The rich man also died and was buried,
and from the netherworld, where he was in torment,
he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off
and Lazarus at his side.
And he cried out, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me.
Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue,
for I am suffering torment in these flames.'
Abraham replied,
‘My child, remember that you received
what was good during your lifetime
while Lazarus likewise received what was bad;
but now he is comforted here, whereas you are tormented.
Moreover, between us and you a great chasm is established
to prevent anyone from crossing who might wish to go
from our side to yours or from your side to ours.’
He said, ‘Then I beg you, father,
send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers,
so that he may warn them,
lest they too come to this place of torment.'
But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.’
He said, ‘Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.’” (Luke 16:22-31)
The existence of hell is another teaching of the Catholic Church that many today find difficult to accept. What is hell? Why do we believe hell exists? Why would a good God send anyone to hell?
1) What is hell? The Catechism, in paragraph 1033, defines hell as the "state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed." Hell is not necessarily a place; it is rather, a state of being. It is a state of being permanently separated from all that is good. We are permanently separated from God. We are permanently separated from our loved ones. We are permanently separated from our friends. We are permanently separated from the Church. We are permanently separated from heaven. We are permanently separated from all faith, hope, and love. We are permanently separated from food to quench our hunger, and water to quench our thirst. We are permanently separated from all truth and beauty; there will no more great scientific or moral discoveries for the damned, nor any more beautiful scenery or works of art.
Do not let certain popular hymns, like Billy Joel's "Only the Good Die Young", which infer hell is a place where "sinners cry together", warm you up to the possibility that hell is anything but awful. There is no communion at all in hell, even with the other people in there. It is all solitude and even worse regret, knowing we could have done something to prevent our being there, and despair, knowing there is nothing we can to do to change our state, and therefore, we will be there forever.
The torture of hell is so beyond what words can describe. Imagine never being able to see your children or parents ever again. Imagine never being able to be happy again. And the worst part of all about being in this unfathomable state is that you realize your being there is all your fault, and it was totally within your power to avoid. Now you regret it, but cannot do anything about it ever, and you despair.
Saint Alphonsus Ligouri classifies three specific "remorses of the damned."
1) Remorse arising from the thought of the little which he required to do in order to save his soul.
2) Remorse, arising from the remembrance of the trifles for which he lost his soul.
3) Remorse, arising from the knowledge of the great good which he has lost through his own fault.
I urge you to google his sermon on hell and read in more detail each of these. Bottom line, you can see the pain of knowing how easily we could have obtained salvation will haunt us forever if we wind up in hell.
Why do we believe hell exists? Well, for one thing, Our Lord mentioned it often. Matthew 25:41-46 (where those who did not give food or drink to the poor are told they did not give to Christ and are therefore condemned) is one place. Others include Matthew 5:22, 29, 13:41-42, 50, 25:41 and of course, the passage from Luke above.
Another reason we believe is that the possibility of a hell is a necessity if we believe in human freedom. God wishes us to love him, other people, and all creation freely, not out of coercion. He created the world freely, and out of love, not out of any external compulsion to do so. Therefore, if man is indeed created in God's image and likeness, he (man), too, must be free, and cannot be compelled to do anything by anything outside himself. He is free to choose how he lives his life both now, and for all eternity. Therefore, the possibility of choosing not to love God, not to love neighbor, and not to love creation has to exist, and therefore, so must a place or state exist where one can go if he or she freely chooses not to love. This is called hell.
Why would a good God send anyone to hell? He doesn't. We freely choose to go there based on our actions (sins of commission), and/or inactions (sins of omission [ the example of the rich man in the Gospel today was an good example of this] ). The Church teaches that "God predestines no one to go to hell (p.1037)."
Before closing, let me just make a few other points that counter what I deem popular misconceptions today of hell.
1) People in hell are not dead, they are alive. Everyone lives forever. It is just a question of whether they live in heaven or hell. Some people equate going to hell with dying. No, souls in heaven are more alive than they would like to be. They experience separation, deep regret (remorse), and despair, all too vividly.
2) The real torment of hell is not physical, it is emotional and spiritual. There have been documented cases of saints living through fire, and keeping their joy through the process. No, fire cannot really harm us if we are connected to God. Any fire that exists in hell is not what really causes the souls there pain. It is the aforementioned separation, remorse, and despair.
3) Hell is an easy place to avoid, but somehow many wind up there. Numerous Scripture passages give credence to the idea that there more than a few people in hell. Look up Matthew 7:13-14, Mark 20:16, Luke 13:23-24, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 1 Peter 4:18. As Saint Alphonsus Ligouri alluded to, people in hell see, too late, that it didn't require too much to save their soul, but they didn't even do that much, and instead, they went after trifling, passing pleasures like sex, power, and money, which never last long, and never satisfy.
Heaven is not easy to get into. We have to work out our salvation to get there. The good news, is hell is not easy to get into, either. However, just like heaven, many people still wind up there, despite the fact that many in and outside the Church say otherwise today.
We want to do good and avoid evil now to avoid going to hell. We want to pray. We want to serve Christ in the physical and spiritual poor around us. We want to avoid indulgence in the passions and pleasures of this passing world. If we do these things, we will avoid hell. Yes, hell is easy to avoid, but somehow many people wind up there. Let's not be one of them.
Joseph, terror of demons, and patron of the dying, pray for us.
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