Hell is Real

Once I fell into an internet argument with a few atheist writers who felt it was funny to meme Christ and Mary with sacrilegious statements. I must confess that I lacked Christian charity when I told them they were going to hell. Granted, my comments were made tongue-in-cheek because the group made clear they didn’t believe in hell. They were upset by my mere mention of it. I pointed out the threat of hell shouldn’t have bothered them in the least. I mean if someone told me when I die I will go to my own planet, I wouldn’t begin to planet shop. So why did it the idea that these atheists would end up in hell bother them?

I think deep down, we all know this world isn’t all there is. The laws and ways of God are written inside our being, whether we acknowledge this or not.

Some people think everyone will go to heaven because God is merciful. But Jesus Christ talked about hell. Why, with all the graces available for us sinners, would anyone go to hell? It seems so easy to ask for forgiveness, so why is there a hell?

Those who go to hell love their sins more than they love anyone, even God. If we cling to our evil and don’t repent of it, then we choose to go to hell instead of serving God.

It’s difficult to stop sinning, even if we go to Mass and Confession, pray often, and try to live a good life. Sin is that entrenched in us. We get comfortable with sin and convince ourselves we aren’t so bad. We like sinning because sin makes us the center of the universe. Yet, “me, me, me” is not how we are called to live.

Some of us recognize sin and try to change, and this takes work and Divine help, especially by going to Confession. And then some of us are like those atheists who don’t accept that Jesus Christ spoke truthfully about hell and sin.

God never forces us to accept the truth, He only states it. We must decide each day to turn back from evil, because otherwise, we get so comfortable with sin, we rather stay away from God for all eternity. We must love God above all else in our lives to give up our sins. This is difficult because we get very attached to sin. It’s not easy to avoid sin because it goes against our fallen nature.

How to begin? First, we must honestly look at how we sin. What are the things we know are serious and wrong, and still we accept them in our hearts? Once we examine what sins we live with, we must confess them to bring them into the light of day. There is no other way to get rid of them. Once we repent from loving these sins, then we have room to love God. We then can fill ourselves with God’s gift of grace through praying. The more we pray, the more we avoid sin and love God.

All of us think we’re good by instinct because let’s face it, no one is completely good or completely evil. But through an honest look at ourselves we can see how we’re rejecting God. The idea of a final judgement is one that makes us face our good, bad and ugly parts of living. And this is an occasion for salvation. It’s when we don’t fear hell that we’re lost.