Hell Exists and You May go there!

In the last post the discussion was ‘who can separate us from the love Christ.’ The reflection was simple we are the only ones who can separate us from the love of Christ, due to our choices. The other day I was visiting with a priest friend in his parish and as he showed me around the rectory, my attention was directed to one of the books on the reception table. On opening the book, my eye captured the title of one of the chapters in the book. Yes, the title was: Hell Exists and you may go there. This is interesting because most pastors no longer preach hell these days. I remember a story I heard once about a young boy who sat by his mother in Church listening to the pastor preach on how difficult it was to go to heaven. The boy was so exasperated with the pastor. He then whispered to his mother and asked if there was an alternative to going to heaven? A very interesting question I would admit! If there was an alternative, what might it be? Hell? I suppose so. Now if hell were to be the alternative, wouldn’t it be an interesting one? After all, the road to hell is decorated and paved with good intentions.

When I was a young lad I heard the pastors preach about hell and how hot the fire of hell would be very regularly. Now-a-days one would hardly hear any preaching that mentions hell. But how do we know that there is hell? A simple question to answer: Jesus tells us time and time again that there will be judgment at the end time and that there will be hell. Let us listen attentively to the word of the Master as he talks about judgment and hell in Matthew 25: 31- 46: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I   was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me. Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minster to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ “And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” There you hear it. From the aforementioned, it seems to me that the problem is simple: it is the sin of neglecting to do what we should have done to ease the burden of others that may likely send us to hell. Isn’t it true that whatever God has given us is not meant for us to keep for ourselves alone but that we should share with those who are not as blessed as we are? We will be punished precisely for not sharing our gifts, our blessings and our talents with others.

Now consider the case of the Rich Man and Lazarus as recorded in Luke 16:19-31. Here the Rich Man was sent to hell not because of what he did wrong but for what he omitted. In Matthew 25 quoted above, the sin of the people who did not care was the sin of commission while the sin of the Rich Man was the sin of omission. The rich man did not take notice of Lazarus; he went about his business as if Lazarus did not exist. He was more concerned with his sumptuous feasting and merrymaking.  Again to our question, how do we know that hell exists, hear what the Rich Man said to Abraham in verse 24: “Father Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.” Abraham did not hesitate in reminding the Rich Man of why he was suffering in hell. In verse 25 Abraham replied the Rich Man, “My child, remember that you received what was good during your lifetime while Lazarus likewise received what was bad; but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.” This is what we call rubbing it in. Anyone who thought that hell did not exit should think twice. Hell, like I said in the previous post, is ultimately a life without God. Once we live our lives with God, it would be easy to notice our brothers and sisters, created in the image and likeness of God, hence, whatever blessing we received from God should be equally shared with all.

If we are to avoid going to hell, then we are to live as if we are citizens of Heaven. We are not to necessarily think that we must be rich before we begin to share, if we reason this way, we will never share anything with anyone. Sharing means reciprocating the generosity of God. It seems to me that we will be judged on the last day on how much we loved God and others. Since we know that hell exits let us do whatever is in our power to void making a journey towards there. We are citizens of Heaven; hence, let our journey be heaven bound. Please if you want to go to heaven, notice the people God has put on the journey with you. Do not ignore them, do not neglect them; do not forget them. Plan with them in mind, share with them your blessings, care for them in their needs and be rest assured that the place prepared for you since the beginning of the world will be yours when the time comes to take possession of it. Good luck!