By: Bernadette Parrott
Welcome to our Faith Renewal Series that is exploring The ABCs of Being Catholic. We are invited on a journey through the alphabet to explore Catholic terms, beliefs, and traditions. In this post we focus on the letter “H”. Every few days we will add another term beginning with “H” to this post.
If you missed our Introduction to this series <click here>. To go back to the letter “G” <click here>. To go to the letter “I” <click here>.
Hell
February 25, 2021
How many of us have said something like, “I’ve been to hell and back”, or “well, that was hell”?
Scripture itself could hardly be clearer on hell:
Revelation 20:10: And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Revelation 20:14-15: This is the second death, the lake of fire; and if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown in the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:8: But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers, fornicators, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their lot shall be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.
In Matthew 25:41 and 46: Then he will say to those at his left hand, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…
And they [the unrighteous] will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
Matthew 13:41-42, 47-50: The son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth…
So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.
In CCC 1033 we find the definition of what hell is: “the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed.”
I like the phrase “self-exclusion” as it really does define the how and why of hell. If I refuse to repent of a mortal sin at my moment of death, then this opens the gates of hell to me. If I deny the need for my salvation through my Baptism and through the sacrifice of the Holy Cross, then I open the gates of hell to me. I enter into the place and state of eternal punishment set aside for the fallen angels and human beings who die deliberately estranged from the love of God.
What is the eternal punishment of hell? One part is the deprivation of the vision of God and the second is the physical suffering we will endure. Why would we choose to separate ourselves from God? How do we accomplish that while we live here going about our daily lives?
Christ defined this himself for us and we see it reflected in Scripture in Matthew 25:44-46: “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 minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least one, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
How can this be? How can a loving God allow this eternal punishment of spiritual separation and physical pain and suffering? Denzinger 801 formed at the 4th Lateran Council states that the wicked will “receive a perpetual punishment with the devil. It continues that the existence of hell is consistent with divine justice since God respects human freedom and those who are lost actually condemn themselves by their resistance to the grace of God.”
Hell is real and perpetual because I choose to deny God and his infinitive love for me and God, because of His great love for me permits my freedom to choose. From the moment of creation God deigned that I am to be created with the immeasurable dignity of a free, rational, spiritual and immortal soul. That incredible gift created me free to either accept or reject God and God’s plan for me.
This state of mortal sin that I choose results in the loss of charity and sanctifying grace. Of course, I am human and find myself often in moments of separation from God’s loving plan for me. It is through repentance and God’s forgiveness that I am redeemed. The frightening reality is that at the moment of my death, there is no turning back, there is only that instant of reality, when my choice marks me for eternity – an eternity in heaven or in hell. Our eternity is sealed at the time of our death, but I do have an entire lifetime here on earth to make that choice!
Translations of ‘hell’ can be confusing as well. In Hebrew it is Sheol, in Greek – Hades, Tartarus and Gehenna . These translations have various meanings and usages. Sheol is different from hell and is the “place” where Jesus descended to after His death. This place of the dead in ancient Hebrew was divided into two sections: a place of suffering and also a holding place for the righteous, divided by a “great chasm” (Luke 16:19-31). The place of the righteous is called ‘the bosom of Abraham,” while the place of torment is called “Hades or Gehenna.”
So, what about those “flames” of Hell? Just as we cannot fathom and explain with our limited language and understanding, Heaven so too, we find it difficult to fathom and explain the pains of hell. This word, “flames”, is used to describe the most painful thing we can imagine on this earth in an attempt to describe the indescribable. How do you describe self-exclusion from communion with God? How do you describe the literal pain of absolute emptiness and isolation? How do you describe the loss of happiness? How do you describe the loss of love? All these things every human being longs for are only found in God. And all these things are stripped away from us if we choose to reject God and descend to eternal punishment in hell.
Saint Sister Faustina wrote of her vision of hell:
Today I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: The first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one’s condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it– a terrible suffering, as it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God’s anger; the fifth torture is continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and despite the darkness, the devils and souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses, and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. There are special tortures of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin. I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like.
God does not wish anyone to be damned in hell. Neither does He predestine anyone to go to hell. We even find in Scripture that Jesus did not even condemn Judas but only warned of the dangers of the denial of the love of God. (Matthew 26:20:25) When it was evening, he reclined at table with the Twelve. And while they were eating, he said, “Amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” Deeply distressed at this, they began to say to him one after another, “Surely it is not I, Lord?” He said in reply, “He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born.” Then Judas, his betrayer, said in reply, “Surely it is not I, Rabbi?” He answered, “You have said so.”
How are we to avoid hell? A good place to start is with prayer. Prayer for the grace to resist temptation and follow the way of our Lord. Pray the Rosary! Turn to seeking forgiveness through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Receive our Lord in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Turn off the world of ignorance, self-loathing, violence, abuse, and hatred. Turn on love, compassion, joy, fulfillment in a life rich in God’s graces. It’s true, “since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with Him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart in the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where ‘men will weep and gnash their teeth.”
Deliver us O Lord from eternal damnation.
Heaven
February 22, 2021
Well, what is your question about Heaven? Perhaps it is “What is Heaven?” Perhaps it is “what is Heaven like?” Perhaps it is “Where is Heaven?” Perhaps it is “Will I see my loved ones there?” Perhaps it is “Is Heaven even real?”
The Catechism of Catholic Church (No. 1023) says, “Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified (whether in this life, or in the next life in Purgatory) live forever with Christ. They are like God forever, for they ‘see him as he is,’ face to face.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 1024) helps us out even more! It states, “This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity – this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed – is called ‘heaven.’ Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness. With God’s grace, we must strive continually to convert our lives and grow in holiness, so that one day we too may enter into the heavenly rest of the Lord.”
Imagine this…we have experienced God’s presence here on earth. We have experienced Him through Scripture, His Church, His Sacraments, His world He created for us and it has all been for his glory and so we can journey home to Him. Then, at the proper time for each of us, we leave all this behind and the gift and reward of the journey unfolds before us. We now stand in the very presence of the love of God. There is nothing that separates us. We know Him. Intimately, personally.
We will be welcomed by Jesus and Mary, all the angels and saints. And not just the saints the church has recognized, but all those who have been purified. For me, this will be my mom, my dad, my brothers, my sister, my mother-in law and all those I have loved and lost.
Scripture opens Heaven to us as well. Here are just a few encounters…
We find in Revelations 22:4 “And there shall be no curse anymore, but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. And they shall see his face: and his name shall be on their foreheads.”
We find in 1 Corinthians 13:12 “for now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.”
We find in Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.”
We find in 1 John 3:2 “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
It is our soul that first enters Heaven. Until we are reunited with our bodies, we won’t have eyes. And, even beyond that, God is pure and true Spirit, and in such has no substance and really cannot be ‘seen’. So how is it that we can “see” God? It is a vision of love and pure intellect. As I mentioned earlier, we will know Him so deeply that just as the blind can ‘see’ with touch, we can see with love. Just as someone explains something to us, and we answer “ahh…I see!”, so too, we see Him.
The Church teaches that Heaven is primarily a state rather than a place. It is the dwelling place of God. Let’s try not to focus on pearly gates, harps and halos and wings. They are images only. They are meant to convey a sense of wonder at what God has in store for us. St Paul warns us that “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Cor 2:9). None of these are necessary as “God alone is sufficient.”
In Heaven we will retain our own identities. God has created each of us as individuals. It is in Heaven we find our true identity and receive our own reward that God wishes and designed for each of us. Our love for our loved ones will be truer, purer and stronger.
In Revelation 21:4 we are promised that in heaven God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4).
So, no sadness, no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain. Only infinite love and joy.
Heaven is eternal because it will never cease. Glory be to God the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
And, on the last of days, our soul will be reunited with our bodies. Yet this will be a transfigured body. A glorified body. We will shine like the sun. We will shine as Jesus did at the Transfiguration.
What is Heaven? It is the dwelling place of my God. It is where I am being called to at the end of my earthly journey.
What is Heaven like? It is perfection.
Where is Heaven? Where God dwells.
Will I see my loved ones there? Yes, I will see them. I will see them as they truly are, as they truly we meant to be. My relationship with them will change – I will no longer be “married” to my husband, yet he will be my husband, my love for him here on earth will carry forward with me to Heaven and that love will be purified to become even truer, even deeper and even stronger.
Is Heaven real? Oh yes! For those of us who have the eyes of faith and of love. God is calling us. God is present with us.
Heresy
February 15, 2021
In St. Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy, he revealed that:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching but having itching ears. They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths.
2 Tim. 4:3-4
Heresy is nothing new. It has existed from Christianity’s beginnings and the Church has been attacked by those who introduced false teachings since then. Yet, the Church remains solid, fixed firmly to its foundations – the foundations given to us by Christ.
The term ‘heresy’ is often misused. Yet, the Catechism of the Catholic Church does define it for us. It states, “Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and Catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the member so the Church subject to him.” (CCC 2089)
OK. So, what does that all mean? Firstly, to commit heresy, one must refuse to be corrected. Innocence plays a big part here – if one is unaware that what they are saying goes against the teachings of the Catholic Church, they are not a heretic. To commit to heresy, a person must have celebrated a valid Baptism (in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit). If they did not receive the Sacrament of Baptism, they are not heresies, but separate religions. These religions include examples such as Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Finally, the doubt or denial. This doubt or denial must concern topics that have been revealed by God and solemnly defined by the Church. These include: the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the Sacrifice of the Mass, the Pope’s infallibility, the Immaculate Conception, and the Assumption of Mary.
Through time and history, the Church has been attacked with major heresies that needed to be addressed and corrected. Let’s take a look at some of them.
In the first century we find some of the early disciples incorrectly teaching that men needed to be circumcised to be a follower of Christ. Their misunderstanding came from the practices in the Old Testament. In Acts 10, we clearly see that Gentiles (the uncircumcised) are accepted to God and could be baptised and become Christians without circumcision. The same teaching was vigorously defended by Paul in his epistles to the Romans and the Galatians and to other areas where this falsehood had spread.
Gnosticism spread throughout the first and second centuries. This heresy taught that “Matter is evil!” This clearly contradicts Genesis 1:31 (“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good”). It also denied the Incarnation, claiming that Christ only appeared to be a man. They also proposed belief in many divine beings, known as “aeons,” who served as mediators between man and God, the lowest of these being Jesus Christ. We know it to be true that Jesus is the highest of mediators as the Son of God.
In the late second century Montanism arose from Montanus proclaiming that his teachings were above those of the Church, and that he spoke for the Paraclete promised by Jesus. We know that the Pope is the supreme Pontiff and holds the keys given first to St Peter and handed down to all his successors.
Sabellianism taught that Jesus Christ and God the Father were not distinct persons, but two aspects of one person. According to them, the three persons of the Trinity exist only in God’s relation to man. I’ve covered this topic under “God” and will further define the Trinity later! Of course, God is God the Father, Jesus is God the Son, and the third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit.
In the fourth century, Arius taught that Christ was a creature made by God. He sowed great confusion in the Church and was able to muster the support of many bishops while others excommunicated him. Arianism was condemned in 325 at the First Council of Nicaea which defined the divinity of Christ, and again in 381 at the First Council of Constantinople, which defined the divinity of the Holy Spirit. These two councils gave us the Nicene Creed.
In the fifth century, Pelagius denied that we inherit original sin and that we become sinful only through the bad example of the sinful community we are born into. He also denied that we inherit salvation resulting from Christ’s death on the cross and said we become righteous by following the examples given to us by Christ. Pelagianism claimed that God’s grace was not necessary for us to enter into Heaven. It is through Adam and Eve’s disobedience that sin entered the world, through our baptism that we are given the graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit and through Jesus we receive the gift of our salvation.
Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople denied Mary the title of Theotokos (God-bearer” or Mother of God). He claimed Mary only bore the human nature of Christ and proposed the alternate title, Christotokos or “Christ-bearer or Mother of Christ”.) At the Council of Ephesus in 431, Mary was titled the Mother of God, the one who carried in her womb, God incarnate (made flesh). To confuse matters more, Monophysitism went to the other extreme and claimed that Christ was one person with only one nature (a fusion of human and divine). Jesus is true man and true God. The teaching of the Church is that Mary is the Mother of Jesus – true man and true God.
Protestantism arose in the 16th century. Protestant groups display a wide variety of different doctrines, but they all have in common the teachings of ‘sola scriptura’ (by Scripture alone) and ‘sola fide’ (by faith alone). Protestant doctrines stem from the doctrine of private judgement, denying the infallible authority of the Church and claim that each individual is to interpret Scripture for themselves. This is clarified for us in 2 Peter 1:20 “First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation”. It is in Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and in faith that we find the fullness and richness of the teachings of the Catholic Church.
So, what about us? How do we remain faithful to the Holy Church and its teachings and avoid falling into heresy? Attend the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In it we will find all the truths of our faith. We will find our Creed. We will find Holy Scripture. We will find the Real Presence of Christ. We will find fellowship and community. We must actively seek opportunities to encounter Christ in the Holy Sacraments of the Church.
We need to become informed by actively responding to opportunities to read good Catholic articles, watch informative Catholic channels of media and listen attentively to the teachings of the Pope, our bishop and our pastor. With all this we not only sustain our relationship with God, but we build up the Church of God here on earth all leading to our final destination – eternal rest in God in Heaven.
If you missed our Introduction to this series <click here>. To go back to the letter “G” <click here>. To go to the letter “I” <click here>.