely choose to do it anyway. See examples: a moment of deliberation before you choose to give in to some sin of the flesh, or getting drunk, or skipping Sunday Mass, or murder. YOU CANNOT FALL INTO MORTAL SIN BY ACCIDENT! If you are praying regularly God will forewarn you.
Regular Confession (monthly if you really want to grow spiritually) helps protect us, as well as staying close to our Lady. Daily penance helps strengthen our wills to avoid mortal sin. It is also essential that we strive to incorporate the Spiritual and Corporeal Works of Mercy into our daily life one or two each month. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
