We live in a time where the reality of hell is often either ignored or flatly denied. Our society – and our pulpits (both Catholic and Protestant) have become places where Universalism (the teaching that everyone goes to heaven) reigns. It is seen as “pastoral” to comfort the grieving by telling them that their deceased loved one is in paradise, and only a cruel or heartless preacher would dare to remind people that the dead need our prayers. And God forbid that you might raise the specter of Hell as a possible outcome of a life lived in defiance of God’s commandments.
Hell, friends, is real. It is possible to wind up there.
Church teaching has not changed. The Church still teaches, and has consistently taught, that the sure path to salvation is found in the Church that Christ Himself founded. One stays on that path by being humbly obedient to the authority of that same Church.
Those who place themselves outside of the authority of the Church do not have that surety of being on the right path.
Want to avoid Hell? Stick close to the Catholic Church, frequent the sacraments, believe her teachings, practice works of mercy, and reform your life.
I’m just trying to do my job here, people: Keep has many people out of Hell as possible.
The Church also teaches that God is both just and merciful. God has revealed this about Himself. If God were simply just, then all talk of heaven would be futile because not a single one of us deserves heaven. Nothing we can do can earn ourselves a place in heaven. No matter how good we are, or how many good works we do, or how well-intentioned we are, we can’t get to heaven on our own.
But God is not only just. He is also merciful. In His mercy, He sent His Son to die for us and through His death and resurrection, to open to us the pathway to heaven.
His Son has done this through the Church He established.
Men have, unfortunately, clouded that clear and straightforward message and have made it seem as though the path that Jesus Christ Himself laid down is some sort of option.
God’s mercy is unfathomable. We cannot impose our human limits on His mercy. We can only repeat what He revealed and do our best to cleave as tightly as possible to the path He laid out.
Remember: God’s justice we are going to get whether we want it or not. His mercy we have to ask for. And … He will give it, lavishly.
Is it possible for God to save those who live and die outside of what we see as the Catholic Church? Of course it is possible. God is not limited by our expectations and understanding.
When we see so many of our friends and family living and dying outside of the embrace of the Church, and even see loved ones within the Church living contrary to the demands of the Gospel, we are faced with two temptations.
One temptation is simply to close our eyes and hope for the best.
The other temptation is to despair.
Both these are temptations and should be avoided.
Betwixt these two temptations, we see a course of action. We do everything we can to encourage our loved ones to follow Christ, sometimes by our words, sometimes by our actions, always with our prayers. Those prayers help us to avoid the temptation to despair.
Perhaps this is why at this point in history the Church has placed before us a devotion to the Divine Mercy in addition to our other many good devotions. We can place our loved one’s in the hands of the Merciful Savior. We can beg and plead that, even though we do not see how it can be accomplished, those dear souls may somehow be welcomed into the heavenly homeland that He has prepared.