You Can Go to Hell

We are encouraged by homilists who deliver that compelling, relevant "Gospel truth" many need to hear. Deacon Ed Maher gave us such a gem today. It was particularly moving as his words resonated with our weekly Live IT Episode. A disclaimer: Don't blame Deacon Maher for the title. I chose it, because it's true.

By Deacon Ed Maher

Today is the Feast Day of our Lord Jesus Christ. King of the Universe. This King is our King. It is His Kingdom, where we want to enter when we leave this life and enter the next. The first reading from Daniel and the second reading from the Book of Revelation point us to Jesus’ return at the end of time, when all will be judged as to their worthiness to enter God’s Kingdom.

Both books describe the returning King of the Universe similarly. The Lord comes on the clouds of Heaven. Everyone will see Him. All the peoples of the earth in history. Curiously- the Book of Revelation says that all will lament Him. Lament means to mourn. To be sorrowful. Why would everyone feel that way? Because we will all see how we have failed in so many ways to do God’s Divine will. We will all see how we sinned and let Him down. We will see how magnificent and wonderful and loving our God is- and how we are not worthy to stand in His presence. We will also realize how we are all responsible for His death on the cross, where He died for each one personally, so we could have the opportunity to spend eternity with Him in heaven. We also know from Matthew’s Gospel that at the final judgement, at the end of time, many will be banished from God’s Kingdom. We do not want to be one of those unfortunates.

On this Feast day of the King of the Universe, the Church provides for us the key to avoid this terrible judgement. This is in John’s Gospel, in the exchange between Pilate and Jesus on His Kingship, where Jesus tells us who lives in His kingdom. Jesus answers Pilate, ”You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world. To testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” (John 18:37)

So the question is where do we find the truth?

We find truth in the teachings of the Catholic Church. This truth has been handed down to us by Jesus through the Apostles and His Church, so that all of us can spend eternity with God in heaven. We must adhere to the truth. The truth will set us free!

Unfortunately, today we are in a crisis. Many people no longer direct their lives to follow the Church’s teachings. Many do not agree with some of the Church’s teachings. Many consider some teachings too difficult. These are hard truths.

One hard truth, a heresy of our time, is the belief that everyone is going to heaven. Yet Jesus warns us in Gospel after Gospel, warning after warning, of the reality of hell… that we will all face judgement. In all of the Gospels Jesus says essentially the same thing. It is easy to go to hell. Very easy. And hard to get to heaven. It’s tough. It’s rocky. Be prepared to enter by the narrow gate. This is a hard truth, but it’s the truth. If we accept this as a truth, it focuses our minds on what we must do to enter heaven. We focus on pleasing God and not ourselves. We insulate ourselves as best we can from the world. We keep our priorities in order. Mass every Sunday, and as frequently as we can during the week. Confession at least once every 4 weeks. Daily prayer. Some daily spiritual reading. This discipline keeps our minds focused on what’s important to achieve Salvation. Remember what St. Paul said. We must work out our Salvation with fear and trembling! (Phil. 2:12)

Another hard truth is that we will all die someday. We will come before our King. I have talked to a few people who say they don’t have time right now for Mass or prayer. Just no time. But sometime later they will come back to the church. My brother’s wife was killed at the age of 43 when they were driving in their neighborhood to go to dinner. They were hit by someone running a red light at 70 miles an hour. When she got in the car she had no idea she would be facing the Lord in a couple of minutes. We don’t get to choose when we die. We have to be always ready to face our King.

Here is another hard truth. Missing Mass on Sunday is a mortal sin. ( link ) When you miss Mass you lose all the grace in your soul. You compound this mortal sin if you go to Communion without going to Confession first. As St. Paul says in Corinthians, when you receive Communion unworthily you have discerned judgement on yourself (1 Cor. 11:27-29). Sunday Mass is one of the very basics of Salvation that many have just abandoned. How can we say we love God when everything is more important than spending an hour a week with Him?

There are a lot more examples that I could give here but, basically, many, many people today do not worry about following the truth, or the consequences of sin. They do not think about sin. This is all a great victory for the forces of evil, for Satan. There is a spiritual battle going on everyday for every soul. If we are not aware a battle is going on between the forces of truth and lies, of good and evil, of heaven and hell, we cannot win the battle.

Pope Francis said that the church is a field hospital. A field hospital is a military term for its hospitals that move about the battlefield. So the church is also a field hospital, but there are some differences. A military hospital has medics and ambulances and stretcher bearers that go out throughout the battle area and bring the wounded to the hospital where they can be healed and restored to full health.

In the Spiritual battle that we are in, many people don’t know they are dying. Where are our medics and stretcher bearers? That’s all of us. We have to spread the truth to our friends, neighbors, family members. We have to pick them up off the battlefield and bring them to the field hospital, the King’s Church, where the medicine is. That is Confession, where we got our wounds cleaned. Holy Communion, the Bread of Life, where are souls can be fed and nourished. Anointing of the Sick, when we are in danger of passing from this life to the next. This is the most important thing in the world because their eternal life depends on it.

Next week begins Advent. Let’s make it one of our goals to bring at least one wounded soul to the Lord. to get one person healed. Bring them to the field hospital, the Church. That would be a great birthday gift to give to Our Lord and King of the Universe.