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-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-check out this week's LinC Letter on the back of the parish bulletin or at www.saint-albert.org/lincletter
-I will be celebrating mass at 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM on Sunday
What the hell!
I’m thinking that one might need to challenge the popularly held opinion of many Catholics that hell doesn’t exist. What Jesus describes in the Gospel today is what the catechism calls hell, that is, the freely chosen separation from the communion with God for all eternity. That’s hell.
I do believe that this problem with Hell developed after the second Vatican Council when people started to talk about realized eschatology and the sacramental nature of one’s conscience etc. You know, people have often times been heard to say "I believe hell is life on this earth without God.". I wouldn’t disagree with that however I would also say that participation in the holy Eucharist is heaven on earth. But because I can experience heaven on Earth through the Holy Spirit, the church, and the sacraments doesn’t mean that heaven as in eternal life doesn’t exist.
I wonder does anyone still believe in heaven and hell?
6 comments:
This is a tough one. I don't think anyone would want to really believe there is hell, at least as a place of eternal dwelling. And I believe that God is eternally forgiving even as we ever fall from His Grace. I do believe though that being sorry isn't a free ticket to heaven. I'm more of a believer in Purgatory, a place to reconsider where we stand. I also wonder John 14:2-3 comes into play?
Good thoughts peg
Can you help/tell me where Lucifer fits into this. Where is he first known in the bible? Before or after creation and does God cast him into hell? Or do we know Lucifer from catechism? Just wondering - Thanks.
Hell is being in the absence of God whether it be on this Earth or in the Eternal life.
Heaven is being in the presence of God and His emanating Pure Love and Joy in Eternal life; being changed completely by his presence.
The Russians have a folk saying
" The closest we come to Heaven on Earth is when we are in our mother's womb."
There is a parellel between Heaven and Earth.
God's Son told us this when he taught us the prayer " The Our Father "
" ...on Earth as it is in Heaven '
Here on Earth we can only try to attain Holiness
so that we may be in Heaven in All that He created that is Holy and in His presence Pure Love-to be transfigured.
"We must do Everything with Love in order to come to God's Pure Love."
One of the things about the after life that I heard recently that has stuck with me was learning about thoughts from the mystic St. Bernard of Clairvaux. I hope to not misrepresent what I heard his teaching to be: he believed that after death - but before the Second Coming of Christ - our souls would be in a state that longed to be united with their glorified bodies. I have been drawn into contemplation often times since hearing that because it gives me new appreciation for the goodness that can be associated with our bodies. It helps me appreciate even the suffering that we experience, when we can see that the suffering is somehow related to love, and it helps me look deeper into the mystery of the incarnation and God's joining of humanity and divinity. So now, when I think about heaven, it includes my consideration of the joyous union that will occur when the Second Coming is complete and how that might be different from what follows after my own individual death. It challenges me to consider the longing for that time when God truly will be all in all.
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