Hieronymus Bosch
has a lot to answer for.
Have you seen his paintings?
They are usually of
souls of the damned
in Hell
being tormented by
grotesque demons
bent on making Eternity
as unpleasant as possible
for those who deserve it.
If this were the case
then we can justly ask
"How can a loving God
send someone
to be tormented for Eternity?"
[PAUSE]
The trouble is,
Our Lord is quite clear
that we need saving from something.
"For God sent not His son
into the world
to condemn the world
but that the world through Him
might be saved."
Saved from what?
Whatever it is,
it is dreadful enough
for Our Lord to take on our flesh
and be made man.
Whatever we need saving from
is worth Our Lord's suffering
and death upon the Cross.
The Incarnation
is evidence of Hell.
[PAUSE]
The vision of Hell
that Our Lord gives most
is that of outer darkness
where there is wailing
and gnashing of teeth.
It is a state
of being
shut out from joy,
shut out from the wedding feast of the Lamb,
shut out from being fully healthy,
shut out from being what we were created to be
shut out from eternal awareness of God.
Jesus is made man
not to condemn the world.
This means that it is not God
Who sends us to Hell.
We choose Hell
by desiring the world
instead of God,
by desiring the fleeting
instead of the permanent,
by desiring darkness
instead of light.
Our actions influence our desires
and our desires influence our actions.
In being able to think
and make free decisions
we actually have a hand
in our own perfection.
But, we cannot become perfect
from our own actions.
We need Christ,
the Incarnate God,
to bring us to perfection
through the sacrifice
of His own humanity.
But having a hand
in our own creation
comes at a price.
We get to choose,
God's idea of our own perfection
or our own idea of our own perfection.
If we consistently reject God
then, as Love does not insist
on its own way
we are given what we want.
Eternity with fleeting things.
In Hell,
we are given what we want
except the awareness of God
but knowing that
we are missing something wonderful.
And we watch everything
rot, fall apart, disintegrate
until all that is left
is just us alone in the utter darkness
knowing that once there was love
but now there is none.
The torment of those in Hell
is precisely the love of God
allowing His children to reject Him.
It is He who hangs onto them
in the darkness
so that they do not fall
into nothingness
but their rejection of Him
causes them
the torment of hellfire
that Our Lord warns us of.
[PAUSE]
Of course,
you might be tempted to say
that you could never be happy
if you knew your loved one
was in Hell.
Yet it is God's love
and yours giving them
what they desire.
But we shall find
all that we desire
in the face of Almighty God
and perfection in Him.
Thus, His love
becomes our love
and we shall see those in Hell
with no less love for them
than can be given.
As God hangs on to them,
so do we hang on to them,
for even in Hell
there is love.
And we shall not lose joy
for those in Hell,
for the Lord has promised
that if we have given up
even our family
even our fathers, mothers,
sons and daughters,
husbands and wives
for His sake
shall receive an hundredfold
in His glory.
Whatever joy is lacking
will be supplied in Christ
In superabundance
even if we don't understand it now.
[PAUSE]
Those in Hell
are shut out from
experiencing
the joyful presence of God.
But they have shut the door
from the inside.
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