The great GK Chesterton once quipped about Hell…It’s not necessarily bad to on occasion go even to the brink of Hell in your own live…looking right down upon it. It is however when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has probably been made. You know…we almost never talk about Hell any more. Remember the old days when father would get up here and dole out a good ole fire and brimstone homily? Well today it’s about Hell…but it won’t be so fiery or brimstony…Today I want us to talk about the good news of Hell.

It’s a complicated paradox for sure…Hell…both horrifying and intriguing all at the same time. Through the centuries artists have painted what they think Hell looks like…authors have written about what they think Hell is like…Philosophers have speculated on what Hell means to the human person…and Theologians have sought to explain Hell and its place in Salvation.

As true as it is that humanity has perpetually wondered about Hell through it’s curious that these days we seem to think and talk less about Hell. In fact, it has been our practice in recent years to brush away the possibilities that Hell even exists. I propose that we’ve lost a healthy fear of Hell and from this…we might also be missing out on our fullest appreciation of Heaven.

Think about it in this way…There’s a school of theological study called Negative Theology…it’s also known as the Via Negativa…it’s the attempt to explain what something is by what it is not. In other words…in order to fully understand one thing…we must come to understand its opposite. Light for example. We understand light and all of its properties by the very fact that we understand darkness…that Darkness is the absence of light and light is the absence of darkness. In fact one really doesn’t even need to explain the scientific truths about light to know it in a profound way because of one’s experience of darkness. It’s much the same for Heaven. We more fully understand Heaven by what Heaven is not…namely Hell. Interestingly among the many explanations of Hell one of the most effective is very much in concert with Negative Theology…that Hell is the complete…final…definitive absence of God for eternity. And by this very explanation we more profoundly are able to understand something of Heaven that it is the complete…final…definitive presence of God for eternity. Ergo…If we as a society…as a church…as a world lose sight that Hell is a real possibility…then it seems only logical that we miss out on the full value…the full meaning of what awaits…hopefully all of us…Heaven.

Now at the very core of the God-Human relationship…as evidenced in the Garden of Eden…is Free Will. It’s the greatest teaching of the Church. Without free will we cease to be fully human. This is why Communism failed, for example. When free will is taken away…it’s as if part of our very humanity is somehow taken away. And so, it seems to me that the best way for us to celebrate Heaven is to accept and understand the power and the truth found in the freedom to also choose Hell.

Why am I talking about this today? Because I think it’s precisely what our readings from sacred scripture are talking about. The Book of Daniel…Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake…some shall live forever…others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace. And just to prove that this Hell-Talk isn’t just old fashioned Old Testament scare tactics our Gospel isn’t much different. Jesus himself says…He will come down from Heaven and he will bring his angels to gather up the elect. He says the same thing throughout his 3 year ministry. The Gate is narrow and some will make it through while others will be left outside wailing and gnashing their teeth (Matthew 7). How about the story from Luke 16…the rich man and Lazarus where…as the scripture reads…there was a great chasm between Lazarus and the rich man that cannot be crossed. Also in Luke Jesus himself says… I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed; one will be taken, the other left. And there will be two women grinding meal together;
one will be taken, the other left.

Daniel in our 1^st Reading and Jesus in our Gospel…they are passages as much about Heaven as they are clearly about Hell…because you can’t have one without the other. And I think it is a disservice when we lose sight of this.

Pope John Paul II…in his famous book Crossing the Threshold of Hope said, “The words of Christ are clear. The Gospel speaks of those who will go to eternal punishment. So can God, who is ultimate justice, tolerate terrible crimes and let them go unpunished? Final punishment…Hell…John Paul continues…would seem is necessary so that we can re-establish the moral balance of the human experience.” In other words, what John Paul is saying here is that without a healthy fear and acceptance of Hell, how can we ever place the right value…the fullest value on Heaven…how can we properly celebrate the sheer joy…the daily miracle of overcoming sin ourselves and doing Good…of choosing right…of participating in the invitation of our loving God in Heaven? This is why Hell is important and I propose this is the Good News of Hell.

The fact is…God wants us to be saved…make no mistake about it…the Church tells us this, “In hope, we pray for all men and women to be saved.” 1 Timothy and Catechism 1821. But God wants us to be saved without taking away our free will. Salvation is a partnership…a spiritual and physical cooperation with God’s Love…that’s why we’re all here today…we are here to cooperate with the grace of God. We have to choose freely to accept the invitation of God. And we choose by our daily actions…and yes, the gate is narrow. So, on the surface homilies about Hell are tough…they aren’t much fun…and our choices in life…as free as they are...do carry eternal weight of consequence…and they should. Because with anything in life that’s worth something there must be consequence to give it value. This is the problem with Atheism by the way. If there’s no God…then there’s no Heaven…and with no Heaven as I’ve already shared there can be no Hell. In a world like that we would be doomed to a meaningless existence with quite frankly meaningless choices. Listen to Pope John Paul II again, “Christian faith teaches that in taking the risk of saying “yes” or “no”, which is the very sign of our human dignity and freedom, some have unfortunately said no…Satan and the fallen angels of the Old Testament. But the thought of Hell must not create anxiety or despair in our hearts. It is just the opposite. The thought of Hell is a healthy reminder of the freedom that rests in the example of the Crucified and the Risen Jesus who has conquered Satan…and has conquered Hell…and has given you and me His Spirit which invites us to choose the good over the bad. And so as Chesterton observes…the Good News is that Hell is God's great compliment to human freedom and the dignity of human choice. Let’s choose well.