I don’t know of anyone who likes talking about the possibility of hell as the final place where some people may spend eternity. Hell has been described as a place where one exists in torment for eternity. Pope Benedict described it as a place absent of love, especially the love of God. Others have described it as a place of eternal non-consuming fire. Others describe it as a place of eternal punishment. There is something within me that wants to reject hell as even an intellectual concept. How could a merciful and loving God even think of such a place? Let alone let anyone exist there forever?
As a child, hell was taught as a real possibility for anyone who did not conform to the Ten Commandments, and the Church Teachings. I was traumatized by fear of even the notion of hell. As a teen-ager I often cried myself to sleep. Then, through the mercy of God, I learned that God was a loving person who invited me into a personal loving relationship with him. I learned that Jesus desired to have me in heaven with him for an eternity. Who doesn’t want that? Jesus didn’t die on the cross so I could go to hell. Was I mentally ill? In speaking with others who grew up in a similar church and family, they did not have the same experiences as me. They did not have the same devasting fear.
I no longer live with the fear of Hell, even though I think of it as a real possibility for some individuals. Why do I think of it as a real possibility? Jesus did not shy away from talking about it as recorded in the Bible. Who has not heard of Jesus’ teaching about the Final Judgement (Matthew25:31-46)? In his great love for us, God gave us a free-will. He gifted us with intellect and choice. We can love! We can choose and do anything we want, yet not everything we want and do is good for us. Behaviors have consequences.
Jesus does not want any of us to go to hell. It is not ever in his plan. Yet, out of love for us he gives us the ability to reject him and his teaching, or to accept him and his teaching. In accepting him and his teaching we are promised an eternity in union with him in perfect love and happiness. Rejecting him and his teaching, following our own way, has the very real possibility of eternal punishment in hell, separated from love. Give your life to Jesus. Ask him to be the Lord and center of your life, before it’s too late.
“May the Lord bless and keep you. May he let his face shine upon you, be gracious to you and give you his peace”
